Americans were tired of the slaughter and compassion and more to the point political expediency compelled Lincoln to ''Let them up easy'' as he said to Grant prior to the meeting at Appomattox. If there were a ''villain'' in all this it would have had to have been Edward M. Stanton, the Secretary of War. That guy had the mad on for hanging Davis and any other Confederate politician he could.
—” That guy had the mad on for hanging Davis and any other Confederate politician he could.”
While at Appomattox and talking with a family next to us, they said they lived in the next county. I asked if they visited often, “No, Never before!” And mentioned that their grandparents and others in the area did NOT celebrate the 4th of July.
“Everyone holds a piece of the truth.”
Gandhi