As  the  years  went  on,  he  grew  more  and  more
honored  by  the  whole  people,  through  the  growing
weight  of  his  utterances,  the  evident  freedom  of  the
man  from  all  small  spites,  his  devotion  to  his
country,  and  his  superiority  to  even  the  resentments
which  too  commonly  attend  such  struggles.  He
bore  abuse  with  an  outward  patience  which  never
betrayed  how  sharply  he  was  wounded  by  it.  At
home  and  abroad,  especially  by  those  English  news-
papers which  sympathized  with  the  South,  he  was
grossly  caricatured  and  vilely  misrepresented.  He
took  it  in  silence.  Through  all  those  trying  years,
he  uttered  no  word  that  could  hinder  the  reconcilia-
tion of  South  and  North,  which  he  desired  above  all
things.  He  always  remembered  that  those  whom
he  was  fighting  were  to  become  again  attached  and


154  THE  HAND  OF  GOD

loyal  citizens  of  the  Union,  if  the  fight  was  to  suc-
ceed in  reality,  and  its  victories  were  not  to  prove
empty.  He  stood  ready  to  concede  the  most  gen-
erous terms  to  the  states  which  had  formed  the
Confederacy — more  generous  than  those  contem-
plated and  finally  offered  by  his  party  in  the  period
of  Reconstruction.
