Washington. It was not only that the members of Congress were not
there. As to very many of the Representatives, it may be said that
they do not belong sufficiently to Washington to make a part of its
society. It is not every Representative that is, perhaps, qualified
to do so. But secession had taken away from Washington those who
held property in the South--who were bound to the South by any ties,
whether political or other; who belonged to the South by blood,
education, and old habits. In very many cases--nay, in most such
cases--it had been necessary that a man should select whether he
would be a friend to the South, and therefore a rebel; or else an
enemy to the South, and therefore untrue to all the predilections
and sympathies of his life. Here has been the hardship. For such
people there has been no neutrality possible. Ladies even have not
been able to profess themselves simply anxious for peace and good-
will, and so to remain tranquil. They who are not for me are
against me, has been spoken by one side and by the other. And I
suppose that in all civil war it is necessary that it should be so.
I heard of various cases in which father and son had espoused
different sides in order that property might be retained both in the
North and in the South. Under such circumstances it may be supposed
that society in Washington would be considerably cut up. All this
made the place somewhat melancholy.



CHAPTER II.

CONGRESS.