elected a President after their own way of thinking. And this so
offended the people of the South, who were a brave people, and quick
to anger, that they gathered together from all parts of their
country, gave up their peaceful pursuits, and went to war for what
they called their independence. But I always found, my son, that
independence was an abused phrase, much on the tongues of these
people. Indeed their idea of independence extended only to giving
one class the full and exclusive right to enslave the other. The
Southern idea of independence was so shaped as to contain the very
worst features of a despotism. But you must look with forgiveness on
these people, my son, and seek to forget many of those acts of
vindictiveness which characterized them during the war.

At the same time, my son, you must not lose sight of the lesson
which the result of this war teaches. Let it be a guide to your own
actions that these people went to war to tear down what they could
not build up, to destroy a Government the world had come to respect
and admire, and under which they had found a safe refuge and a
tolerance for their institution of slavery. But the edifice they
sought to build up crumbled to the ground, and they are now left
without even a safe refuge for their pride. Yes, my son, these
people scorned the example of the Christian world, went to war in
defense of a great crime, and ceased only when they had destroyed
themselves.

I have been thus serious while instructing you as to how the war
began, because I am aware that a very large number of writers will
tell you that it began in a very different manner. If the account I
may hereafter give of what took place at the siege may be less
serious, you must charge it to my love for the truth of history.