The Days of a Man Ci866 



Death from Appomattox Court House, an immense feeling 

 / of relief swept over the nation. But the murder of 

 Lincoln in the midst of his plans for generous re- 

 construction left the Ship of State rudderless, and 

 the event seemed to cast a new shadow hardly less 

 appalling than that which so recently had lifted. 

 Yet we had a feeling of relief that Seward, who in 

 public estimation was then comparable to Lincoln, 

 still survived. 



The various aspects of reconstruction were very 

 confusing to me, as to others. A spirit of revenge, 

 foreign to Lincoln himself, was unfortunately, if 

 naturally, roused by his tragic death. This threw 

 the control of affairs into the hands of the most 

 extreme group, and the lack of any broad mind and 

 moderating heart threatened to leave the Southern 

 question an enduring wound in the history of our 

 country. But I am not writing of war or recon- 

 struction, only giving the impressions of an eager 

 boy who was beginning to realize the nature and 

 needs of his country. 



Meanwhile, my parents felt that I had outgrown 

 the district school, and proposed to send me to an 

 academy, the institution of that day corresponding 

 to the modern high school. Within eight miles of 

 my home there were then three academies. Current 

 biographical notices ascribe my preparatory edu- 

 cation to the largest of these, that of Warsaw, where, 

 however, I was never enrolled. My brother Rufus 

 had taken his academy course at Pike, the next 

 town to the south of Gainesville; nevertheless, it 



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