If in 1861 an officer of the army had entertained the opinion that the North was in the wrong and that the South was in the right, it could be claimed, fairly, that that officer might forswear his obligations to the old Government and accept service in the Confederacy.
Boutwell discusses the moral implications for officers who might have supported the Confederacy during the Civil War.
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That is the lesson the war has burned in on the brain and conscience of the Nation.
General Grant had no disposition to usurp power.
And when it is remembered, that, for months and almost for years after the opening of the rebellion, we refused to accept the services of colored persons in the armies of the country, it is with ill grace that we now decline to allow the…
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