I was forced,” he naively said, “to raise a regiment in order to retain my influence in the community!” And, with equal naïveté, he added, that if he had not thus retained his influence, he could now have been of no use in aiding to compose these difficulties!
This quote illustrates the pressures faced by individuals in the South during the Civil War regarding their political affiliations.
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But why should a sensible man deal with such folly?
Give them order and justice, and trust to these to win them in other regards to our ways.
Here was the opportunity for a statesman to grasp.
I never saw hands more cheerful or contented than some managed on this last plan were.