great generals met each other in the parlor of William McLean at Appomattox Court House. There the terms of surrender were discussed and settled. It was agreed that General Grant should put his proposition in the form of a. military note to which General Lee should return a formal answer. The Union commander accordingly drew up and presented the following memorandum : APPOMATTOX COURT HOUSE, VA., April 9, 1865. GENERAL: In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia on the following terms, to-wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate; one copy to be given to an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such other officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged; and each company or regimental commander to sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery, and public property, to be parked, and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they reside. U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General. To this memorandum General Lee responded as follows: HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY OF NORTHERN VIRGINIA, April 9, 1865. GENERAL: I received your letter of this date, containing the terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, as proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into effect. R. E. LEE, General. Thus the work was done! How the army of General Johnston was surrendered at Raleigh a few days later has already been narrated. After four dreadful years of bloodshed, devastation, and sorrow, THE CIVIL WAR IN THE UNITED STATES WAS AT AN END. The Federal authority was rapidly extended over the Southern States. After the surrender of Lee and Johnston, there was no further hope of reorganizing the Confederacy. Mr. Davis and his cabinet escaped to Danville, and there for a few days kept up the forms of government. From that place they fled into North Carolina and were scattered. The ex-President with a few friends continued his flight through South Carolina into Georgia, and encamped near the village of Irwinsville, where, on the 10th of May, he was captured by General Wilson's cavalry. He was conveyed as a prisoner to Fortress Monroe, and kept in confinement until May of 1867, when he was taken to Richmond to be tried on a charge of treason. He was admitted to bail; and his cause, after remaining untried for a year and a half, was finally dismissed. At the presidential election in the autumn preceding the downfall of the Confederacy, Mr. Lincoln was chosen for a second term. As VicePresident, Andrew Johnson of Tennessee was elected in place of Mr. Hamlin. The opposing candidates, supported by the Democratic party, were General George B. McClellan and George H. Pendleton of Ohio. Mr. Lincoln's majority was very heavy, General McClellan carrying only the States of Kentucky, Delaware and New Jersey. In the summer preceding the election the people of Nevada framed a constitution, in accordance with an act of Congress, and on the 31st of October the new commonwealth was proclaimed as the thirty-sixth State of the Union. The gold and silver mines of Nevada were developed with such rapidity that they soon surpassed those of California in their yield of the precious metals. At the outbreak of the civil war the financial credit of the United States had sunk to a very low ebb. By the organization of the army and navy the expenses of the government were at once swelled to an enormous aggregate. The price of gold and silver advanced so rapidly that the redemption of bank-notes in coin soon became impossible; and on the 30th of December, 1861, the banks of New York, and afterward those of the whole country, suspended specie payments. Mr. Chase, the secretary of the treasury, first sought relief by issuing TREASURY NOTES, receivable as money and bearing seven and three-tenths per cent. interest. This expedient was temporarily successful, but by the beginning of 1862 the expenses of the government had risen to more than a million of dollars daily. To meet these tremendous demands other measures had to be adopted. Congress accordingly made haste to provide AN INTERNAL REVENUE. This was made up from two general sources: first, a tax on manufactures, incomes and salaries; second, a stamp-duty on all legal documents. The next measure was the issuance by the treasury of a hundred and fifty millons of dollars in non-interest-bearing LEGAL TENDER NOTES of the United States, to be used as money. These are the notes called Greenbacks. The third great measure adopted by the government was the sale of UNITED STATES BONDS. These were made redeemable at any time after five and under twenty years from date, and were from that fact called Five-Twenties. The interest upon them was fixed at six per cent., payable semi-annually in gold. Another important series of bonds, called Ten-Forties, was afterward issued, being redeemable by the government at any time between ten and forty years from date. In the next place, Congress passed an act providing for the estab lishment of NATIONAL BANKS. The private banks of the country had been obliged to suspend operations, and the people were greatly distressed for want of money. To meet this demand it was provided that new banks might be established, using national bonds, instead of gold and silver, as a basis of their circulation. The currency of these banks was furnished and the redemption of the same guaranteed by the treasury of the United States. By these measures the means for prosecuting the war were provided. At the end of the conflict the national debt had reached the astounding sum of nearly three thousand millions of dollars. On the 4th of March, 1865, President Lincoln was inaugurated for his second term. A month afterward the military power of the Confederacy was broken. Three days after the evacuation of Richmond by Lee's army the President visited that city, conferred with the authorities, and then returned to Washington. On the evening of the 14th of April he attended Ford's theatre with his wife and a party of friends. As the play drew near its close a disreputable actor, named John Wilkes Booth, stole unnoticed into the President's box, leveled a pistol at his head, and shot him through the brain. Mr. Lincoln fell forward in his seat, was borne from the building, lingered in an unconscious state until the following morning, and died. It was the greatest tragedy of modern times-the most wicked, atrocious and diabolical murder known in American history. The assassin leaped out of the box upon the stage, escaped into the darkness, and fled. At the same hour another murderer, named Lewis Payne Powell, burst into the bed-chamber of Secretary Seward, sprang upon the couch of the sick man, stabbed him nigh unto death, and made his escape into the night. The city was wild with alarm and excitement. It was clear that a plot had been made to assassinate the leading members of the government. Troops of cavalry and the police of Washington departed in all directions to hunt down the conspirators. On the 26th of April Booth was found concealed in a barn south of Fredericksburg. Refusing to surrender, he was shot by Sergeant Boston Corbett, and then dragged forth from the burning building to die. Powell was caught, convicted and hanged. His fellow-conspirators, David E. Herrold and Geo. A. Atzerott, together with Mrs. Mary E. Surratt, at whose house the plot was formed, were also condemned and executed. Michael O'Laughlin, Dr. Samuel A. Mudd, and Samuel Arnold were sentenced to imprisonment for life, and Edward Spangler for a term of six years. So ended in darkness, but not in shame, the career of Abraham Lincoln. He was one of the most remarkable men of any age or country -a man in whom the qualities of genius and common sense were strangely mingled. He was prudent, far-sighted and resolute; thoughtful, calm and just; patient, tender-hearted and great. The manner of his death consecrated his memory. From city to city, in one vast funeral procession, the mourning people followed his remains to their last resting-place at Springfield. From all nations rose the voice of sympathy and shame-sympathy for his death, shame for the dark crime that caused it. He had been born a destined work to do, And lived to do it; four long-suffering years-- The taunts to tribute, the abuse to praise And took them both with his unwavering mood; But as he came on light from darkest days, And seemed to touch the goal from where he stood, A felon hand, between that goal and him, Reached from behind his head, a trigger prest, The words of mercy were upon his lips, Forgiveness in his heart and on his pen, The Old World and the New, from sea to sea, A deed accurst! Strokes have been struck before If more of horror or disgrace they bore; But thy foul crime, like Cain's stands darkly out! Vile hand! that branded murder on a strife, With much to praise, little to be forgiven! * *These verses are from the London Punch of May 6th, 1865. For years that paper had caricatured Mr. Lincoln and ridiculed the National government; but now that the deed was done, the British heart reäcted and spoke out for humanity. ON the day after the assassination of Mr. Lincoln, Andrew Johnson took the oath of office, and became President of the United States. He was a native of North Carolina, born in Raleigh, on the 29th of December, 1808. With no advantages of education, he passed his boyhood in poverty and neglect. In 1826 he removed with his mother to Tennessee and settled at Greenville. Here he was married to an intelligent lady who taught him to write and cipher. Here by dint of native talent, force of will, and strength of character, he first earned the applause of his fellow-men. Here, through toil and hardship, he rose to distinction, and after holding minor offices was elected to Congress. As a member of the United States Senate in 1860-61 he opposed secession with all his zeal, even after the legislature had declared Tennessee out of the Union. On the 4th of March, 1862, he was appointed military governor of that State, and entered upon his duties at Nashville. He began his administration and carried out his measures with all the vigor and vehemence of his nature. There was no quailing or spirit of compromise. His life was many times in peril; but he fed on danger and grew strong under the onsets of his enemies. He held the office of governor until 1864, when he was nominated for the vice-presidency in place of Mr. Hamlin. Now, by the tragic death of the President, he was suddenly called to assume the responsibilities of chief magistrate. In his first congressional message he foreshadowed a policy of great severity towards the civil and military leaders of the overthrown Confederacy. On the 1st of February, 1865, Congress adopted an amendment to the Constitution by which slavery was abolished and forbidden in all the States and Territories of the Union. By the 18th of the following December the amendment had been ratified by the legislatures of twentyseven States, and was duly proclaimed as a part of the Constitution. The emancipation proclamation had been issued as a military measure; now the doctrines and results of that instrument were recognized and incorporated in the fundamental law of the land. On the 29th of May THE AMNESTY PROCLAMATION was issued by President Johnson. By its provisions a general pardon was extended to all persons-except those specified in certain classes-who had participated in the organization and defence of the Confederacy. The condition of the pardon was that those receiving it should take an oath of allegiance to the |