JOSEPH E. JOHNSTON 25
of his good wishes by this army striking a blow for the freedom and independence of Virginia."°3 “I drew it [his father’s sword] in the war not for rank or fame, but to defend the sacred soil, the homes and hearths, the women and children, aye, and the men of my mother, Virginia, —my native South.” 99 After the war, when he was a candidate for Congress, his standpoint was as elementary—and as honorable. Some of his followers had tried to explain away his tarifi attitude, for the sake of winning votes. “Gentlemen," he said, “this is a mat- ter about which I do not propose to ask your advice, because it involves my conscience and personal honor. I spoke yesterday, at Louisa Court-House, under a free- trade flag. I have never ridden ‘ both sides of the sapling,’ and I don’t propose to begin at this late day. That ban- ner in Clay W'ard comes down to-day orl retire from this canvass by published card to-morrow." 7° Perhaps the finest tribute to his moral elevation comes from a generous enemy. “I recorded at the time,” says Cox, writing of the surrender, “my own feeling that I had rarely met a man who was personally more attractive to me than General Johnston. His mode of viewing things was a large one, his thoughts and his expression of them was refined, his conscientious anxiety to do exactly what was right in the circumstances was apparent in every word and act, his ability and his natural gift of leader- ship showed in his whole bearing and conduct.” 71 And in illustration of the scrupulous conscientiousness Cox
