some who are ready to give to a beggar are less ready to forgive an enemy. In spite of momentary outbursts and conflicts Stephens cherished no grudges and hated no one. The quick petulance of his nervous tempera- ment sometimes leads him to express himself violently in his private letters. But the tone of his controversial book on the war is throughout tolerant with a tolerance which I find in few besides Lincoln and Lee. Indeed, it is interesting that one of Lincoln's last efforts at concili- ation before the great struggle should have been his well-known correspondence with Stephens, in which both men appear so much to advantage.
This tolerance is still more marked in dealing with friends than with foes. Coming fresh from the reading of so many volumes of reminiscences that were harsh and bitter, filled wath striving to justify the author at the expense of all those who had fought side by side with him, I was especially impressed with the gentleness and courtesy of Stephens's book. He disagrees with many. He condemns none. Even of Davis, whose policy he thought absolutely wrong, he has no unkind or cruel personal criticism. They met as friends, he says, and they parted as such. " I doubt not that all — the Presi- dent, the Cabinet, and Congress — did the best they could from their own conviction of what was best to be done at the time." ^5 It does not seem a great admission ; yet how few are ready to make it.
The root of this kindly and universal tolerance is to be
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