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Elizabeth Varon Books

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“Men can't all think alike, and the trouble with the Southern people always has been that they won't tolerate any difference of opinion. If God Almighty had intended all men to think just alike, He might just as well have made but one man....My opinion is that the only true solution for Southern troubles is for the people to accept cordially and in good faith all the results of the war, including the reconstruction measures, the acts of Congress, negro suffrage, etc., and live up to them like men. If they would do this, and encourage Northern immigration, and treat all men fairly, whites and blacks, the troubles would soon be over, and in less than five years, the South would be in the enjoyment of greater prosperity than ever. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Interview with correspondent from the Indianapolis Journal, September 24, 1874.”

AcceptanceIntoleranceTolerationThe SouthJames LongstreetThe Southern Mindset
Book:Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
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“There can be no discredit to a conquered people for accepting the conditions offered by their conquerors. Nor is there any occasion for a feeling of humiliation. We have made an honest, and I hope that I may say, a creditable fight, but we have lost. Let us come forward, then, and accept the ends involved in the struggle....Let us accept the terms, as we are in duty bound to do. -- JAMES LONGSTREET, Letter to New Orleans Times, March 18, 1867.”

SurrenderCivil WarThe SouthJames LongstreetPeace Terms
Book:Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
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“Gen. Pendleton may lecture and create a sensation that will put money in his pocket, but he will never convince the fighting men who are left of Longstreet's corps that the grim commander at whose word they so often threw themselves against the battalions of the north, was a traitor to the cause he sacrificed for. No matter what his politics may be; no matter how much derided, vilified and abused, Longstreet's name will go sounding down the corridors of time as one of the best, bravest, and most unassuming officers the southern confederacy produced. -- 'One of Longstreet's Foot Cavalry,' Morning Republican (Little Rock, AR), May 14, 1873.”

James Longstreet
Book:Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
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“In making soldiers...we first teach men how to stand straight and to look right and left, then to march, etc., and, finally, by gradual discipline, they are brought to move with the precision of machinery.' So, the government, he [Longstreet] concluded, ought to accomplish the great end of Reconstruction 'by gradual steps.' -- from Interview with the Indianapolis Journal, September 24, 1874.”

GovernmentReconstructionArmy Training
Book:Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
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“Grant believed that generous terms were essential to pacification. In Grant's eyes, the surrender was a triumph of right over wrong: proof of the moral and material superiority of the North's free-labor democratic society over the South's slave-labor autocratic one. Grant's hope, in extending clemency, was to change hearts and minds--to effect Confederate repentance and submission. In Lee's view, by contrast, the United States' victory was one of might over right, attributable to brutal force, not to skill and virtue. Although Lee rejected the option of guerrilla warfare as impractical and dishonorable, he did not admit moral defeat or counsel submission.”

Civil WarRobert E LeeUlysses S GrantNorth Vs South
Book:Longstreet: The Confederate General Who Defied the South
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