“Certainly it ought, at least for a time.  What I am contending is that every revolution should be peaceable.  Would not England have been wiser if she had not endeavoured to subdue the colonies?  Suppose the principle of peace were cherished:  the ideas that would otherwise cause rebellion would be patiently tested; the men of new or opposite ideas would no longer be rebels; they would be statesmen; a rebellion would be accepted, tried, and defeated by a counter rebellion, both peaceable.  It is simply leaving things to the will of the majority.  Right ideas will win, no matter what the opposition to them.  Better change the arena of conflict.  A single champion of an idea would once challenge a doubter and prove his hypothesis by the blood of the disputant; you do the same thing on a great scale.  The Southern people—­very good people as you and I have cause to know—­think the constitution gives them the right, or rather cannot take away the right, to withdraw from the Union; you Northern people think they deserve death for so thinking, and you proceed to kill them off; you intend keeping it up until too few of them are left to think fatally; but they will think, and your killing them will not prove your ideas right.”

“And so you would settle it by letting them alone?  Yes, I know that is what you think should be done.  But how about slavery?” I asked, thinking to touch a tender spot.

“The North should have rebelled peaceably against slavery; many a Southern man would have joined this peaceable rebellion; the idea would have won, not at once, neither will this war be won at once; but the idea would have won, and under such conditions, I mean with the South knowing that the peaceable extension of knowledge concerning principle was involved, instead of massacre according to the John Brown idiocy, a great amelioration in the condition of the slave would have begun immediately.  The South, would have gradually liberated the slaves.”

“Doctor, you are saying only that we are far from perfection.”

“No; I am saying more than that; I am saying that we ought to have ideals, and strive to reach them.”

* * * * *

On the 12th we learned that Hooker’s division had landed at Ship Point, and had formed part of the lines investing Yorktown.  On the next day I rejoined my company.  Willis gave a yell when he saw me coming.  The good fellow was the same old Willis—­strong, brave, and generous.  We soon went off for a private chat.

“What have you been doing with, yourself all this time?” he asked.

“I’ve been with.  Dr. Khayme—­at Newport News, you know.  Our camp was never moved once; what have you been doing?”

“Same old thing—­camp guard, and drill, and waiting our turn to come.  Say, Berwick, do you know the new drill?”

“What new drill?”

“Hardee.”

“You don’t say!”

“Fact.  Whole division.”