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Grant and Lee had to look far into the future, said Wilson. "They knew that the energies that had been given to divisions for so many years would have to be devoted to rebuilding the country. There was no vindictiveness."
“格蘭特和李一定是著眼于未來的，”威爾遜說，“他們知道多年來分裂國家的力量必將用來重建這個國家。他們彼此都沒有仇恨。”
Three people were strongly alive to me there. Two of them, Lee and Grant, continued to radiate powerful qualities that Americans still honor: one, symbolizing nobility and the aristocratic tradition of the old South, and the other symbolizing the self-made common man of the new North, Midwest and West.
在我看來，有三個人發揮了重要作用。其中兩位，李和格蘭特，他們身上仍然散發著美國人民至今仍引以為榮的人格魅力：一個象征著尊嚴和古老南方貴族的傳統，而另外一個象征著新北部、中西部以及西部普通民眾的自立、自強。
The third person was the inescapable Lincoln. Appomattox was, finally, his show. I could almost see him standing over the little table in the McLean house where Grant sat scribbling his terms. I knew that Lincoln had often spoken of wanting a merciful peace, but I didn't know whether he and Grant had found time to discuss it. Ron Wilson said they had met just two weeks earlier—on the River Queen, in the James River—and had talked at length about the rapidly approaching end of the war and the disarray it was bound to bring.
第三個人無疑就是林肯，阿波馬托克斯的和解最終是他策劃的。我仿佛看見他正站在麥克萊恩的小桌旁，格蘭特就坐在那兒，潦草地寫著條款。我知道林肯經常提到渴望一個仁慈的和平，但我不知道他和格蘭特是否找時間討論過此事。羅恩·威爾遜說他們在受降前兩周見過面——在詹姆斯河的“大河女王”號輪船上——曾長時間討論過戰爭即將結束和可能帶來的混亂。
You just know, Wilson told me, "that Lincoln said, 'Let'em down easy.'"
“你要知道，”威爾遜告訴我，“林肯說過‘讓他們有尊嚴地投降!’”
