It was ten days' worth of negotiations where Sherman first sat down with Johnston and John Breckinridge. At one point, the Confederates laid down such terms, and Sherman moved his chair back and said, "Well, see here, who's surrendering to whom?" But in fact, Sherman gave very generous terms to the Confederates. In doing so, he thought he was carrying out Lincoln's vision. But he was sharply rebuked by the Union Cabinet, particularly after the death of Lincoln. Grant was actually sent to talk to Sherman. And quite a few important people in the Union Cabinet were worried that Sherman might decide to arrest Grant because they were convinced that Sherman was potentially thinking of some kind of a coup, and he was getting ready to march northward with his legions to take over. That's the kind of chaos and anarchy that was gripping the North in the post-Lincoln assassination period.
谈判持续了十天,这是舍曼首次与约翰斯顿和约翰·布雷肯里奇一起坐在谈判桌前。谈判进行到某个时候,南方邦联提出的条件使得舍曼往后移动了一下自己的椅子,说道:“不过,请注意,现在究竟是谁在向谁投降?”事实上,舍曼答应给对方十分优惠的条件。他认为这样做是贯彻林肯的决策,然而他却受到联邦政府的严厉批评,尤其是在林肯逝世之后。格兰特被派去与他谈话。相当一部分政府要员担心舍曼会扣押格兰特,他们深信舍曼极有可能在考虑发动政变,并正准备带领部队北上,接管政府。林肯被刺杀后的这段时间里,北方深陷在这种无秩序、无政府的混乱状态中。
So if Johnston had decided to go to the hills and along with Lee start sanctioning some kind of guerrilla warfare, we would have been in a real mess. But Johnston instead followed Lee's example and he, too, surrendered, in this act of basic insubordination. In doing so, it really paved the way for this country to become not like the Balkans, not like the Middle East, not like Lebanon or Cambodia or these other civil war-torn countries, or Northern Ireland, but to become like America today.
假如约翰斯顿决定上山,和李将军共同发动游击战,局势真的就会一团糟了。但是他没有这样做,而是以李为榜样,违抗上司的命令,也向北方投降了。此举使我们国家没有变成饱受内战折磨的国家,没有变成巴尔干半岛诸国,没有变成中东、黎巴嫩、柬埔寨或北爱尔兰,而是成为了今天的美国。
来源:可可英语 //m.moreplr.com/daxue/201705/510855.shtml