'Appomattox': Scene Of Servility

'Appomattox': Scene Of Servility

I was reading an essay by William Zinsser, one of the finest American writers of the 20th century, called 'Appomattox', (from a little book he wrote in 1990, called 'American Places').  In his essay, he describes the kindness with which Grant treated Lee 
in the surrender terms of the agreement, ending the American Civil War: 
The soldiers were simply to give over their arms, keep their horses, and go home!  

No vindictiveness!  The surrender was silent, civil, peaceful, having been  preceded by President Lincoln's statement to Grant on March 28-29, 1865 (before the April 12, 1865 surrender): "Let 'em down easy".

That surrender morning at the Appomattox red brick house of Wilmer Mclean's, 
was quiet, reverent, and servile.

The spirit of Appomattox, that of Lincoln, Grant, Lee, and the 100,000 total soldiers, 
who treated each other with reverential respect, created a stillness which was to be not the end of fighting, but the beginning of a new 'NATION', never

again to be called a ‘UNION’.

(Prior to the Civil War (1861), the ‘United States’ was a plural noun; after, ‘United States’ was always singular (1865).)

Wouldn’t it be a ‘Zen’ moment in world history, if all intercourse between peoples of a marriage, of a family, of a community, of a state, of a nation, ----of the whole earth, could look at one another and see a ‘one’, where everyone’s action would be for the good of everyone, without thought of a ‘self’: Just one organic whole!

‘With a musician's love for America and mankind.

Please give me feedback and comments!

God Bless, Errol