A few people had serious scruples of conscience against taking the oath. I know of two or three whose attitude, considering their personalities, was amusing and pathetic. There was one good lady, Mrs. Wellington, who walked all the way from Petersburg to Richmond, a distance of twenty miles, for fear the oath might be required if she boarded a car! I turn to Matoaca's journal: "I have been visiting Cousin Mary in Powhatan. Of course they have military government there, too. Soldiers ride up, enter without invitation, walk through the house, seat themselves at the piano and play; promenade to the rear, go into the kitchen, sit down and talk with the darkeys. "At church, I saw officers wearing side-arms. They come regularly to watch if we pray for the President of the United States. I hope they were edified; a number stood straight up during that prayer. Among the most erect were the M. girls, who have very _retroussé_ noses. The Yankees reported: 'Not only do they stand up when the President is prayed for, but they turn up their noses.' They sent word back: 'A mightier power than the Yankee Army turned up our noses.' "I hear they have dealt severely with Rev. Mr. Wingfield because he would not read that prayer for the President. When brought up for it, he told the examining officer he could not--it was a matter of conscience. They put a ball and chain on him and made him sweep the streets. And these people are the exponents of 'freedom,' and 'liberty of conscience.' They come from a land whose slogan is these words! They have no right to force us to pray according to their views. For myself, I kneel during the prayer, I try to pray it; I seek to feel it, since to pray without feeling is mockery. But I don't feel it. "Uncle advised: 'My daughter, no man needs your prayers more than the President of the United States. He has great and grave responsibilities. We must desire that a higher power shall direct him. The President is surrounded by advisers bent on revenge, so bent on it that they seem to care nothing whatever for the Union--the real union of the North and South.' So I bow my head, and I try--God knows I try! But thoughts of all the blood that has been shed, of the homes that have been burned, the suffering and starvation endured, will rush into my mind as I kneel. Dear Christ! did you know how hard a command you laid upon us when you said, 'Pray for your enemies?'" An entry after Mr. Lincoln's death says: "How can I pray that prayer in the face of this?" Below is pasted Johnson's proclamation charging the assassination to Mr. Davis and other Southern leaders. This follows: "How _can_ I pray for the President of the United States? That proclamation is an insult flung in the face of the whole South! And we have to take it." They had as much trouble at Washington over our prayers as over our few buttons and clothes.