The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government Volume II Part 50

"The foregoing memorandum of conversation was this day read to Mr.

Blair, and altered in so far as he desired, in any respect, to change the expressions employed.

"JEFFERSON DAVIS."

The following letter was given by me to Mr. Blair:

"RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, _January 12, 1865._

"F. P. BLAIR, Esq.

"SIR: I have deemed it proper and probably desirable to you to give you in this form the substance of remarks made by me to be repeated by you to President Lincoln, etc., etc.

"I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and am willing now, as heretofore, to enter into negotiations for the restoration of peace, am ready to send a commission whenever I have reason to suppose it will be received, or to receive a commission if the United States Government shall choose to send one. That, notwithstanding the rejection of our former offers, I would, if you could promise that a commissioner, minister, or other agent would be received, appoint one immediately, and renew the effort to enter into conference with a view to secure peace to the two countries.

"Yours, etc., JEFFERSON DAVIS."

"WAs.h.i.+NGTON, _January 18, 1865._

"F. P. BLAIR, Esq.

"SIR: You having shown me Mr. Davis's letter to you of the 12th instant, you may say to him that I have constantly been, am now, and shall continue ready to receive any agent whom he or any other influential person now resisting the national authority may informally send to me with the view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.

"Yours, etc., A. LINCOLN."

When Mr. Blair returned and gave me this letter of Mr. Lincoln of January 18th, it being a response to my note to Mr. Blair of the 12th, he said it had been a fortunate thing that I gave him that note, as it had created greater confidence in Mr. Lincoln regarding his efforts at Richmond. Further reflection, he said, had modified the views he formerly presented to me, and that he wanted to have my attention for a different mode of procedure.

He had, as he told Mr. Lincoln, held friendly relations with me for many years; they began as far back as when I was a schoolboy at Lexington, Kentucky, and he a resident of that place. In later years we had belonged to the same political party, and our views had generally coincided. There was much, therefore, to facilitate our conference. He then unfolded to me the embarra.s.sment of Mr. Lincoln on account of the extreme men in Congress and elsewhere, who wished to drive him into harsher measures than he was inclined to adopt; whence it would not be feasible for him to enter into any arrangement with us by the use of political agencies; that, if anything beneficial could be effected, it must be done without the intervention of the politicians. He, therefore, suggested that Generals Lee and Grant might enter into an arrangement by which hostilities would be suspended, and a way paved for the restoration of peace. I responded that I would willingly intrust to General Lee such negotiation as was indicated.

The conference then ended, and, to report to Mr. Lincoln the result of his visit, Mr. Blair returned to Was.h.i.+ngton. He subsequently informed me that the idea of a military convention was not favorably received at Was.h.i.+ngton, so it only remained for me to act upon the letter of Mr. Lincoln.

I determined to send, as commissioners or agents for the informal conference, Messrs. Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell.

A letter of commission or certificate of appointment for each was prepared by the Secretary of State in the following form:

"In compliance with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are hereby requested to proceed to Was.h.i.+ngton City for conference with him upon the subject to which it relates," etc.

This draft of a commission was, upon perusal, modified by me so as to read as follows:

"RICHMOND, _January 28, 1865._

"In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are requested to proceed to Was.h.i.+ngton City for an informal conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries."

Some objections were made to this commission by the United States officials, because it authorized the commissioners to confer for the purpose "of securing peace to the two countries"; whereas the letter of Mr. Lincoln, which was their pa.s.sport, spoke of "securing peace to the people of our one common country." But these objections were finally waived.

The letter of Mr. Lincoln expressing a willingness to receive any agent I might send to Was.h.i.+ngton City, a commission was appointed to go there; but it was not allowed to proceed farther than Hampton Roads, where Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by Mr. Seward, met the commissioners. Seward craftily proposed that the conference should be confidential, and the commissioners regarded this so binding on them as to prevent them from including in their report the discussion which occurred. This enabled Mr. Seward to give his own version of it in a dispatch to the United States Minister to the French Government, which was calculated to create distrust of, if not hostility to, the Confederacy on the part of the power in Europe most effectively favoring our recognition.

Why Mr. Lincoln changed his purpose, and, instead of receiving the commissioners at Was.h.i.+ngton, met them at Hampton Roads, I can not, of course, explain. Several causes may be conjecturally a.s.signed. The commissioners were well known in Was.h.i.+ngton, had there held high positions, and, so far as there was any peace party there, might have been expected to have influence with its members; but a more important inquiry is: If Mr. Lincoln previously had determined to hear no proposition for negotiation, and to accept nothing less than an unconditional surrender, why did he propose to receive informally our agent? If there was nothing to discuss, the agent would have been without functions.

I think the views of Mr. Lincoln had changed after he wrote the letter to Mr. Blair of June 18th, and that the change was mainly produced by the report which he made of what he saw and heard at Richmond on the night he staid there. Mr. Blair had many acquaintances among the members of the Confederate Congress; and all those of the cla.s.s who, of old, fled to the cave of Adullam, "gathered themselves unto him."

Mr. Hunter, in a published article on the peace commission, referring to Mr. Blair's visit to Richmond, says: "He saw many old friends and party a.s.sociates. Here his representations were not without effect upon his old confederates, who for so long had been in the habit of taking counsel with him on public affairs." He then goes on to describe Mr. Blair as revealing dangers of such overwhelming disaster as turned the thoughts of many Confederates toward peace more seriously than ever before. That Mr. Blair saw and noted this serious inclining of many to thoughts of peace, scarcely admits of a doubt; and, if he believed the Congress to be infected by a cabal undermining the Executive in his efforts successfully to prosecute the war, Mr. Lincoln may be naturally supposed thence to have reached the conclusion that he should accept nothing but an unconditional surrender, and that he should not allow a commission from the Confederacy to visit the United States capital.

The report of the commissioners, dated February 5, 1865, was as follows:

"_To the President of the Confederate States:_

"SIR: Under your letter of appointment of the 28th ult. We proceeded to seek 'an informal conference' with Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, upon the subject mentioned in the letter. The conference was granted and took place on the 30th ult., on board of a steamer anch.o.r.ed in Hampton Roads, where we met President Lincoln and the Hon. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States. It continued for several hours, and was both full and explicit. We learned from them that the message of President Lincoln to the Congress of the United States, in December last, explains clearly and distinctly his sentiments as to the terms, conditions, and method of proceeding by which peace can be secured to the people, and we were not informed that they would be modified or altered to obtain that end. We understood from him that no terms or proposals of any treaty, or agreement looking to an ultimate settlement, would be entertained or made by him with the authorities of the Confederate States, because that would be a recognition of their existence as a separate power, which under no circ.u.mstances would be done; and, for a like reason, that no such terms would be entertained by him for the States separately; that no extended truce or armistice (as at present advised) would be granted or allowed without a satisfactory a.s.surance in advance of the complete restoration of the authority of the Const.i.tution and laws of the United States over all places within the States of the Confederacy; that whatever consequences may follow from the reestablishment of that authority must be accepted; but that individuals subject to pains and penalties under the laws of the United States might rely upon a very liberal use of the power confided to him to remit those pains and penalties if peace be restored.

"During the conference, the proposed amendment to the Const.i.tution of the United States adopted by Congress on the 31st ultimo was brought to our notice.

"This amendment provides that neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except for crime, should exist within the United States, or any place within their jurisdiction, and that Congress should have power to enforce this amendment by appropriate legislation. Very respectfully, etc.,

"ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS,

"R. M. T. HUNTER,

"JOHN A. CAMPBELL."

Thus closed the conference, and all negotiations with the Government of the United States for the establishment of peace. Says Judge Campbell, in his memoranda:

"In conclusion, Mr. Hunter summed up what seemed to be the result of the interview: that there could be no arrangements by treaty between the Confederate States and the United States, or any agreements between them; that there was nothing left for them but unconditional submission."

By reference to the message of President Lincoln of December 6, 1864, which is mentioned in the report, it appears that the terms of peace therein stated were as follows:

"In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that 'while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emanc.i.p.ation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any act of Congress.'

"If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to reenslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it."

On the 4th of March, 1861, President Lincoln appeared on the western portico of the Capitol at Was.h.i.+ngton, and in the presence of a great mult.i.tude of witnesses took the following oath:

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Const.i.tution of the United States."

The first section of the fourth article of the Const.i.tution of the United States is in these words:

"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due."

The intelligent reader will observe that the words of this section, "in consequence of any law or regulation therein," embrace a President's emanc.i.p.ation proclamation, as well as any other regulation therein. Thus the Const.i.tution itself nullified Mr.

Lincoln's proclamation, and made it of no force whatever. Yet he a.s.sumed and maintained, with all the military force he could command, that it set every slave free. Which is the higher authority, Mr.

Lincoln and his emanc.i.p.ation proclamation or the Const.i.tution? If the former, then what are const.i.tutions worth for the protection of rights?

Again he says:

"Nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by an act of Congress."

But the Const.i.tution says he shall return them--

"but shall be delivered up on claim of the party to whom such service is due."