526

PEACE SEEKERS IN RICHMOND.

CHAPTER XX.

PEACE CONFERENCE AT HAMPTON ROADS.-THE CAMPAIGN AGAINST RICHMOND.

T THE opening of the spring of 1865, the Rebellion was so shorn of its inherent strength and props that it was ready to fall. The last effort to win peace by other means than by conquering it, had been tried in vain. That effort was a notable one, as the outline here given will show.

We have seen how futile were the missions of Mr. Greeley to Niagara, and of Messrs. Jaques and Gillmore to Richmond, the previous summer, in the interest of peace.

A few months later, Francis P. Blair, senior, a venerable politician of Maryland, who had given his support to the administration, and who was personally acquainted with the principal actors in the rebellion, then in Richmond, conceived the idea that he might bring about reconciliation and peace by means of his private influence. So he asked the President for a pass through Grant's lines, and on the 26th of December," Mr. Lincoln handed him a card on which was written-" Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines to go south, and return," and signed his name to it. "I was informed," said Mr. Lincoln, in response to a resolution of the House of Representatives," "that Mr. Blair sought the card as a means of getting to Richmond, Virginia, February 8, but he was given no authority to speak or act for the Government, nor was I informed of any thing he would say or do, on his own account, or otherwise."

1865.

ROBERT OULD.

• 1964.

With this the self-constituted peace commissioner went to Richmond, where, for several days, he was the guest of Robert Ould, the Confederate Commissioner for the exchange of prisoners, and had several interviews with Davis. Finally, at the middle of January, he made his way back to Washington, with a letter written to himself by Jefferson Davis, in which the

PEACE CONFERENCE IN HAMPTON ROADS.

527

Chief Conspirator expressed a willingness to appoint a commission "to renew the effort to enter into a conference with a view to secure peace to the two countries." This letter Blair placed in Mr. Lincoln's hands. Ready to show his willingness for peace on proper terms, the President wrote a note to Blair, that might be shown to Davis, in which he said, "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 me, with a view of securing peace to the people of our common country." With this letter Blair returned to Richmond, and his reappearance there excited high hopes of peace, for he was regarded as a commissioner authorized by the Government. The expression "our common country," in Mr. Lincoln's letter, as opposed to Davis's words, "the two countries," deprived the latter of all hope of a negotiation on the terms of independence for the "Confederate States." But he was compelled to yield to the popular desire for an end of the war, and appointed commissioners to proceed to Washington to confer on the subject. These were Alexander H. Stephens, John A. Campbell, and R. M. T. Hunter. The latter was one of the most active members of the Confederate "Senate." They were permitted to go on a steamer only as far as Hampton Roads, without the privilege of landing, and there, on board of the vessel that conveyed them, they held a conference of several hours with the President and Secretary of State.'

Feb. 3, 1865.

Davis's commissioners were very cautious, yet, during the conference, what they desired and what the Government expected, were clearly defined. An amicable spirit prevailed, and question after question was deliberately discussed and disposed of. What they seemed most to desire was a postponement of the settlement of the real question at issue, and upon which the war was waged, namely, the separation of the "Confederate States" from the Union. They desired to bring about a sort of armistice, by which an immediate peace might be secured, and the trade and commerce of the different sections. of the Union might be resumed. To this the President firmly replied, that the Government would agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities, except on the basis of disbandment of the insurgent forces, and the recognition of the National authority throughout the Republic; also, that the complete restoration of the National authority, everywhere, was an indispensable condition of any assent, on the part of the Government, to whatever form of peace might be proposed. He declared that he should not recede from the position he had taken on the subject of slavery. The commissioners were then informed that Congress had, three days before, adopted an amendment to the Constitution, which would

January 31.

He arrived at

1 The President first sent Mr. Seward, the Secretary of State, to meet the commissioners. Fortress Monroe on the night of the first of February. He was instructed to insist upon (1.) the restoration of the National authority throughout the Republic; (2.) no receding on the part of the Executive from his position on the subject of slavery; and (3.) no cessation of hostilities until the Confederates should lay down their arms and disband. On this basis alone, he might hear what they had to say, and report to the President, but not definitely consummate any thing. Meanwhile a note, sent to General Grant by the commissioners, requesting permission for them to go to Washington, had reached the President, in which he found that they desired a conference without any personal compromise on any question in the letter" of the President to Mr. Blair, mean. ing his expression of our common country." On account of this proviso, Mr. Lincoln was about to recall the Secretary of State, when he was assured by an electrograph from Grant that the commissioners doubtless had a real desire for peace. With a desire that something might be done that should lead to a cessation of hostilities, he went immediately to Fortress Monroe, to join in the conference.

528

WAR MEETING IN RICHMOND.

doubtless be ratified by the requisite number of States,' for the prohibition of slavery throughout the Republic.

• Feb. 5, 1865.

2

The conference had no other result than that of the efforts made in July, which was to more clearly define the views of the Government and the Conspirators. The commissioners returned to Richmond, when Davis laid their report, submitted to him, before the "Congress." On the following day a great meeting was held in Richmond, which was addressed by Davis and the Governor of Virginia. The former said, in reference to Mr. Lincoln's expression our common country": "Sooner than we should ever be united again, I would be willing to yield up every thing I have on earth, and, if it were possible, would sacrifice my life a thousand times before I would succumb." Then, with his usual pretense of confidence in final victory, he called upon the people to unite with those already in arms," in repelling the foe, believing," he said, "that thereby we will compel the Yankees, in less than twelve months, to petition us for peace upon our own terms.' The meeting passed resolutions spurning with indignation the terms offered by the President, as "a gross insult" and "premeditated indignity" to the people of the "Confederate States." And at a great war-meeting held on the 9th, at which R. M. T. Hunter presided, it was resolved they would never lay down their arms until their independence was won. They expressed a belief that their resources were sufficient for the purpose, and they invoked the people, "in the name of the holiest of all causes, to spare neither their blood nor their treasure in its support."

993

It has transpired that at that time, Davis and his fellow-Conspirators had strong hopes of the support of foreign armies. But the speech of Benjamin

See page 454.

4.

"At that conference, it is related that Mr. Lincoln insisted that the States had never separated from the Union, and consequently he could not recognize another Government inside the one of which he alone was President, nor admit the separate independence of States that were a part of the Union. "That," he said to Mr. Hunter, who had urged him to treat with Davis as the head of a Government de facto, "would be doing what you so long asked Europe to do, in vain, and be resigning the only thing the armies of the Union are fighting for." Hunter made a long reply, insisting that the recognition of Davis's power to make a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace, and cited, as a precedent, the correspondence of Charles the First with the Parliament-a constitutional ruler treating with rebels. "Mr. Lincoln's face," says the narrator (said to be Alexander H. Stephens)," then wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked: Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don't profess to be. But my only distinct recollection of the matter is, that Charles lost his head. That settled Mr. Hunter for awhile." From the Augusta (Georgia) Chronicle, cited in Raymond's Life, Public Services, and State Papers of Abraham Lincoln, page 663.

Davis appears to have spoken with much folly and arrogance. He denounced the President as "His Majesty, Abraham the First," and said that “before the campaign was over, he and Seward might find they had been speaking to their masters, when demanding unconditional submission."-A Rebel War Clerk's Diary, Feb. 7, 1865.

4 Jones, in his Rebel War Clerk's Diary, under date of January 24th, 1865, in recording the presence of Blair, in Richmond, says: The Northern papers say he is authorized to offer an amnesty, including all persons, with the Union as it was-the Constitution as it is," my old motto in the Southern Monitor in 1857); but gradual emancipation. No doubt some of the people here would be glad to accept this; but the President will fight more, and desperately yet, still hoping for foreign assistance."

Henry S. Foote, a member of the Confederate Congress (once United States Senator), says:-" The fact was well known to me that Mr. Davis and his friends were confidently looking for foreign aid, and from several quarters. It was stated, in my hearing, by several special friends of the Confederate President, that one hundred thousand French soldiers were expected to arrive within the limits of the Confederate States, by way of Mexico; and it was more than rumored that a secret compact, wholly unauthorized by the Confederate Constitution, with certain Polish commissioners, who had lately been on a visit to Richmond, had been effected, by means of which Mr. Davis would soon be supplied with some twenty or thirty thousand additional troops, then refugees from Poland, and sojourning in several European States, which would be completely at the command of the President for any purpose whatever." He adds, in that connection, that he was satisfied that Mr. Davis would, in sending peace commissioners, "so manacle their hands by instructions as to render impossible all attempts at successful negotiation."- War of the Rebellion, &c., by Henry S. Foote.