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CHAPTER IV.

Great revulsion in the public mind of the North in the summer of 1864.-A general outery for peace.-Spirit of Yankee newspapers.-The Niagara Falls "Commission."-The Jacques-Gilmore Affair.-Sorry figure of the Confederacy in these negotiations.-The question of peace negotiations in the Confederacy.-True method of peace.-Manifesto of the Confederate Congress.-Position of President Davis-His letter to Governor Vance, of North Carolina.-The CHICAGO CONVEN-. TION, etc.-Speeches, etc.-The real programme of the Democratic party.-Why it broke down.-No virtue in public opinion in the North.-The true peace men of the North.-Their Convention at Cincinnati.-A reaffirmation of Jeffersonian Democracy.-A masterpiece of statesmanship.-The Presidential campaign of 1864. The RIVAL ADMINISTRATIONS AT RICHMOND AND WASHINGTON.-A COMPARATIVE VIEW OF NORTHERN DESPOTISM.-The conscription and impressment laws of the Confederacy. The offerings of Southern patriotism.-The Yankee record in the matter of slavery." Military necessity."-The Yankee record in the matter of civil liberty. An outrage upon history.

GRANT'S complete failure in the Virginia campaign, and Sherman's dead-lock at Atlanta-the first marked by the most frightful slaughter-had produced an evident and great revulsion in the public mind of the North. The masses in that country appeared to have become at last thoroughly aroused to a true sense of their condition. On every side arose the demand for peace. Popular demonstrations had already taken place in several localities, showing that the people of the North were growing tired of the war, and demanded that it should be stopped. Yankee newspapers, that were at one time earnest advocates for a vigorous prosecution of the war, were now still more earnestly in favor of a vigorous prosecution of peace. They no longer spoke with bated breath and whispering humbleness. They said what they meant.*

As a most interesting evidence of the extent of this disposition to peace in the Northern mind, we collate the following extracts from "the peace press," as well as from papers that had given a quasi support to the war:

From the New York Tribune.

We feel certain that two-thirds of the American people on either side of the dividing line anxiously, absorbingly, desire peace, and are ready to make all needful sacrifices to insure it. Then why shall it be long withheld? Let us

In the summer of 1864 there were certain movements looking to a special negotiation for peace, which drew no little of the public attention. These movements were fruitless-in some respects they were unworthy and absurd; but they are interesting as indicating, at the time they took place, a general popular disposition to peace, proceeding from the Northern despondency on the one hand, and the consequent hopes of the South.

know, as soon as may be, the most that the rebel chiefs will do to secure peace; let us know what is the "ultimatum" on our side. We have no sympathy with the shuddering dread that our Government may, by listening to propositions from the rebels, virtually acknowledge their independence. Etiquette is the disease of little minds, great souls are never troubled by it.

Washington Constitutional Union.

The cry for peace is rung into our ears from every section of the countryfrom all divisions and parties. Even the fanatics have cooled down, in measure, from their fury for blood, have lost the vampire instincts; and, horrified at the tales of slaughter they read, and shocked at the sights of hospital suffering, and of the maimed and crippled crawling about our streets, they even wish the termination of strife which, unprocreative of benefit to either party, even to the medius terminus, the negro, is crushing the vital and social existence of both. Physical calamity constantly displayed before their vision, and high prices crushing out the means of comfortable subsistence, has at length softened the heart of the hardened abolitionist into a lurking yearning for the cessation of arms.

Dayton (Ohio) Daily Empire.

We can have no peace so long as the men are allowed to prescribe its terms. Let the people, in their sovereign might, command that this cruel war be ended, and all differences between the States be submitted to the arbitrament of a convention.

Troy Daily Press.

To-day, the people of the "loyal" and seceded States would be able to agree upon conditions of peace and stop the war. And it is the duty of the hour to hasten an opportunity for this, by shoving aside extreme men and placing in power those who believe that, in a government like ours, concession, conciliation and compromise, are better remedies for differences than eternal strife and war.

Chicago Times.

The necessity for peace upon honorable terms is too imperative to permit its sacrifice to a blind, selfish, or corrupt partnership. The alternatives now presented to the nation are peace with honor, and war with dishonor; peace with preservation of life, and war with its extended and murderous conflicts; peace with national and individual solvency, and war with national and individual bankruptcy.

From the World.

The new President, to be nominated at Chicago, and elected in November, must be a man ready and willing to meet any and every overture for peace, a

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In the month of July the whole Northern public was aroused by a sudden statement in the newspapers, that Messrs. C. C. Clay and Jacob Thompson, Southern Commissioners to negotiate a peace, and who had associated with them George Saunders, and also obtained the intermediate services of Horace Greeley, were at Niagara Falls soliciting a safe conduct to Washington, and that "terms of peace were already passing over the wires."

There was the usual Yankee exaggeration in this news. Messrs. Clay and Thompson had sought a safe conduct to Washington, for an informal conference to ascertain if there was any possible common ground on which negotiations for peace might be initiated; and they had been unmercifully snubbed by the authorities, after the usual Yankee fashion of treating all the humble and begging attempts of the Confederates to reach the back-door of Washington. Mr. Lincoln dispatched a reply, addressed "To whom it may concern," declaring that the Union, with the additional and positive condition of the abandonment of slavery, was the sine qua non of peace.

Almost contemporary with the Niagara Falls affair there was an incident in Richmond, which put in striking contrast the sturdy indifference of Mr. Lincoln, and the simplicity and pliancy of the Confederate authorities.

In the same month of July a letter was received from General Grant, asking permission of the Confederate authorities for Colonel Jacques, of the 73d Illinois infantry, and one J. R. Gilmore, to meet Colonel Ould, the Confederate Commissioner of Exchange, between the lines of the two armies. Ould brought the two Yankees to Richmond for the purpose of seeing President Davis. It appeared that they came with the knowledge and approval of President Lincoln, and under his

man who shall represent truly the dignity and power of the nation, and who will not be unwilling even to tender an armistice suggesting a National Convention of all the States.

From the New York News.

The peace Democracy will indorse a nomination that faithfully represents the sentiments herein stated. They are willing to trust to the good sense and patriotism of the people for the realization of a definite peace as the sequel of an armistice and National Convention.

pass; and, while they disclaimed the character of authorized commissioners, they professed to be directly acquainted with the views of the Washington authorities, and plainly hinted that their business was to pave the way for a meeting of formal commissioners authorized to negotiate for peace.

These two obscure Yankees were treated with silly distinction in Richmond. They were admitted to a personal interview with President Davis, who "grasped the hand of one of them with effusion," and entertained them with a long disquisition on State Rights, Secession, etc. There was, of course, some Yankee dramatization in the interview. Jacques had arrived in Richmond attired in a large linen duster; but no sooner had he confronted the Confederate President than he threw off the garment, disclosing the military uniform and insiguia of a Yankee colonel.

It appears that these parties had not a single definite proposition to make, and that they sounded Mr. Davis thoroughly, and, easily approaching his vanity, induced him to make a very elaborate and rhetorical exposition of his views and designs. They carried a long story back to the Yankee newspapers, and made no little capital out of their visit to Richmond by "sensations" in the Northern pictorials and itinerant "lectures" at twenty-five cents a head.

The more intelligent and worthy portion of the Confederate public were greatly wounded in their pride by the behavior of their authorities on the peace question. Many of these persons had, since the very commencement of the war, insisted on the futility and impropriety of essaying to open any special negotiations with the enemy on peace. There were the many distinct avowals of the purpose of the war on our side, in the declarations and acts of the Government, invariably protesting our simple desire "to be let alone," which were already a clear and standing tender of peace. The issues could not be made more distinct or more urgent than in the official record. Why, they argued, should we go beyond it by attempts at kitchen conferences, which might not only be insolently rebuffed by the enemy, to the damage of our self-respect, but which, as our experiences had so far shown, were invariably misinterpreted, and not without plausibility, as signs of decadence and weakness in our military affairs. True, the prond and intelligent persons in

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the Confederacy were as anxious for peace as those who were constantly professing their devotion to this end. But they considered that the honor and self-respect of their countrymen had been lowered by devious and unworthy attempts at negotiation. Having once announced the terms of peace sufficiently, they judged they would do right, while awaiting the overtures of the enemy, not to betray their anxiety, or open any unnecessary discussions on the subject. And there could be no doubt of the sufficiency of these announcements.

A few weeks before the Jacques-Gilmore "mission" the Confederate Congress had published a manifesto naming the terms of peace, sufficiently explaining to the enemy the demands of the Richmond Government, and certainly leaving no occasion for discussing the matter with Yankee intermeddlers, who might choose to visit the Confederate capital on the errands of curiosity, or perhaps in the office of spies. The principles, sentiments, and purposes by which these States had been actuated, were set forth in that paper with all the authority due to the solemn declaration of the legislative and executive departments of the Government, and with a clearness which left no room for comment or explanation. In a few sentences it was pointed out that all we asked was immunity from interference with our internal peace and prosperity, "and to be left in the undisturbed enjoyment of those inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, which our common ancestors declared to be the equal heritage of all parties to the social compact. Let them forbear aggressions upon us, and the war is at an end. If there be questions which require adjustment by negotiation, we have ever been willing, and are still willing, to enter into communication with our adversaries, in a spirit of peace, of equity, and manly frankness."

President Davis himself had even more explicitly indicated the methods of peace, excluded special efforts at negotiation. with the enemy, and taken a position to which his conduct a few months subsequently was absurdly and inexplicably opposite.

Governor Vance of North Carolina had written to him, referring to certain political discontent in that State, and proposing an effort at negotiation with the enemy, which would

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