COLONEL JAQUESS' PROPOSITION

On May 19th, 1863, Colonel Jaquess at Murfreesboro, Tenn., requested permission to visit Richmond, for the purpose, as he said, of securing from Jefferson Davis and those associated with him in the Confederate Government, "terms of peace that the Government will accept." This application was first made to General Garfield, who, at the time, was chief-of-staff to General Rosecrans, in whose army Colonel Jaquess was serving. General Garfield approved of the proposed mission of peace and submitted Colonel Jaquess' request to General Rosecrans.

Of his proposed mission Colonel Jaquess said: "I want to go to them (the Confederates) to offer them the olive branch; to tell them in the name of God and the country that they will be welcomed back. . . . I do not know what their views are; it is not my business to ask. I feel that God has laid upon me the duty to go to them and go I must, unless my superiors forbid it.

"I propose no compromise with traitors, but their immediate return to their allegiance to God and their country. It is no part of my business to discuss the probability or the possibility of the accomplishment of this work."

When asked how he would go, Colonel Jaquess said: "Openly, in my uniform as the messenger of God." When told that he might be shot as a spy, he said: "It is not for me to ask what they will do. I have only to go." When told that his life was too valuable to be wasted on such an Embassy he replied: "That is not for you to judge."

It will be observed that Colonel Jaquess' proposition was not to go to the Confederate leaders, in the name or by the authority of the Government of the United States, but in the name of the Lord God Almighty, and in His name and by His authority, to demand of those leaders a cessation of hostilities and a submission to the authority of the Government. In all his letters and in his conversation relative to the matter he

states his motive and purpose in unequivocal and unqualified

terms.

It is interesting to note what Mr. Lincoln and others who encouraged this mission hoped that it might accomplish. General Rosecrans in introducing this matter to the President said: "After maturely weighing his plans and considering well his character, I am decidedly of the opinion that the public interests will be promoted by permitting him to go as he proposes. I do not anticipate the results that he seems to expect; but I believe that a moral force will be generated by his mission that will more than compensate us for his temporary absence from his regiment." "The terms he will offer may not be accepted, but it will strengthen our moral position to offer them. It will show the world that we do not seek to subjugate the South."

During his first interview with Mr. Gilmore relative to this mission, late in May, 1863, President Lincoln said: "Something will come out of it, perhaps not what Jaquess expects, but what will be of service to the right."

These preliminary statements respecting Colonel Jaquess and his proposition are here made for the purpose of showing that the hero of this mission was not a religious fanatic, as his strange proposition might seem to indicate, but was a man of such exalted nature and practical common sense as to be held in high esteem by President Lincoln and other prominent

men.

MR. JAMES R. GILMORE,

who was identified with the Jaquess Mission from the first, who accompanied the Colonel on his second trip to the South, in July, 1864, was with him during the interview with Jefferson Davis, and in his excellent work above referred to gives the history of this mission, was a man of exceptional worth and reputation. His ability as a lecturer and author, and his great sacrifices and labors for the Union cause gave him high standing with President Lincoln and with leading

men throughout the nation. He was a distinguished magazine writer and publisher, and was one of Horace Greeley's most intimate and trusted editorial associates, and at the time of the Jaquess-Gilmore embassy, he was on the editorial staff of the New York Tribune. When this mission was first proposed by Colonel Jaquess in May, 1863, Mr. Gilmore was with General Rosecrans at the headquarters of the Army of the Cumberland, at Murfreesboro, Tenn., on an important mission for Mr. Greeley.

It is fortunate that two men of such exceptional character and integrity, so utterly unlike and yet forming such a combination of rare excellence as did Colonel Jaquess and Mr. Gilmore, were united in this important movement, and that from the one most fitted for that service we have a history of the affair, so trustworthy and complete, and so full of thrilling interest and instruction, as is the story of this movement in Mr. Gilmore's "Personal Recollections of Abraham Lincoln."

General Rosecrans was compelled to be at the front during the day Colonel Jaquess' application of May 19th, 1863, was received, and, therefore, requested Mr. Gilmore to meet the Colonel, who was to call at headquarters that day, to hear his proposition and report his impressions relative to the matter. It was in this way that Mr. Gilmore was brought into this movement.

When General Rosecrans returned from the front to his headquarters Mr. Gilmore reported to the General and expressed to him his disapproval of the Jaquess' proposition. But General Rosecrans knew Colonel Jaquess as Mr. Gilmore did not; he had seen him in camp, in counsel, and in battle, and disregarding Mr. Gilmore's unfavorable recommendations, General Rosecrans wired President Lincoln stating in brief Colonel Jaquess' proposition, and requesting for him a furlough and passes to carry out his mission.

that Colonel Jaquess "walked with God," as few men of his acquaintance did, and that his close and constant communion with his Master enabled him to hear His whispered words of confidential counsel and instruction as did the beloved disciple who leaned upon the Saviour's breast.

There is more than confidence and esteem, there is strong and tender affection in Mr. Lincoln's request, "Give my respects to him." That simple sentence as Mr. Lincoln used it has in it a whole volume of meaning.

But Mr. Lincoln was apprehensive that if Colonel Jaquess' proposed embassy of peace received the signet of his approval as President it would have the appearance of an official recognition of the Confederate authorities as a separate government with which he was conducting negotiations for peace; and even the appearance of such a recognition he was steadfastly and consistently determined to avoid.

Because of that determination to which he continuously adhered Mr. Lincoln declined to grant Colonel Jaquess' request for permission to visit Washington. It is significant, however, that while refusing to confer with Colonel Jaquess personally relative to his proposition, he did not refuse to encourage and aid the proposed embassy of peace. In this, as in all of President Lincoln's relations to this movement, there was revealed his double purpose of having Colonel Jaquess visit Richmond as he proposed, but of having him do so without any manifestation of governmental approval. These two purposes so seemingly in conflict, and yet so fully in accord, are seen at every stage of these proceedings. To accomplish these two results Mr. Lincoln made provision in his first telegram to General Rosecrans relative to the matter, by requesting Colonel Jaquess to explain his purposes in writing while declining to permit him to visit Washington in the interest of the movement.

When, on May 21st, 1863, General Rosecrans received the telegram from President Lincoln declining to grant Colonel Jaquess' request, and asking for written information