part of the Constitution, abolishing slavery forever wherever the flag of the United States shall float.*

During the latter part of the war, Lincoln was much concerned with the question how to restore the seceded states to the Union. His attitude toward the secessionists, both as individuals and states, was distinctly conciliatory. Had Lincoln lived he would certainly have come into collision with those leaders of his own party who favored retributive measures.

But upon what basis were the seceded states to be restored to their place in the family of the Union? The war had been fought upon the theory that this nation was one, and the Union indissoluble. But was a state that had passed an ordinance of secession to be readmitted merely by conquest? Must there not be some overt act on the part of the state itself, rescinding its ordinance of secession, and indicating its desire to be considered a state belonging to the Federal Union?

Lincoln felt the constitutional difficulties of this problem, but he was deeply interested in the practical result of getting these states back into normal relations with their sister states and with the Federal Government. His practical solution of the problem is set forth in the following words:

We all agree, that the seceded States, so called, are out of their proper practical relation with the Union, and that the sole

*A few other states subsequently added their vote of ratification. On August 22, 1866, Secretary Seward furnished the following list of the states which up to that time had ratified the Amendment, together with the dates of their ratifying vote:

Illinois, February 1st, 1865; Rhode Island, February 2nd, 1865; Michigan, February 2d, 1865; Maryland, February 1st and 3d, 1865; New York, February 2d and 3d, 1865; West Virginia, February 3d, 1865; Maine, February 7th, 1865; Kansas, February 7th, 1865; Massachusetts, February 8th, 1865; Pennsylvania, February 8th, 1865; Virginia, February 9th, 1865; Ohio, February 10th, 1865; Missouri, February 10th, 1865; Nevada, February 16th, 1865; Indiana, February 16th, 1865; Louisiana, February 17th, 1865; Minnesota, February 8th and 23d, 1865; Wisconsin, March 1st, 1865; Vermont, March 9th, 1865; Tennessee, April 5th and 7th, 1865; Arkansas, April 20th, 1865; Connecticut, May 5th, 1865; New Hampshire, July 1st, 1865; South Carolina, November 13th, 1865; Alabama, December 2d, 1865; North Carolina, December 4th, 1865; Georgia, December 9th, 1865; Oregon, December 11th, 1865; California, December 20th, 1865; Florida, December 28th, 1865; New Jersey, January 23d, 1866; Iowa, January 24th, 1866.

object of the government, civil and military, in regard to those States is to again get them into the proper practical relation. I believe that it is not only possible, but in fact easier, to do this without deciding or even considering whether these States have ever been out of the Union, than with it. Finding themselves safely at home, it would be utterly immaterial whether they had ever been abroad. Let us all join in doing the acts necessary to restoring the proper practical relations between these States and the Union, and each forever after innocently indulge his own opinion whether in doing the acts he brought the States from without into the Union, or only gave them proper assistance, they never having been out of it.

CHAPTER XXIII

APPOMATTOX

THE last hope of the Confederates received a severe shock when Lincoln was reelected. The party which had declared the war a failure, and the candidate whose whole military career had been a disappointment to his friends, went down to overwhelming defeat. Still the struggle was not ended without some futile attempt at peace without victory.

Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the Confederacy, had been a Whig, and had known Lincoln during Lincoln's one term in Congress, 1847-1848. He had long desired a personal interview with Lincoln. In June, 1863, when Lee was beginning his invasion of the North, Mr. Stephens set forth from Richmond for Fortress Monroe, and notified the admiral in Hampton Roads that he was the bearer of a communication in writing from Jefferson Davis, and asked leave to proceed to Washington for a personal conference with President Lincoln. The request was received at the very time when Lee was meeting his crushing defeat at Gettysburg. Lincoln declined the request, and Stephens did not proceed to Washington.

These measures and others fostered by Fernando Wood or by Horace Greeley, Lincoln had met successively at intervals during the war.

Near the end of December, 1864, Lincoln permitted Francis P. Blair, Sr., to go through the lines into the Confederacy. Blair was permitted to see Jefferson Davis, who expressed an carnest desire for peace "between the two countries." The result of this negotiation was that President Davis appointed three

commissioners with authority to proceed to General Grant's headquarters to confer with Secretary Seward in regard to peace. Lincoln gave to Seward these three conditions upon which alone the United States Government would consider a cessation of hostilities.

I.

The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States.

2. No receding by the executive of the United States on the slavery question from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding documents.

3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government.

Seward departed for Grant's headquarters on January 21, 1865, and on the following day Mr. Lincoln himself left Washington to participate in the conference. Apparently he felt that in a matter of such moment no one but himself could speak for the administration.

The meeting between Lincoln and Seward on the one hand, and the three Confederate envoys on the other, was conducted on board the United States steamer River Queen, lying off Hampton Roads. The following account of the interview appeared in a Georgia paper, and is said to have emanated from the pen of Alexander H. Stephens. It preserves a characteristic anecdote of Lincoln and one which we can not afford to lose:

The three Southern gentlemen met Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, and after some preliminary remarks, the subject of peace was opened. Mr. Stephens, well aware that one who asks much may get more than he who confesses to humble wishes at the outset, urged the claims of his section with that skill and address for which the Northern papers have given him credit. Mr. Lincoln, holding the vantage ground of conscious power, was, however, perfectly frank, and submitted his views almost in the form of an argument. Davis had, on this occasion, as on that of Mr. Stephens's visit to Washington, made it a condition that no conference should be had, unless his rank as Commander

or President should first be recognized. Mr. Lincoln declared that the only ground on which he could rest the justice of war— either with his own people, or with foreign powers-was that it was not a war for conquest, for that the states had never been separated from the Union. Consequently, he could not recognize another government inside of the one of which he alone was President; nor admit the separate independence of states that were yet a part of the Union. "That," said he, "would be doing what you have so long asked Europe to do in vain, and be resigning the only thing the armies of the Union have been fighting for.'

Mr. Hunter made a long reply to this, insisting that the recognition of Davis's power to make a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace, and referred to the correspondence between King Charles I. and his Parliament, as a trustworthy precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels. Mr. Lincoln's face 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 pretend to be right. My only distinct recollection of the matter is that Charles lost his head." That settled Mr. Hunter for a while.

Lincoln also gave an account of this conference, or at least of a story which he was reported to have told on that occasion. This is recorded by Henry J. Raymond, who asked Mr. Lincoln concerning the truth of the report. "Why, yes," replied Mr. Lincoln, manifesting some surprise, "but has it leaked out? I was in hopes nothing would be said about it, lest some over-sensitive people should imagine there was a degree of levity in the intercourse between us." He then went on to relate the circumstances which called it out.

"You see," said he, "we had reached and were discussing the slavery question. Mr. Hunter said, substantially, that the slaves, always accustomed to an overseer, and to work upon compulsion, suddenly freed, as they would be if the South should consent to peace on the basis of the 'Emancipation Proclamation,' would precipitate not only themselves, but the entire southern society,