 CHAPTER 31 OF A SHORT LIFE OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Jude Cader A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln By John G. Nicolay Chapter 31. Shaping of the Presidential Campaign Criticisms of Mr. Lincoln Chases Presidential Ambitions The Pomeroy Circular Cleveland Connection Attempt to nominate Grant Meeting of Baltimore Convention Lincoln's Letter to Shers Platform of Republican Convention Lincoln Renominated Refuses to Indicate Preference for Vice President Johnson Nominated for Vice President Lincoln's Speech to Committee of Notification Reference to Mexico in his Letter of Acceptance The French in Mexico The final shaping of the campaign, the definition of the issues, the wording of the platforms and the selection of the candidates, had grown much more out of national politics than out of mere party combination or personal intrigues. The success of the war and the fate of the Union, of course, dominated every other consideration. And next to this, the treatment of the slavery question became in a hundred forms almost a direct personal interest. Mere party feeling, which had utterly vanished for a few months in the first grand uprising of the North, had been once more awakened by the first bull run defeat, and from that time onward was heard and allowed in constant criticism of Mr. Lincoln and the acts of his supporters whenever they touched the institution of slavery. The Democratic Party, which had been allied with the Southern politicians in the interests of that institution through so many decades, quite naturally took up its habitual role of protest that slavery should receive no hurt or damage from the incidents of war where, in the border states, it still had constitutional existence among loyal Union men. On the other hand, among Republicans who had elected Mr. Lincoln and who, as a partisan duty, endorsed and sustained his measures, Riemann's proclamation of military emancipation in the first year of the war excited the overhasty zeal of anti-slavery extremists and developed a small but very active faction which harshly denounced the President when Mr. Lincoln revoked that premature and ill-considered measure. No matter what the President subsequently did about slavery, the Democratic press and partisans always assailed him for doing too much, while the Fremont press and partisans accused him of doing too little. Meanwhile, personal considerations were playing their minor but not unimportant parts. When McClellan was called to Washington, enduring all the hopeful promise of the great victories he was expected to win, a few shrewd New York Democratic politicians grouped themselves about him and put him in training as the future Democratic candidate for President, and the general fell easily into their plans and ambitions. Even after he had demonstrated his military incapacity when he had reaped defeat instead of victory and earned humiliation instead of triumph, his partisan adherents clung to the desperate hope that though they could not win applause for him as a conqueror, they might yet create public sympathy in his behalf as a neglected and persecuted genius. The cabinets of Presidents frequently develop rival presidential aspirants, and that of Mr. Lincoln was no exception. Considering the strong men who composed it, the only wonder is that there was so little friction among them. They disagreed constantly and heartily on minor questions, both with Mr. Lincoln and with each other, but their great devotion to the Union, coupled with his kindly forbearance and the clear vision which assured him mastery over himself and others, kept peace and even personal affection in his strangely assorted official family. The man who developed the most serious presidential aspirations was Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, who listened to and actively encouraged the overtures of a small faction of the Republican Party which rallied about him at the end of the year 1863. Pure and disinterested and devoted with all his energies and powers to the cause of the Union, he was yet singularly ignorant of the current public thought and absolutely incapable of judging men in their true relations. He regarded himself as the friend of Mr. Lincoln and made strong protestations to him and to others of this friendship, but he held so poor an opinion of the President's intellect and character, compared with his own, that he could not believe the people blind enough to prefer the President to himself. He imagined that he did not covet advancement and was anxious only for the public good, yet in the midst of his enormous labors found time to write letters to every part of the country, protesting his indifference to the Presidency, but indicating his willingness to accept it, and painting pictures so dark of the chaotic state of affairs in the government, that the irresistible inference was that only he could save the country. From the beginning Mr. Lincoln had been aware of this quasi candidacy which continued all through the winter. Indeed it was impossible to remain unconscious of it, although he discouraged all conversation on the subject and refused to read letters relating to it. He had his own opinion of the taste and judgment displayed by Mr. Chase and his criticisms of the President and his colleagues in the Cabinet, but he took no note of them. I have determined, he said, to shut my eyes so far as possible to everything of the sort. Mr. Chase makes a good Secretary and I shall keep him where he is. If he becomes President, all right, I hope we may never have a worse man. And he went on appointing Mr. Chase's partisans and adherents to places in the government. Although his own renomination was a matter in regard to which he refused to talk much, even with intimate friends, he was perfectly aware of the true drift of things. In capacity of appreciating popular currents, Chase was a child beside him, and he allowed the opposition to himself in his own Cabinet to continue, without question or remark, all the more patiently, because he knew how feeble it really was. The movement in favor of Mr. Chase culminated in the month of February 1864 in a secret circular signed by Senator Pomeroy of Kansas and widely circulated through the Union, which criticized Mr. Lincoln's tendency toward compromises and temporary expedience, explained that even if his reelection were desirable, it was practically impossible in the face of the opposition that had developed. And louded Chase as the statesman best fitted to rescue the country from present perils and guard it against future ills. Of course, copies of this circular soon reached the White House, but Mr. Lincoln refused to look at them, and they accumulated unread in the desk of his secretary. Finally, it got into print, whereupon Mr. Chase wrote to the President to assure him he had no knowledge of the letter before seeing it in the papers. To this, Mr. Lincoln replied, I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the letter, because I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of secret issues which I supposed came from it for several weeks. I have known just as little of these things as my friends have allowed me to know. I fully concur with you that neither of us can be justly held responsible for what our respective friends may do without our instigation or countenance. Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury Department is a question which I will not allow myself to consider from any standpoint, other than my judgment of the public service, and, in that view, I do not perceive occasion for a change. Even before the President wrote this letter, Mr. Chase's candidacy had passed out of sight. In fact, it never really existed, save in the imagination of the Secretary of the Treasury and a narrow circle of his adherents. He was by no means the choice of the body of radicals who were discontented with Mr. Lincoln because of his deliberation in dealing with the slavery question, or of those others who thought he was going entirely too fast and too far. Both these factions, alarmed at the multiplying signs before told his triumphant renomination, issued calls for a mass convention of the people to meet at Cleveland, Ohio on May 31, a week before the assembling of the Republican National Convention at Baltimore, to unite in a last attempt to stem the tide in his favor. Democratic newspapers naturally made much of this, heralding it as a hopeless split in the Republican ranks resulting fictitious dispatches from Cleveland reporting that city thronged with influential and earnest delegates. Far from this being the case, there was no crowd and still less enthusiasm. Up to the very day of its meeting, no place was provided for the sessions of the convention, which finally came together in a small hall whose limited capacity proved more than ample for both delegates and spectators. Though organization was delayed nearly two hours in the vain hope that more delegates would arrive, the men who had been countered upon to give character to the gathering remained notably absent. The delegates prudently refrained from counting their meager number and after preliminaries of a more or less farcical nature voted for a platform differing little from that afterward adopted at Baltimore, listened to the reading of a vehement letter from Wendell Phillips denouncing Mr. Lincoln's administration and counseling the choice of Fremont for president, nominated that general by acclamation with General John Cochran of New York for his running mate, christened themselves, the radical democracy, and adjourned. The press generally greeted the convention at its work with a chorus of ridicule, though certain democratic newspapers, motives harmlessly transparent, gave it solemn and unmeasured praise. General Fremont, taking his candidacy seriously, accepted the nomination, but three months later finding no response from the public, withdrew from the contest. At this foredoomed Cleveland meeting, a feeble attempt had been made by the men who considered Mr. Lincoln too radical to nominate general grant for president instead of Fremont, but he had been denounced as a Lincoln hireling, and his name unceremoniously swept aside. During the same week another effort in the same direction was made in New York, though the committee having the matter in charge made no public avowal of its intention beforehand, merely calling a meeting to express the gratitude of the country to the general for his signal services, and even inviting Mr. Lincoln to take part in the proceedings. This he declined to do, but wrote, I approve nevertheless whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain general grant in the noble armies now under his direction. My previous high estimate of general grant has been maintained and heightened by what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting, while the magnitude and difficulty of the task before him do not prove less than I expected. He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their great trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your good words that they may turn to men and guns moving to his and their support. With such gracious approval of the movement the meeting naturally fell into the hands of the Lincoln men. General Grant, neither at this time nor at any other, gave the least countenance to the efforts which were made to array him in political opposition to the President. These various attempts to discredit the name of Mr. Lincoln and nominate someone else in his place caused hardly a ripple on the great current of public opinion. Death alone could have prevented his choice by the Union Convention. So absolute and universal was the tendency that most of the politicians made no effort to direct or guide it. They simply exerted themselves to keep in the van and not be overwhelmed. The convention met on June 7, but irregular nominations of Mr. Lincoln for President had begun as early as January 6 when the First State Convention of the Year was held in New Hampshire. From one end of the country to the other such spontaneous nominations had joyously echoed his name. Only in Missouri did it fail overwhelming adhesion and even in the Missouri Assembly the resolution in favor of his renomination was laid upon the table by a majority of only eight. The current swept on irresistibly throughout the spring. A few opponents of Mr. Lincoln endeavored to postpone the meeting of the National Convention until September, knowing that they're only hopefully in some possible accident of the summer. But those supported by so powerful an influence as the New York Tribune, the National Committee paid no attention to this appeal. Indeed, they might as well have considered the request of a committee of prominent citizens to check an impending thunderstorm. Mr. Lincoln took no measures whatever to promote his own candidacy. While not assuming heirs of reluctance or bashfulness he discouraged on the part of strangers any suggestion as to his reelection. Among his friends he made no secret of his readiness to continue the work he was engaged in if such should be the general wish. A second term would be a great honor and a great labor which together perhaps I would not decline if tendered, he wrote Elihu B. Washburn. He not only opposed no obstacle to the ambitions of Chase but received warnings to beware of Grant in the same serene manner answering tranquilly if he takes Richmond let him have it. And he discouraged office holders, civil or military who showed any special zeal in his behalf. To General Scherz who wrote asking permission to take an active part in the presidential campaign he replied, allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service it is very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it if a major general wants out it is next to impossible for even the president to get him in again. Of course I would be very glad to have your service for the country in the approaching political canvas but I fear we cannot properly have it without separating you from the military. And in a later letter he added I perceive no objection to your making a political speech when you are where one is to be made but quite surely speaking in the north and fighting in the south at the same time are not possible nor could I be justified to detail any officer to the political campaign during its continuance and then return him to the army. Not only did he firmly take this stand as to his own nomination but enforced it even more rigidly in cases where he learned that federal office holders were working to defeat the return of certain Republican congressmen In several such instances he wrote instructions of which the following is a type Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power to defeat Judge Kelly's renomination to Congress The correct principle I think is that all our friends should have absolute freedom of choice among our friends My wish therefore is that you will do just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the case and not constrain any of your subordinates to do other than he thinks fit with his He made of course no long speeches during the campaign and in his short addresses at sanitary fairs in response to visiting delegations or on similar occasions where custom and courtesy decreed that he must say something preserved his mental balance undisturbed speaking heartily into the point but skillfully avoiding the perils that beset the candidate who talks When at last the Republican convention came together on June 7 1864 it had less to do than any other convention in our political history for its delegates were bound by a preemptory mandate It was opened by brief remarks from Senator Morgan of New York whose significant statement that the convention would fall far short of accomplishing its great mission unless it declared for a constitutional amendment prohibiting African slavery was loudly cheered In their speeches on taking the chair both the temporary chairman Reverend Robert J. Breckenridge of Kentucky and the permanent chairman William Denison of Ohio treated Mr. Lincoln's nomination as a foregone conclusion and the applause which greeted his name showed that the delegates did not resent this disregard of customary etiquette There were in fact but three tasks before the convention to settle the status of contesting delegations to agree upon a platform and to nominate a candidate for vice president The platform declared in favor of crushing rebellion and maintaining the integrity of the union commending the government's determination to enter into no compromise with the rebels It applauded President Lincoln's patriotism and fidelity in the discharge of his duties and stated that only those in harmony with these resolutions ought to have a voice in the administration of the government This, while intended to win support of radicals throughout the union was aimed particularly at Postmaster General Blair who had made many enemies It approved all acts directed against slavery declared in favor of a constitutional amendment forever abolishing it claimed full protection of the laws of war for colored troops expressed gratitude to the soldiers and sailors of the union pronounced in favor of encouraging foreign immigration of building a Pacific railway of keeping in violet the faith of the nation pledged to redeem the national debt and vigorously reaffirmed the Monroe Doctrine Then came the nominations The only delay in registering the will of the convention occurred is a consequence of the attempt of members to do it by irregular and summary methods When Mr. Delano of Ohio made the customary motion to proceed to the nomination Simon Cameron moved as a substitute the renomination of Lincoln and Hamelin by acclamation A long wrangle ensued on the motion to lay this substitute on the table which was finally brought to an end by the cooler heads who desired that whatever opposition to Mr. Lincoln there might be in the convention should have the fullest opportunity of expression The nominations, therefore, proceeded by call of states in the usual way The interminable nominating speeches of recent years had not yet come into fashion B. C. Cook, the chairman of the Illinois delegation, merely said The state of Illinois again presents to the loyal people of this nation for president of the United States Abraham Lincoln God bless him Others who seconded the nomination were equally brief Every state gave its undivided vote for Lincoln with the exception of Missouri which cast its vote under positive instructions as the chairman stated for Grant But before the result was announced John F. Hume of Missouri moved that Mr. Lincoln's nomination be declared unanimous This could not be done until the result of the balloting was made known 484 for Lincoln 22 for Grant Missouri then changed its vote and the secretary read the grand total of 506 for Lincoln the announcement being greeted with a storm of cheering which lasted many minutes The principal names mentioned for the vice presidency were Hannibal Hamlin the actual incumbent Andrew Johnson of Tennessee and Daniel S. Dickinson of New York Besides these General L. H. Rousseau had the vote of his own state, Kentucky The radicals of Missouri favored General B. F. Butler who had a few scattered votes also from New England Among the principal candidates, however the voters were equally enough divided to make the contest exceedingly spirited and interesting For several days before the convention met Mr. Lincoln had been besieged by inquiries as to his personal wishes in regard to his associate on the ticket He had persistently refused to give the slightest intimation of such wish His private secretary, Mr. Nicolay who was at Baltimore in attendance at the convention was well acquainted with this attitude But at last overborn by the solicitations of the chairman of the Illinois delegation who had been perplexed at the advocacy of Joseph Holt by Leonard Sweatt one of the president's most intimate friends Mr. Nicolay wrote to Mr. Hay who had been left in charge of the executive office in his absence Cook wants to know confidentially whether Sweatt is all right The charging Holt for vice president he reflects the president's wishes whether the president has any preference either personal or on the score of policy or whether he wishes not even to interfere by a confidential intimation Please get this information for me if possible The letter was shown to the president who endorsed upon it Sweatt is unquestionably all right Mr. Holt is a good man but I had not heard or thought of him for VP Wish not to interfere about VP Cannot interfere about platform Convention must judge for itself This positive and final instruction was sent at once to Mr. Nicolay and by him communicated to the president's most intimate friends in the convention It was therefore with minds absolutely untrammeled by even any knowledge of the president's wishes that the convention went about its work of selecting his associate on the ticket It is altogether probable that the ticket of 1860 would have been nominated without a contest had it not been for the general impression in and out of the convention that it would be advisable to select as a candidate for the vice presidency a war democrat Mr. Dickinson while not putting himself forward as a candidate it sanctioned the use of his name on the special ground that his candidacy might attract to the support of the union party many democrats who would have been unwilling to support a ticket avowedly republican but these considerations weighed with still greater force in favor of Mr. Johnson who was not only a democrat but also a citizen of a slave state The first ballot showed that Mr. Johnson had received 200 votes Mr. Hamlin 150 and Mr. Dickinson 108 and before the result was announced almost the whole convention turned their votes to Johnson whereupon his nomination was declared unanimous The work was so quickly done that Mr. Lincoln received notice of the action of the convention only a few minutes after the telegram announcing his own renomination had reached him Replying next day to a committee of notification he said in part I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression of my gratitude that the union people through their convention in the continued effort to save and advance the nation have deemed me not unworthy to remain in my present position I know no reason to doubt that I shall accept the nomination tendered and yet perhaps I should not declare definitely before reading and considering what is called the platform I will say now however I approve the declaration in favor of so amending the constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the nation When the people in revolt with a hundred days of explicit notice that they could within those days resume their allegiance without the overthrow of their institutions and that they could not resume it afterward elected to stand out such amendment to the constitution as is now proposed became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final success of the union cause in the joint names of Liberty and Union let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect in his letter of June 29 formally accepting the nomination the president observed the same wise rule of brevity which he had followed four years before he made but one specific reference to the subject of discussion while he accepted the convention's resolution reaffirming the Monroe Doctrine he gave the convention and the country distinctly to understand that he stood by the action already adopted by himself and the secretary of state he said there might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of the government in relation to the action of France in Mexico as assumed through the State Department and approved and endorsed by the convention among the measures and acts of the executive will be faithfully maintained so long as the state effect shall leave that position pertinent and applicable this resolution which was in truth a more vigorous assertion of the Monroe Doctrine than the author of that famous tenet ever dreamed of making had been introduced in the convention by the radicals as a covert censure of Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the French invasion of our sister republic but through skillful wording of the platform had been turned by his friends into an endorsement of the administration and indeed this was most just since from the beginning President Lincoln and Mr. Seward had done all in their power to discourage the presence of foreign troops on Mexican territory when a joint expedition by England, France and Spain had been agreed upon to seize certain Mexican ports in default of a money indemnity demanded by those countries for outrageous against their subjects England had invited the United States to be a party to the convention instead Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward attempted to aid Mexico with a sufficient sum to meet these demands and notified Great Britain of their intention to do so and the motives which prompted them the friendly assistance came to naught but as the three powers vigorously disclaimed any design against Mexico's territory or her form of government the United States saw no necessity for further action beyond a clear definition of its own attitude for the benefit of all the parties this it continued to repeat after England withdrew from the expedition and Spain soon recalling her troops left Napoleon III to set Archduke Maximilian on his shadowy throne and to develop in the heart of America his scheme of an empire friendly to the south at the moment the government was unable to do more though recognizing the veiled hostility of Europe which thus manifested itself in a movement on what may be called the right flank of the Republic while giving utterance to no expressions of indignation at the aggressions or of gratification at disaster which met the aggressor the President and Mr. Seward continued to assert at every proper opportunity the adherence of the American government to its traditional policy of discouraging European intervention in the affairs of the New World End of Chapter 31 Chapter 32 of A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Jude Cater A Short Life of Abraham Lincoln by John G. Nicolay Chapter 32 The Bogus Proclamation The Wade Davis Manifesto Resignation of Mr. Chase Besendon Succeeds him The Greeley Peace Conference Jake West Gilmore Mission Letter of Raymond Bad Outlook for the election Mr. Lincoln on the Issues of the Campaign President's Secret Memorandum Meeting of Democratic National Convention McClellan nominated His Letter of Acceptance Lincoln re-elected His Speech on Night of Election The Electoral Vote Annual Message of December 6, 1864 President's Secret Memorandum Meeting of Democratic National Convention McClellan nominated His Letter of Acceptance Lincoln re-elected His Speech on Night of Election Law Resignation of McClellan from the Army The seizure of the New York Journal of Commerce and New York World in May 1864 for publishing a forged proclamation calling for 400,000 more troops had caused great excitement among the critics of Mr. Lincoln's administration. The terrible slaughter of Grant's opening campaign against Richmond rendered the country painfully sensitive to such news at the moment, and the forgery which proved to be the work of two young Bohemians of the press accomplished its purpose of raising the price of gold and throwing the stock exchange into a temporary fever. Telegraphic announcement of the imposture soon quieted the flurry, and the quick detection of the guilty parties reduced the incident to its true rank. But the fact that the fiery secretary of war had meanwhile issued orders for the suppression of both newspapers and the arrest of their editors was never forgiven nor forgotten. The editors were never incarcerated and the journals resumed publication after an interval of only two days, but the incident was vigorously employed during the entire summer as a means of attack upon the administration. Violent opposition to Mr. Lincoln came also from those members of both houses of Congress who disapproved his attitude on Reconstruction. Though that part of his message on December 8, 1863 relating to the formation of loyal state governments and districts which had been in rebellion at first received enthusiastic commendation from both conservatives and radicals, it was soon evident that the millennium had not yet arrived and that in a Congress composed of men of such positive convictions and vehement character there were many who would not submit permanently to the leadership of any man least of all to that of one so reasonable so devoid of malice as the President. Henry Winter Davis at once moved that that part of the message be referred to a special committee of which he was chairman and on February 15 reported a bill whose preamble declared the Confederate states completely out of the Union prescribing a totally different method of reestablishing loyal state governments one of the essentials being the prohibition of slavery. Congress rejected the preamble but after extensive debate accepted the bill which breathed the same spirit throughout. The measure was also finally acceded to in the Senate and came to Mr. Lincoln for signature in the closing hours of the session. He later decided and went on with other business despite the evident anxiety of several friends who feared his failure to endorse it would lose the Republicans many votes in the Northwest. In stating his attitude to his cabinet he said this bill and the position of these gentlemen seemed to me in asserting that the insurrectionary states are no longer in the Union to make a fatal admission that states whenever they please may of their own motion dissolve their connection with the Union. Now we cannot survive that admission I am convinced. If that be true I am not President. These gentlemen are not Congress. I have laboriously endeavored to avoid that question ever since it first began to be mooted and thus to avoid confusion and disturbance in councils. It was to obviate this question that I earnestly favor the movement for an amendment to the Constitution abolishing slavery which passed the Senate and failed in the House. I thought it much better if it were possible to restore the Union without the necessity of a violent quarrel among its friends as to whether certain states have been in or out of the Union during the war. And one unnecessary to be forced into discussion. But though every member of the Cabinet agreed with him he foresaw the importance of the step he had resolved to take and its possible disastrous consequences to himself. When someone said that the threats of the radicals were without foundation and that the people would not bolt their ticket on a question of metaphysics, he answered if they choose to make a point I do not doubt that they can do harm. They have never been friendly to me. At all events, I must keep some consciousness of being somewhere near right. I must keep some standard or principle fixed within myself. Convinced after fullest deliberation that the bill was too restrictive in its provisions and yet unwilling to reject whatever of practical good might be accomplished he disregarded precedence and acting on his lifelong rule of taking the people into his confidence, issued a proclamation on July 8 giving a copy of the bill of Congress reciting the circumstances under which it was passed and announcing that while he was unprepared by formal approval of the bill to be inflexibly committed to any single plan of restoration or to set aside the free state governments already adopted by the American saw in Louisiana or to declare that Congress was competent to decree the abolishment of slavery yet he was fully satisfied with the plan as one very proper method of reconstruction and promised executive aid to any state that might see fit to adopt it. The great mass of Republican voters who cared little for the metaphysics of the case accepted this proclamation issued six months before as the wisest and most practicable method of handling the question but among those already hostile to the president and those whose devotion to the cause of freedom was so ardent as to make them look upon him as lukewarm the exasperation which was already excited increased the indignation of Mr. Davis and of Mr. Wade who called the bill up in the Senate at seeing their work thus brought nothing could not be restrained and together they signed and published in the New York Tribune of August 5 the most vigorous attack ever directed against the president from his own party insinuating that only the lowest motives dictated his action since by refusing to sign the bill he held the electoral votes of the rebel states at his personal dictation calling his approval of the bill of Congress as a very proper plan for any state choosing to adopt it a studied outrage and admonishing the people to consider the remedy of these usurpations and having found it to fearlessly execute it Congress had already repealed the fugitive slave law and to the voters at large who joyfully accepted the Emancipation Proclamation it mattered very little whether the institution came to its inevitable end in the fragments of territory where it yet remained by virtue of congressional act or executive decree this tempest over the method of reconstruction had therefore little bearing on the presidential campaign and appealed more to individual critics of the president than to the mass of the people Mr. Chase entered in his diary the president pocketed the great bill he did not venture to veto and so put it in his pocket it was a condemnation of his amnesty proclamation and of his general policy of reconstruction rejecting the idea of possible reconstruction with slavery which neither the president nor his chief advisors have in my opinion abandoned Mr. Chase was no longer one of the chief advisors after his withdrawal from his hopeless contest for the presidency his sentiments towards Mr. Lincoln took on a tinge of bitterness which increased until their friendly association in the public service became no longer possible and on June 30 he sent the president his resignation which was accepted there is reason to believe that he did not expect such a prompt severing of their official relations since more than once in the months of friction which preceded this culmination he had used a threat to resign as means to carry some point in controversy Mr. Lincoln on accepting his resignation sent the name of David Todd of Ohio to the senate as his successor but receiving a telegram from Mr. Todd declining on the plea of ill health substituted that of William Pitt Fasenden chairman of the senate committee on finance whose nomination was instantly confirmed and commanded general approval Horace Greeley editor of the powerful New York Tribune had become one of those patriots whose discouragement and discontent led them during the summer of 1864 to give ready hospitality to any suggestions to end the war in July he wrote to the president forwarding the letter of one William Cornell Jewett of Colorado which announced the arrival in Canada of two ambassadors from Jefferson Davis with full powers to negotiate a peace Mr. Greeley urged in his over-fervid letter of transmittal that the president make overtures on the following plan of adjustment first the union to be restored and declared perpetual second slavery to be utterly and forever abolished third a complete amnesty for all political offenses fourth payment of four hundred million dollars to the slave states pro rata for their slaves fifth slave states to be represented in proportion to their total population sixth a national convention to be called at once though Mr. Lincoln had no faith in Jewett's story and doubted whether the embassy had any existence he determined to take immediate action on this proposition he felt the unreasonableness and injustice of Mr. Greeley's letter which in effect charged his administration with a cruel disinclination to treat with the rebels and resolved to convince him at least and perhaps others that there was no foundation for these reproaches so he arranged that the witness of his willingness to listen to any overtures that might come from the south should be Mr. Greeley himself and answering his letter at once on July 9 said if you can find any person anywhere professing to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing for peace embracing the restoration of the union and abandonment of slavery whatever else it embraces say to him he may come to me with you and that if he really brings such proposition he shall at least have safe conduct with the paper and without publicity if he chooses to the point where you shall have met him the same if there be two or more persons this ready acquiescence evidently surprised and somewhat embarrassed Mr. Greeley who replied by several letters of different dates but made no motion to produce his commissioners at last on the 15th to end the correspondence which promised to be indefinitely prolonged the president telegraphed him I was not expecting you to send me a letter but to bring me a man or men Mr. Greeley then went to Niagara and wrote from there to the alleged commissioners Clement C. Clay and James P. Holcomb offering to conduct them to Washington but neglecting to mention the two conditions restoration of the union and abandonment of slavery laid down in Mr. Lincoln's note of the 9th and repeated by him on the 15th even with this great advantage Clay and Holcomb felt themselves too devoid of credentials to accept Mr. Greeley's offer but replied that they could easily get credentials or that other agents could be accredited if they could be sent to Richmond armed with the circumstances disclosed in this correspondence this of course meant that Mr. Lincoln should take the initiative ensuing the Richmond authorities for peace on terms proposed by them the essential impossibility of these terms was not however apparent to Mr. Greeley who sent them on to Washington instructions with unwirried patience Mr. Lincoln drew up a final paper to whom it may concern formally restating his position and dispatched Major Hay with it to Niagara this ended the conference the Confederates charging the president through the newspapers with a sudden and entire change of views while Mr. Greeley being attacked by his colleagues and press for his action could defend himself only by implied censure of the president utterly overlooking the fact that his own original letter had contained the identical propositions Mr. Lincoln insisted upon the discussion grew so warm that both he and his assailants had at last joined in a request to Mr. Lincoln to permit the publication of the correspondence this was of course an excellent opportunity for the president to indicate his own proceeding but he rarely looked at such matters from the point of view of personal advantage and he feared that the passionate almost despairing appeals of the most prominent Republican editor of the north for peace at any cost disclosed in the correspondence would deepen the gloom in the public mind and have an injurious effect upon the union cause the spectacle of the veteran journalist justly regarded as the leading controversial writer on the anti-slavery side ready to sacrifice everything for peace and frantically denouncing the government for refusing to surrender the contest would have been, in its effect upon public opinion a disaster equal to the loss of a great battle he therefore proposed to Mr. Greeley in case the letters were published to omit some of the most vehement passages and it took Mr. Greeley's refusal to assent to this as a veto on their publication it was characteristic of him that, seeing the temper in which Mr. Greeley regarded the transaction he dropped the matter and submitted in silence to the misrepresentations to which he was subjected by reason of it some thought he erred in giving any hearing to the rebels some criticized his choice of a commissioner his position naturally made the most of his conditions of negotiation and accused him of embarking in a war of extermination in the interests of the Negro though making no public effort to set himself right he was keenly alive to their attitude to a friend he wrote saying reunion and abandonment of slavery would be considered if offered is not saying that nothing else would be considered if offered allow me to remind you that no one having control of the rebel armies or in fact having any influence whatever in the rebellion has offered or intimated a willingness to a restoration of the union in any event or in any condition whatever if Jefferson Davis wishes for himself for the benefit of his friends at the north to know what I would do to offer peace and reunion saying nothing about slavery let him try me if the result of Mr. Greeley's Niagara efforts left any doubt that peace was at present unattainable the fact was demonstrated beyond question by the published report of another unofficial and volunteer negotiation which was proceeding at the same time in May 1863 James F. J. Quest D. D. a Methodist clergyman of piety and religious enthusiasm who had been appointed by Governor Yates Colonel of an Illinois Regiment applied for permission to go south urging that by virtue of his church relations he could within 90 days obtain acceptable terms of peace from the Confederates the military superiors to whom he submitted the request forwarded it to Mr. Lincoln for approval endorsement and the President replied consenting that they grant him a furlough if they saw fit but saying he cannot go with any government authority whatever this is absolute and imperative 11 days later he was back again within union lines claiming to have valuable unofficial proposals for peace President Lincoln paid no attention to his request for an interview and in course of time he returned to his regiment nothing daunted however a year later he applied for and received permission to repeat his visit this time in company with J. R. Gilmore a lecturer and writer but as before expressly without instruction or authority from Mr. Lincoln they went to Richmond and had an extended interview with Mr. Davis which they proposed to him a plan of adjustment as visionary as it was unauthorized its central feature being a general election to be held over the whole country north and south within 60 days on the two propositions peace with disunion and southern independence or peace with union emancipation no confiscation and universal amnesty and the government set Washington and Richmond to be finally bound by the decision the interview resulted in nothing but a renewed declaration from Mr. Davis that he would fight for separation to the bitter end a declaration which on the whole was of service to the union cause since to a great extent it stopped the clamor of the peace factionists during the presidential campaign not entirely however there was still criticism enough to induce Henry J. Raymond chairman of the executive committee of the republican party to write a letter on August 22 suggesting to Mr. Lincoln that he ought to appoint a commission in due form to make proppers of peace to Davis on the sole condition of acknowledging the supremacy of the constitution all other questions to be settled in a convention of the people of all the states Mr. Lincoln answered this patiently and courteously to give a point to his argument an experimental draft of instructions with which he proposed in case such proppers were made to send Mr. Raymond himself to the rebel authorities on seeing these in black and white Raymond who had come to Washington to urge his project and really agreed with the president and secretaries Seward, Stanton and Fassenden that to carry it out would be worse than losing the presidential contest it would be ignominiously surrendering it in advance nevertheless wrote an inmate of the White House the visit of himself and committee here did great good they found the president and cabinet much better informed than themselves encouraged and cheered the democratic managers had called the national convention of their party to meet on the 4th of July 1864 but after the nomination of Fremont at Cleveland and of Lincoln at Baltimore it was prudent to postpone it to a later date in the hope that something in the chapter of accidents might arise to the advantage of the opposition it appeared for a while as if this maneuver were to be successful the military situation was far from satisfactory the terrible fighting of grants army in Virginia had profoundly shocked and depressed the country and its movement upon Petersburg so far without decisive results it contributed little hope or encouragement the campaign of Sherman in Georgia gave us yet no positive assurance of the brilliant results it afterward attained the Confederate raid into Maryland and Pennsylvania in July was the cause of great annoyance and exasperation this untoward state of things in the field of military operations found its exact counterpart in the political campaign several circumstances contributed to divide and discourage the administration party the resignation of Mr. Chase had seemed to not a few leading Republicans a presage of disintegration in the government Mr. Greeley's mission at Niagara Falls had unsettled and troubled the minds of many the Democrats, not having as yet appointed a candidate or formulated a platform were free to devote all their leisure to attacks upon the administration the rebel emissaries in Canada being in thorough concert with the leading peace men of the north redoubled their efforts to disturb the public tranquility and not without success in the midst of these discouraging circumstances the manifesto of Wade and Davis had appeared to add its depressing influence to the general gloom Mr. Lincoln realized to the full the tremendous issues of the campaign asked in August by a friend who noted his worn looks if he could not go away for a fortnight's rest he replied I cannot fly from my thoughts my solicitude for this great country follows me wherever I go I do not think it is personal vanity or ambition though I am not free from these infirmities but I cannot but feel the wheel or woe of this great nation will be decided in November there is no program offered by any wing of the Democratic Party but that must result in the permanent destruction of the Union but Mr. President his friend objected General McClellan is in favor of crushing out this rebellion by force he will be the Chicago candidate sir the slightest knowledge of arithmetic will prove to any man that the rebel armies cannot be destroyed by democratic strategy it would sacrifice all the white men of the north to do it there are now in the service states nearly one hundred and fifty thousand able-bodied colored men most of them under arms defending and acquiring Union territory the democratic strategy demands that these forces be disbanded and that the masters be conciliated by restoring them to slavery you cannot conciliate the south if you guarantee to them ultimate success and the experience of the present war proves their success is inevitable if you fling the compulsory labor of millions of black men into their side of the scale abandon all the posts now garrisoned by black men take one hundred and fifty thousand men from our side and put them in the battlefield or cornfield against us and we would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks my enemies pretend I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition so long as I am president it shall be carried on for the sole purpose of restoring the union but no human power can subdue this rebellion without the use of the emancipation policy and every other policy calculated to weaken the moral and physical forces of the rebellion let my enemies prove to the country that the destruction of slavery is not necessary to a restoration of the union I will abide the issue the political situation grew still darker when at last toward the end of August the general gloom had enveloped even the president himself his action was most original and characteristic feeling that the campaign was going against him he made up his mind deliberately as to the course he should pursue and laid down for himself the action demanded by his conviction of duty on August 23 the following memorandum this morning as for some days past it seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be re-elected then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the president elect as to save the union between the election and the inauguration as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards he then folded and pasted the sheet in such manner that its contents could not be read and as the cabinet came together he handed this paper to each member successively requesting them to write their names across the back of it in this peculiar fashion he pledged himself in the administration to accept loyally the anticipated verdict of the people against him and to do their utmost to save the union in the brief remainder of his term of office he gave no intimation to any member of his cabinet of the nature of the paper they had signed until after his re-election the democratic convention was finally called to meet in Chicago on August 29 much had been expected by the peace party from the strength and audacity of its adherence in the northwest and indeed the day of the meeting of the convention was actually the day to point it by rebel emissaries in Canada for an outbreak which should affect that revolution in the northwestern states which had long been their chimerical dream this scheme of the American knights however was discovered and guarded against through the usual treachery of some of their members and it is doubtful if the democrats reaped any real permanent advantage from the delay of their convention on coming together the only manner in which the peace men democrats could arrive at any agreement was by mutual deception the war democrats led by the delegation from New York were working for a military candidate while the peace democrats under the leadership of the Landingham who had returned from Canada and was allowed to remain at large through the half contemptuous and half calculated leniency of the government he defied bent all their energies in the platform both got what they desired General McClellan was nominated on the first ballot and the Landingham wrote the only plank worth quoting in the platform it asserted that after four years of failure to restore the union by the experiment of war during which the constitution itself has been disregarded in every part public welfare demands that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of hostilities it is all together probable that this distinct proposition of surrender to the Confederates might have been modified or defeated in full convention if the war democrats had had the courage of their convictions but they were so intent upon the nomination of McClellan that they considered the platform of secondary importance and the fatal resolutions were adopted without debate Mr. Volandigum having thus taken possession of the convention next adopted the candidate and put the seal of his sinister approval on General McClellan by moving that his nomination be made unanimous which was done amid great cheering George H. Pendleton was nominated for vice president and the convention adjourned not seen a D.A. as his customary but subject to be called at any time and place the executive national committee shall designate the motives of this action were not avowed but it was taken as a significant warning that the leaders of the democratic party held themselves ready for any extraordinary measures which the exigencies of the time might provoke or invite the New Yorkers however had the last word for Governor Seymour and his letter as chairman of the committee to inform McClellan of his nomination assured him that those for whom we speak were animated with the most earnest devoted and prayerful desire for the salvation of the American Union and the general knowing that the poison of death was in the platform took occasion in his letter of acceptance to renew his assurances of devotion to the Union, the Constitution the laws and the flag of his country after having thus absolutely repudiated the platform upon which he was nominated he coolly concluded believing that the views here expressed are those of the convention and the people you represent I accept the nomination his only possible chance of success lay of course in his war record his position as a candidate on the platform of dishonorable peace would have been no less desperate than ridiculous but the stars in their courses fought against the Democratic candidates even before the convention that nominated them Farragut had won the splendid victory of Mobile Bay during the very hours when the streets of Chicago were blazing with Democratic torches Hood was preparing to evacuate Atlanta and the same newspaper that printed Vlandigam's peace platform announced Sherman's entrance into the manufacturing metropolis of Georgia the darkest hour had passed dawn was at hand and amid the thanksgivings of a grateful people and the joyful salutes of great guns the presidential campaign began when the country awoke to the true significance of the Chicago platform the successes of Sherman excited the enthusiasm of the people and the unionists arousing from their mid-summer langer began to show their confidence in the Republican candidate the hopelessness of all efforts to undermine him became evident the electoral contest began with the picket firing in Vermont and Maine in September was continued in what might be called the grand guard fighting in October in the great states of Pennsylvania Ohio and Indiana and the final battle took place all along the line on November 8 to Mr. Lincoln this was one of the most solemn days of his life assured of his personal success and made devoutly confident by the military successes of the last few weeks that the day of peace and the re-establishment of the union was at hand he felt no elation and no sense of triumph over his opponents the thoughts that filled his mind were expressed in the closing sentences of the little speech he made in response to a group of serenaders that greeted him when in the early morning hours he left the war department where he had gone on the evening of election to receive the returns I am thankful to God for this approval of the people but while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me if I know my heart my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph I do not impune the motives of anyone opposed to me it is no pleasure to me to triumph over anyone I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government and the rights of humanity Lincoln and Johnson received a popular majority of 411,281 and 212 out of 233 electoral votes only those of New Jersey Delaware and Kentucky 21 and all being cast for McClellan in his annual message to Congress which met on December 5 President Lincoln gave the best summing up of the results of the election that has ever been written the purpose of the people within the loyal states to maintain the integrity of the Union was never more firm nor more nearly unanimous than now no candidate for any office whatever, high or low has ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was giving up the Union there have been much impugning of motives and much heated controversy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause but on the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people in affording the people the fair opportunity of showing one to another and to the world firmness and unanimity of purpose the election has been a vast value to the national cause on the day of the election General McClellan resigned his commission in the Army and the place thus made vacant was filled by the appointment of General Philip H. Sheridan a fit type and illustration of the turn in the tide of affairs which was to sweep from that time rapidly onward to the great decisive national triumph end of Chapter 32 Chapter 33 of a short life of Abraham Lincoln this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox dot org recording by Jude Cater a short life a short life of Abraham Lincoln by John G. Nicolay Chapter 33 the 13th amendment the president's speech on its adoption the two constitutional amendments of Lincoln's term Lincoln on peace and slavery in his annual message of December 6 1864 Blair's Mexican project the Hampton Roads Conference a joint resolution proposing an amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery throughout the United States had passed the Senate on April 8 1864 but had failed of the necessary two-thirds vote in the House the two most vital thoughts which animated the Baltimore Convention when it met in June had been the renomination of Mr. Lincoln and the success of this constitutional amendment the first was recognized as a popular decision needing only the formality of an announcement by the convention and the full emphasis of speech and resolution had therefore been centered on the letter as the dominant and aggressive reform upon which the party would stake its political fortunes in the presidential campaign Mr. Lincoln had himself suggested to Mr. Morgan the wisdom of sounding that keynote in his opening speech before the convention and the great victory gained at the polls in November not only demonstrated his sagacity but enabled him to take up the question with confidence among his recommendations to Congress in the annual message of December 6 1864 relating the fate of the measure at the preceding session he said without questioning the wisdom or patriotism of those who stood in opposition I venture to recommend the reconsideration and passage of the measure at the present session of course the abstract question is not changed but an intervening election shows almost certainly that the next Congress will pass the measure if this does not there is only a question of time as to when the proposed amendment will go to the states for their action and as it is to so go at all events may we not agree that the sooner the better it is not claimed that the election has imposed a duty on members to change their views or their votes any further than as an additional element to be considered their judgment may be affected by it it is the voice of the people now for the first time heard upon the question in a great national crisis like ours unanimity of action among those seeking a common end is very desirable almost indispensable and yet no approach to such unanimity is attainable unless some deference shall be paid to the will of the majority simply because it is the will of the majority in this case the common end is the maintenance of the union and among the means to secure that end such will through the election is most clearly declared in favor of such constitutional amendment the joint resolution was called up in the house on January 6 1865 in general discussion followed from time to time occupying perhaps half the days of that month as at the previous session the Republicans all favored while the Democrats mainly opposed it but important exceptions among the latter showed what immense gains the proposition had made in popular opinion and in congressional willingness to recognize and embody it the logic of events had become more powerful than party creed or strategy for 15 years the Democratic had stood as sentinel and bulwark to slavery and yet despite its alliance and championship the peculiar institution was being consumed in the fire of war it had withered in popular elections been paralyzed by confiscation laws crushed by executive decrees trampled upon by marching union armies more notable than all the agony of dissolution had come upon it in its final stronghold the constitutions of the slave states local public opinion had throttled it in West Virginia, in Missouri in Arkansas, in Louisiana in Maryland and showed the same spirit of change was upon Tennessee and even showing itself in Kentucky the Democratic party did not and could not shut its eyes to the privileged facts the issue was decided on the afternoon of January 31 1865 the scene was one of unusual interest the galleries were filled to overflowing and members watched the proceedings with unconcealed solicitude up to noon set a contemporaneous report the pro-slavery party are said to have been confident of defeating the amendment and after that time had passed one of the most earnest advocates of the measure said tis the toss of a copper at four o'clock the house came to a final vote and the roll call showed yays 119 nays 56 not voting eight scattering murmurs of applause followed affirmative votes from several Democratic members but when the speaker finally announced the result members on the Republican side of the house sprang to their feet and regardless of parliamentary rules applauded with cheers and hand clappings an exhibition of enthusiasm quickly echoed by the spectators in the crowded galleries where waving of hats and handkerchiefs and similar demonstrations of joy lasted for several minutes a salute of 100 guns soon made the occasion the subject of comment and congratulation throughout the city on the following night a considerable procession marched with music to the executive mansion to carry popular greetings to the president in response to their calls he appeared at the window and made a brief speech of which only an abstract report was preserved but which is nevertheless important as showing the searching analysis of cause and effect this question was further gone in his mind the deep interest he felt in it and the far reaching consequences he attached to the measure and its success the occasion was one of congratulation to the country and to the whole world but there is a task yet before us to go forward and have consummated by the votes of the states that which congress had so nobly begun yesterday he had the honor to inform those present that Illinois had already today done the work Maryland was about half through but he felt proud that Illinois was a little ahead he thought this measure was very fitting if not an indispensable adjunct to the winding up of the great difficulty he wished the reunion of all the states perfected and so effected as to remove all causes of disturbance in the future and to attain this and it was necessary that the original disturbing cause should if possible be rooted out he thought all would bear him witness that he had never shrunk from doing all that he could to eradicate slavery by issuing an emancipation proclamation but that proclamation falls far short of what the amendment will be when fully consummated a question might be raised whether the proclamation was legally valid it might be urged that it only aided those that came into our lines and that it was inoperative as to those who did not give themselves up or that it would have no effect upon the children of slaves born hereafter in fact it would be urged that it did not meet the evil but this amendment is a king's cure all for all the evils it winds the whole thing up he would repeat that it was the fitting if not the indispensable adjunct to the consummation of the great game we are playing widely divergent views were expressed by able constitutional lawyers as to what would constitute a valid ratification of the 13th amendment some contending that ratification by three fourths of the loyal states would be sufficient others that three fourths of all the states whether loyal or insurrectionary was necessary Mr. Lincoln in a speech on Louisiana reconstruction while expressing no opinion against the first proposition nevertheless declared with great argumentative force that the letter would be unquestioned and unquestionable and this view appears to have governed the action of his successor as Mr. Lincoln mentioned with just pride Illinois was the first state to ratify the amendment on December 18 1865 Mr. Seward who remained a secretary of state in the cabinet of President Johnson made official proclamation that the legislatures of 27 states constituting three fourths of the 36 states of the union had ratified the amendment and that it had become valid as a part of the constitution four of the states constituting this number Virginia, Louisiana Tennessee and Arkansas were those whose reconstruction had been affected under the direction of President Lincoln six more states subsequently ratified the amendment Texas ending the list in February 1870 the profound political transformation which the American Republic had undergone can perhaps best be measured by contrasting the two constitutional amendments which Congress made at the duty of the Lincoln administration to submit officially to the states the first signed by President Buchanan as one of his last official acts and accepted and endorsed by Lincoln in his inaugural address was in these words no amendment shall be made to the constitution which will authorize or give to Congress the power to abolish or interfere within any state with the domestic institutions thereof including that of persons held to labor or service by the laws of said state between Lincoln's inauguration and the outbreak of war the Department of State transmitted this amendment to the several states for their action and had the south shown a willingness to desist from secession and accept it as a peace offering there is little doubt that it would have become a part of the constitution but the thunder of Boregaard's guns drove away all possibility of such a ratification and within four years the Lincoln administration set forth the amendment of 1865 sweeping out of existence by one sentence the institution to which it had in its first proposal offered a virtual claim to perpetual recognition and tolerance the new birth of freedom which Lincoln invoked for the nation in his Gettysburg address was accomplished the closing paragraphs of President Lincoln's message to Congress on December 6, 1864 were devoted to a summing up of the existing situation the verdict of the ballot box had not only decided the continuance of a war administration and war policy but renewed the assurance of a public sentiment to sustain its prosecution inspired by this majestic manifestation of the popular will he was able to speak of the future with hope and confidence but with characteristic prudence and good taste he uttered no word of boasting and indulged in no syllable of acrimony on the contrary in terms of fatherly kindness he again offered the rebellious states the generous conditions he had previously tendered them the national resources then are unexhausted and, as we believe inexhaustible the public purpose to reestablish and maintain the national authority is unchanged and, as we believe unchangeable the manner of continuing the effort remains to choose on careful consideration of all the evidence accessible it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good he would accept nothing short of severance of the union precisely what we will not and cannot give his declarations to this effect are explicit and oft repeated what is true however of him who heads the insurgent cause is not necessarily true of those who follow although he cannot re-accept the union they can some of them we know already desire peace and reunion the number of such may increase they can at any moment have peace simply by laying down their arms and submitting to the national authority under the constitution after so much the government could not if it would maintain war against them the loyal people would not sustain or allow it if questions should remain we would adjust them by the peaceful means of legislation conference, courts and votes operating only in constitutional and lawful channels 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 here to force that is 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 emancipation proclamation nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation or by any of the acts of congress if the people should by whatever mode or means make it an executive duty to re-enslave such persons another and not I must be their instrument to perform it in stating a single condition of peace I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it the country was about to enter upon the fifth year of actual war but all indications were pointing to a speedy collapse of the rebellion this foreshadowed disaster to the confederate armies gave rise to another volunteer peace negotiation which from the boldness of its animating thought and the prominence of its actors assumes a special importance the veteran politician Francis P. Blair senior who from his long political and personal experience in Washington knew perhaps better than almost anyone else the individual characters and tempers of southern leaders conceived that the time had come when he might take up the role of successful mediator between the north and the south he gave various hints of his desire to president Lincoln but received neither encouragement nor opportunity to unfold his plans come to me after Savannah falls was Lincoln's evasive reply on the surrender of that city Mr. Blair hastened to put his design into execution and with a simple card from Mr. Lincoln dated December 28 saying allow the bearer F.P. Blair senior to pass our lines go south and return with only credential set out for Richmond from General Grant's camp he forwarded two letters to Jefferson Davis one a brief request to be allowed to go to Richmond in search of missing title papers presumably taken from his Maryland home during early's raid the other a long letter explaining the real object of his visit but stating with the utmost candor that he came wholly unaccredited save for permission to pass the lines and that he had not offered the suggestions he wished to submit in person to Mr. Davis to anyone in authority at Washington after some delay he found himself in Richmond and was accorded a confidential interview by the rebel president on January 12 1865 when he unfolded his project which proved to be nothing less than a proposition that the Union and Confederate armies seized fighting each other and unite to drive the French from Mexico he supported this daring idea in a paper of some length pointing out that his slavery the real cause of the war was hopelessly doomed nothing now remained to keep the two sections of the country apart except the possible intervention of foreign soldiery hence all considerations pointed to the wisdom of dislodging the French invaders from American soil and thus baffling the designs of Napoleon to subject our southern people to the Latin race he who expells the Bonaparte-Hepsburg dynasty from our southern flank the paper said further will ally his name with those of Washington and Jackson as the defender of the liberty of the country if in delivering Mexico he should model its states in form and principle accept them to our Union and add a new southern constellations to its benign and sky while rounding off our possessions on the continent at the isthmus he would complete the work of Jefferson who first set one foot of our colossal government on the Pacific by a stride from the Gulf of Mexico I then said to him there is my problem Mr. Davis do you think it possible to be solved after consideration he said I think so I then said you see that I made the great point of this matter that the war is no longer made for slavery but monarchy you know that if the war is kept up and the Union kept divided armies must be kept afoot on both sides and this state of things has never continued long without resulting in monarchy on one side or the other and on both generally he assented to this the substantial accuracy of Mr. Blair's report is confirmed by the memorandum of the same interview which Jefferson Davis wrote at the time in this conversation the rebel leader took little pains to disguise his entire willingness to enter upon the wild scheme of military conquest and annexation which could easily be read between the lines of a political crusade to rescue the Monroe doctrine of the present peril if Mr. Blair felt elated at having so quickly made a convert of the Confederate president he was further gratified at discovering yet more favorable symptoms in his official surroundings at Richmond in the three or four days he spent at the rebel capital he found nearly every prominent personage convinced of the hopeless condition of the rebellion and even eager to seize upon any contrivance to help them with their aspects but the government councils at Washington were not ruled by the spirit of political adventure Abraham Lincoln had a loftier conception of patriotic duty and a higher ideal of national ethics his whole interest in Mr. Blair's mission lay in the rebel despondency it disclosed and the possibility it showed of bringing the Confederates to an abandonment of their resistance Mr. Davis had indeed given Mr. Blair a letter to be shown to President Lincoln stating his willingness nonwithstanding the rejection of our former offers to appoint a commissioner to enter into negotiations with a view to secure peace to the two countries this was of course the old impossible attitude in reply the president wrote Mr. Blair on January 2018 the following note sir you have 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 common country with this Mr. Blair returned to Richmond giving Mr. Davis such excuses as he could hastily frame why the president had rejected his plan for a joint invasion of Mexico Jefferson Davis therefore had only two alternatives before him either to repeat his stubborn ultimatum of separation and independence or frankly to accept Lincoln's ultimatum of reunion the principal Richmond authorities knew and some of them admitted that their confederacy was nearly in collapse Lee sent a dispatch saying he had not two days rations for his army Richmond was already in a panic at rumors of evacuation flower was selling at a thousand dollars a barrel in confederate currency the recent fall of Fort Fisher had closed the last avenue through which blockade to bring in foreign supplies Governor Brown of Georgia was refusing to obey orders from Richmond and characterizing them as despotic under such circumstances a defiant cry of independence would not reassure anybody nor on the other hand was it longer possible to remain silent Mr. Blair's first visit had created general interest when he came a second time wonder and rumor rose to a fever heat impelled to take action Mr. Davis had not the courage to be frank after consultation with his cabinet a peace commission of three was appointed consisting of Alexander H. Stephens vice president RMT Hunter senator and ex-secretary of state and John A. Campbell assistant secretary of war was convinced that the rebellion was hopeless but unwilling to admit the logical consequences and necessities the drafting of instructions for their guidance was a difficult problem since the explicit condition prescribed by Mr. Lincoln's note was that he would receive only an agent sent him with a view of securing peace to the people of our one common country the rebel secretary of state had made the instructions as vague and general as possible the simple direction to confer upon the subject to which it relates but his chief refused the suggestion and wrote the following instruction which carried a palpable contradiction on its face in conformity with the letter of mr. Lincoln of which the foregoing is a copy you are requested to proceed to Washington city for conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war and for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries. With this, the commissioners presented themselves at the Union lines on the evening of January 29, but instead of showing their double meaning credential, asked admission in accordance with an understanding claimed to exist with Lieutenant General Grant. Mr. Lincoln, being apprised of the application, promptly dispatched Major Thomas T. Eckert of the War Department with written directions to admit them under safe conduct if they would say in writing that they came for the purpose of an informal conference on the basis of his note of January 18 to Mr. Blair. The commissioners, having meantime reconsidered the form of their application and addressed a new one to General Grant, which met the requirements, were provisionally conveyed to Grant's headquarters, and on January 31 the President commissioned Secretary Seward to meet them, saying in his written instructions, You will make known to them that three things are indispensable. To wit, first, the restoration of the national authority throughout all the states, second, 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, third, no cessation of hostility short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the government. You will inform them that all propositions of theirs, not inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in a spirit of sincere liberality. You will hear all that they may choose to say and report it to me. You will not assume to definitely consummate anything. Mr. Seward started on the morning of February 1, and simultaneously with his departure the President repeated to General Grant the munition already sent him two days before. But nothing which is transpiring change, hinder or delay your military movements or plans. Major Eckert had arrived while Mr. Seward was yet on the way, and on seeing Jefferson Davis' instructions, promptly notified the commissioners that they could not proceed further without complying strictly with President Lincoln's terms. Thus, at half past nine on the night of February 1, their mission was practically at an end, though next day they again recanted and accepted the President's conditions in writing. Mr. Lincoln, on reading Major Eckert's report on the morning of February 2, was about to recall Secretary Seward by telegraph when he was shown a confidential despatch from General Grant to the Secretary of War, stating his belief that the intention of the commissioners was good, and their desire for peace sincere, and regretting that Mr. Lincoln could not have an interview with them. This communication served to change his purpose, resolving not to neglect the indications of sincerity here described. He telegraphed it once, Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can get there, and joined Secretary Seward that same night. On the morning of February 3, 1865, the rebel commissioners were conducted on board the River Queen, lying at anchor near Fort Monroe, where President Lincoln and Secretary Seward awaited them. It was agreed beforehand that no writing or memorandum should be made at the time, so the record of the interview remains only in the separate accounts which the rebel commissioners wrote out afterward from memory, neither Mr. Seward nor President Lincoln ever having made any report in detail. In a careful analysis of these reports, the first striking feature is the difference of intention between the parties. It is apparent that Mr. Lincoln went honestly and frankly to offer them the best terms he could to secure peace and reunion, but not to abate no jot of official duty or personal dignity, while the main thought of the commissioners was to evade the express condition on which they had been admitted to conference, to seek to postpone the vital issue, and to propose an armistice by debating a mere juggling expedient against which they had in a private agreement with one another already committed themselves. At the first hint of Blair's Mexican project, however, Mr. Lincoln firmly disclaimed any responsibility for the suggestion or any intention of adopting it, and during the four-hours talk led the conversation continually back to the original object of the conference. But though he patiently answered the many questions addressed him by the commissioners, as to what would probably be done on various important subjects that must arise at once if the Confederate states consented, carefully discriminating in his answers between what he was authorized under the Constitution to do as executive and what would devolve upon coordinate branches of the government, the interview came to nothing. The commissioners returned to Richmond in great disappointment and communicated the failure of their efforts to Jefferson Davis, whose chagrin was equal to their own. He had all caught eagerly at the hope that this negotiation would somehow extricate them from the dilemmas and dangers of their situation. Davis took the only course open to him after refusing the honorable peace Mr. Lincoln had tendered. He transmitted the commissioners' report to the Rebel Congress with a brief and dry message stating that the enemy refused any terms except those the conqueror might grant and then arranged as vigorous an effort as circumstances permitted once more to fire the southern heart. A public meeting was called where the speeches judging from the meager reports printed were as denunciatory and bellicose as the bitterest Confederate could desire. Davis particularly is represented to have excelled himself in defiant heroics. Better than we should ever be united again, he said, he would be willing to yield up everything he had on earth if it were possible. He would sacrifice a thousand lives. And he further renounced his confidence that they would yet compel the Yankees in less than twelve months to petition us for peace on our own terms. This extravagant rhetoric would seem merely grotesque were it not embittered by the reflection that it was the signal which carried many additional thousands of brave soldiers to death in continuing a palpably hopeless military struggle.