Volume II Part 50 (1/2)
”The foregoing memorandum of conversation was this day read to Mr.
Blair, and altered in so far as he desired, in any respect, to change the expressions employed.
”JEFFERSON DAVIS.”
The following letter was given by me to Mr. Blair:
”RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, _January 12, 1865._
”F. P. BLAIR, Esq.
”SIR: I have deemed it proper and probably desirable to you to give you in this form the substance of remarks made by me to be repeated by you to President Lincoln, etc., etc.
”I have no disposition to find obstacles in forms, and am willing now, as heretofore, to enter into negotiations for the restoration of peace, am ready to send a commission whenever I have reason to suppose it will be received, or to receive a commission if the United States Government shall choose to send one. That, notwithstanding the rejection of our former offers, I would, if you could promise that a commissioner, minister, or other agent would be received, appoint one immediately, and renew the effort to enter into conference with a view to secure peace to the two countries.
”Yours, etc., JEFFERSON DAVIS.”
”WAs.h.i.+NGTON, _January 18, 1865._
”F. P. BLAIR, Esq.
”SIR: You having 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 one common country.
”Yours, etc., A. LINCOLN.”
When Mr. Blair returned and gave me this letter of Mr. Lincoln of January 18th, it being a response to my note to Mr. Blair of the 12th, he said it had been a fortunate thing that I gave him that note, as it had created greater confidence in Mr. Lincoln regarding his efforts at Richmond. Further reflection, he said, had modified the views he formerly presented to me, and that he wanted to have my attention for a different mode of procedure.
He had, as he told Mr. Lincoln, held friendly relations with me for many years; they began as far back as when I was a schoolboy at Lexington, Kentucky, and he a resident of that place. In later years we had belonged to the same political party, and our views had generally coincided. There was much, therefore, to facilitate our conference. He then unfolded to me the embarra.s.sment of Mr. Lincoln on account of the extreme men in Congress and elsewhere, who wished to drive him into harsher measures than he was inclined to adopt; whence it would not be feasible for him to enter into any arrangement with us by the use of political agencies; that, if anything beneficial could be effected, it must be done without the intervention of the politicians. He, therefore, suggested that Generals Lee and Grant might enter into an arrangement by which hostilities would be suspended, and a way paved for the restoration of peace. I responded that I would willingly intrust to General Lee such negotiation as was indicated.
The conference then ended, and, to report to Mr. Lincoln the result of his visit, Mr. Blair returned to Was.h.i.+ngton. He subsequently informed me that the idea of a military convention was not favorably received at Was.h.i.+ngton, so it only remained for me to act upon the letter of Mr. Lincoln.
I determined to send, as commissioners or agents for the informal conference, Messrs. Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell.
A letter of commission or certificate of appointment for each was prepared by the Secretary of State in the following form:
”In compliance with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are hereby requested to proceed to Was.h.i.+ngton City for conference with him upon the subject to which it relates,” etc.
This draft of a commission was, upon perusal, modified by me so as to read as follows:
”RICHMOND, _January 28, 1865._
”In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are requested to proceed to Was.h.i.+ngton City for an informal conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries.”
Some objections were made to this commission by the United States officials, because it authorized the commissioners to confer for the purpose ”of securing peace to the two countries”; whereas the letter of Mr. Lincoln, which was their pa.s.sport, spoke of ”securing peace to the people of our one common country.” But these objections were finally waived.
The letter of Mr. Lincoln expressing a willingness to receive any agent I might send to Was.h.i.+ngton City, a commission was appointed to go there; but it was not allowed to proceed farther than Hampton Roads, where Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by Mr. Seward, met the commissioners. Seward craftily proposed that the conference should be confidential, and the commissioners regarded this so binding on them as to prevent them from including in their report the discussion which occurred. This enabled Mr. Seward to give his own version of it in a dispatch to the United States Minister to the French Government, which was calculated to create distrust of, if not hostility to, the Confederacy on the part of the power in Europe most effectively favoring our recognition.
Why Mr. Lincoln changed his purpose, and, instead of receiving the commissioners at Was.h.i.+ngton, met them at Hampton Roads, I can not, of course, explain. Several causes may be conjecturally a.s.signed. The commissioners were well known in Was.h.i.+ngton, had there held high positions, and, so far as there was any peace party there, might have been expected to have influence with its members; but a more important inquiry is: If Mr. Lincoln previously had determined to hear no proposition for negotiation, and to accept nothing less than an unconditional surrender, why did he propose to receive informally our agent? If there was nothing to discuss, the agent would have been without functions.
I think the views of Mr. Lincoln had changed after he wrote the letter to Mr. Blair of June 18th, and that the change was mainly produced by the report which he made of what he saw and heard at Richmond on the night he staid there. Mr. Blair had many acquaintances among the members of the Confederate Congress; and all those of the cla.s.s who, of old, fled to the cave of Adullam, ”gathered themselves unto him.”