PART III. Chapter VIII.

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FELLOW-CITIZENS OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Again the blessings of health and abundant harvests claim our profoundest gratitude to Almighty God.

The condition of our foreign affairs is reasonably satisfactory. Mexico continues to be a theater of civil war. While our political relations with that country have undergone no change, we have, at the same time, strictly maintained neutrality between the belligerents.

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At the request of the States of Costa Rica and Nicaragua, a competent engineer has been authorized to make a survey of the river San Juan and the port of San Juan. It is a source of much satisfaction that the difficulties which for a moment excited some political apprehensions, and caused a closing of the inter-oceanic transit route, have been amicably adjusted, and that there is a good prospect that the route will soon be re-opened with an increase of capacity and adaptation. We could not exaggerate either the commercial or the political importance of that great improvement.

It would be doing injustice to an important South American State not to acknowledge the directness, frankness, and cordiality with which the United States of Colombia have entered into intimate relations with this Government. A claims convention has been constituted to complete the unfinished work of the one which closed its session in 1861.

The new liberal constitution of Venezuela having gone into effect with the universal acquiescence of the people, the Government under it has been recognized, and diplomatic intercourse with it has opened in a cordial and friendly spirit. The long-deferred Aves Island claim has been satisfactorily paid and discharged.

Mutual payments have been made of the claims awarded by the late joint commission for the settlement of claims between the United States and Peru. An earnest and cordial friend-ship continues to exist between the two countries, and such efforts as were in my power have been used to remove misun-derstanding and avert a threatened war between Peru and Spain.

Our relations are of the most friendly nature with Chili, the Argentine Republic, Bolivia, Costa Rica, Paraguay, San Salvador, and Hayti.

During the past year no differences of any kind have arisen with any of those republics, and, on the other hand, their sympathies with the United States are constantly expressed with cordiality and earnestness.

The claim arising from the seizure of the cargo of the brig Macedonian in 1821 has been paid in full by the Government of Chili.

Civil war continues in the Spanish part of San Domingo, apparently without prospect of an early close.

Official correspondence has been freely opened with Liberia, and it gives us a pleasing view of social and political progress in that republic. It may be expected to derive new vigor from American influence, improved by the rapid disappearance of slavery in the United States.

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The proposed overland telegraph between America and Europe, by the way of Behring's Straits and Asiatic Russia, which was sanctioned by Congress at the last session, has been undertaken, under very favorable circumstances, by an associa-tion of American citizens, with the cordial good-will and sup-port as well of this Government as of those of Great Britain and Russia. Assurances have been received from most of the South American States of their high appreciation of the enter-prise, and their readiness to cooperate in constructing lines tributary to that world-encircling communication. I learn with much satisfaction that the noble design of a telegraphic communication between the eastern coast of America and Great Britain has been renewed with full expectation of its early accomplishment.

Thus it is hoped that with the return of domestic peace the country will be able to resume with energy and advantage its former high career of commerce and civilization.

Our very popular and estimable representative in Egypt died in April last. An unpleasant altercation which arose between the temporary incumbent of the office and the Gov-ernment of the Pasha resulted in a suspension of intercourse. The evil was promptly corrected on the arrival of the successor to the consulate, and our relations with Egypt, as well as our relations with the Barbary Powers, are entirely satisfactory.

The rebellion which has so long been flagrant in China, has at last been suppressed, with the cooperating good offices of this Government, and of the other western commercial States. The judicial consular establishment there has become very difficult and onorous, and it will need legislative revision to adapt it to the extension of our commerce, and to the more intimate intercourse which has been instituted with the Gov-ernment and people of that vast empire. China seems to be accepting with hearty good-will the conventional laws which regulate commercial and social intercourse among the western nations.

Owing to the peculiar situation of Japan, and the anomalous

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For myself, I have no doubt of the power and duty of the Executive, under the law of nations, to exclude enemies of the human race from an asylum in the United States. If Congress should think that proceedings in such cases lack the authority of law, or ought to be further regulated by it, I recommend that provision be made for effectully preventing foreign slave traders from acquiring domicile and facilities for their criminal occupation in our country.

It is possible that, if it were a new and open question, the maritime Powers, with the lights they now enjoy, would not concede the privileges of a naval belligerent to the insurgents of the United States, destitute, as they are, and always have been, equally of ships-of-war and of port and harbors. Dis-loyal emmissaries have been neither less assiduous nor more successful during the last year than they were before that time in their efforts, under favor of that privilege, to embroil our country in foreign wars. The desire and determination of the governments of the maritime States to defeat that design are believed to be as sincere as, and can not be more earnest than our own. Nevertheless, unforseen political difficulties have arisen, especially in Brazilian and British ports, and on the northern boundary of the United States, which have required, and are likely to continue to require, the practice of constant vigilance, and a just and conciliatory spirit on the part of the United States, as well as of the nations concerned and their governments.

Commissioners have been appointed under the treaty with Great Britain on the adjustment of the claims of the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound Agricultural Companies, in Oregon, and

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In view of the insecurity of life and property in the region adjacent to the Canadian border, by reason of recent assaults and depredations, committed by inimical and desperate persons who are harbored there, it has been thought proper to give notice that after the expiration of six months, the period conditionally stipulated in the existing arrangements with Great Britain, the United States must hold themselves at liberty to increase their naval armament upon the lakes if they shall find that proceeding necessary. The condition of the border will necessarily come into consideration in connection with the question of continuing or modifying the rights of transit from Canada, through the United States, as well as the regulation of imposts, which were temporarily established by the reciprocity treaty of the 5th June, 1854.

I desire, however, to be understood, while making this statement, that the colonial authorities of Canada are not deemed to be intentionally unjust or unfriendly toward the United States; but, on the contrary, there is every reason to expect that, with the approval of the imperial Government, they will take the necessary measures to prevent new incursions across the border.

The act passed at the last session for the encouragement of emigration, has, so far as was possible been put into operation. It seems to need amendment which will enable the officers of the Government to prevent the practice of frauds against the immigrants while on their way, and on their arrival in the ports, so as to secure them here a free choice of avocations and places of settlement. A liberal disposition toward this great national policy is manifested by most of the European States, and ought to be reciprocated on our part by giving the immigrants effective national protection. I regard our emigrants as one of the principle replenishing streams which are appointed by Providence to repair the ravages of internal war, and its wastes of national strength and health. All that is necessary, is to secure the flow of that stream in its present fullness, and to that end the Government must, in every way, make it manifest that it neither needs nor designs to impose involuntarily military service upon those who come from other lands to cast their lot in our country.

The financial affairs of the Government have been successfully administered during the last year. The legislation of the last session of Congress has beneficially affected the revenues, although sufficient time has not yet elapsed to experience the

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The receipts during the year, from all sources, upon the basis of warrants signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans and the balance in the Treasury on the 1st day of July, 1863, were $1,394,796,007 62; and the aggregate disbursements, upon the same basis, were $1,298,056,101 89, leaving a balance in the treasury, as shown by warrants, of $96,839,905 73.

Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public debt redeemed, and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and the actual cash operations of the Treasury were: receipts, $884,076,646, 57; disbursements, $865,234,087 86; which leaves a cash balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558 71.

Of the receipts, there were derived from customs $102,316,152 99; from lands, $588,333 29; from direct taxes, $475,648 96; from internal revenue, $109,741,134 10; from miscella-neous sources, $47,511,448 10 ; and from loans applied to actual expenditures, including former balance, $623,443,929 13.

There were disbursed, for the civil service, $27,505,599 46; for pensions and Indians, $7,517,930 97; for the War Department, $690,791,842 97; for the Navy Department, $85,733,292 77; for interest of the public debt, $53,685,421 69 —making an aggregate of $865,234,087 86, and leaving a balance in the Treasury of $18,842,558 71, as before stated.

For the actual receipts and disbursements for the first quarter, and the estimated receipts and disbursements for the three remaining quarters of the current fiscal year, and the general operations of the Treasury in detail, I refer you to the report of the Secretary of the Treasury. I concur with him in the opinion that the proportion of moneys required to meet the expenses consequent upon the war derived from taxation should be still further increased ; and I earnestly invite your attention to this subject, to the end that there may be such additional legislation as shall be required to meet the just expectations of the Secretary.

The public debt on the 1st day of July last, as appears by the books of the Treasury, amounted to $1,740,690,489 49. Probably, should the war continue for another year, that amount may be increased by not far from $500,000,000. Held as it is, for the most part, by our own people, it has become a substantial branch of national, though private, property. For obvious reasons, the more nearly this property can be distributed among all the people the better. To favor such gene-

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Privileges like these would render the possession of such securities, to the amount limited, most desirable to every person of small means who might be able to save enough for the purpose. The great advantage of citizens being creditors as well as debtors, with relation to the public debt, is obvious. Men readily perceive that they can not be much oppressed by a debt which they owe to themselves.

The public debt on the 1st day of July last, although some-what exceeding the estimate of the Secretary of the Treasury made to Congress at the commencement of the last session, falls short of the estimate of that officer made in the preceding December, as to its probable amount at the beginning of this year, by the sum of $3,995,097 31. This fact exhibits a satisfactory condition and conduct of the operations of the Treasury.

The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to capitalists and to the people. On the 25th day of November, five hundred and eighty-four national banks had been organized, a considerable number of which were conver-sions from State banks. Changes from State systems to the national system are rapidly taking place, and it is hoped that very soon there will be in the United States no banks of issue not authorized by Congress, and no bank-note circulation not secured by the Government. That the Government and the people will derive great benefit from this change in the bank-ing systems of the country can hardly be questioned. The national system will create a reliable and permanent influence in support of the national credit, and protect the people against losses in the use of paper money. Whether or not any further legislation is advisable for the suppression of State bank issues, it will be for Congress to determine. It seems quite clear that the Treasury can not be satisfactorily conducted unless the Government can exercise a restraining power over the bank-note circulation of the country.

The report of the Secretary of War, and accompanying

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The report of the Secretary of the Navy presents a comprehensive and satisfactory exhibit of the affairs of that Department of the naval service. It is a subject of congratulation and laudable pride to our countrymen that a navy of such vast proportions has been organized in so brief a period, and con-ducted with so much efficiency and success,

The general exhibit of the Navy, including vessels under construction on the 1st of December, 1864, shows a total of 671 vessels, carrying 4,610 guns, and of 510,396 tons, being an actual increase during the year, over and above all losses by shipwreck or in battle, of 83 vessels, 167 guns, and 42,427 tons.

The total number of men at this time in the naval service, including officers, is about 51,000.

There have been captured by the Navy during the year, 324 vessels, and the whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced, is 1,379, of 'which 267 are steamers.

The gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property, thus far reported, amount to $14,396,250 51. A large amount of such proceeds is still under adjudication, and yet to be reported.

The total expenditures of the Navy Department of every description, including the cost of the immense squadrons that have been called into existence from the 4th of March, 1861, to the 1st of November, 1864, are $238,647,262 35.

Your favorable consideration is invited to the various recom-mendations of the Secretary of the Navy, especially in regard to a navy-yard and suitable establishment for the construction and repair of iron vessels, arid the machinery and armature for our ships, to which reference was made in my last annual message.

Your attention is also invited to the views expressed in the report in relation to the legislation of Congress at its last ses-sion in respect to prize on our inland waters.

I cordially concur in the recommendation of the Secretary as to the propriety of creating the new rank of vice admiral in our naval service.

Your attention is invited to the report of the Postmaster General for a detailed account of the operations and financial condition of the Post Office Department.

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The views presented by the Postmaster General on the subject of special grants by the Goovernment in aid of the establishment of new lines of ocean mail steamships and the policy he recommends for the development of increased commercial intercourse with adjacent and neighboring countries, should receive the careful consideration of Congress.

It is of noteworthy interest that the steady expansion of population, improvement and governmental institutions over the new and unoccupied portions of our country has scarcely been checked, much less impeded or destroyed by our great civil war, which at first glance would seem to have absorbed almost the entire energies of the nation.

The organization and admission of the State of Nevada has been completed in conformity with law, and thus our excellent system is firmly established in the mountains which once seemed a barren and uninhabitable waste between the Atlantic States and those which have up on the coast of the Pacific ocean.

The Territories of the Union are generally in a condition of prosperity and rapid growth. Idaho and Montana, by reason of their great distance and interruption of communication with them by Indian hostilities, have been only partially organized; but it is understood that these difficulties are about to disappear, which will permit their governments, like those of the others, to go into speedy and full operation. As intimately connected with and promotive of this material growth of the nation, I ask the attention of Congress to the valuable information and important recommendations relating to the public lands, Indian affairs, the Pacific railroad and mineral discoveries contained in the report of the Secretary of the Interior, which is herewith transmitted, and which report also embraces the subjects of patents, pensions, and other topics of public mterest pertaining to this Department.

The quantity of public land disposed of during the five quarters ending on the 30th of September last was 4,221,342 acres, of which 1,538,614 acres were entered under the home-stead law. The remainder was located with military land warrants, agricultural scrip certified to States for railroads and sold for cash. The cash received from sales and location fees was $1,019,446.

The income from sales during the fiscal year ending the 30th of June, 1864, was $678,007 21, against $136,077 95 received

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The great enterprise of connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific States by railways and telegraph lines has been entered upon with a vigor that gives assurance of success, notwith-standing the embarrassments arising from the prevailing high prices of materials and labor. The route of the main line of the road has been definitely located for one hundred miles westward from the initial point at Omaha City, Nebraska, and a preliminary location of the Pacific railroad of California has been made from Sacramento eastward to the great bend of the Truck.ee river in Nevada,

Numerious discoveries of gold, silver, and cinnabar mines have been added to the many heretofore known, and the country occupied by the Sierra Nevada, and Rocky mountains, and the subordinate ranges, now teems with enterprising labor, which is richly remunerative. It is believed that the product of the mines of precious metals in that region has, during the year, reached, if not exceeded, one hundred millions in value.

It was recommended in my last annual message that our Indian system be remodeled. Congress, at its last session, acting upon the recommendation, did provide for re-organizing the system in California, and it is believed that under the present organization the management of the Indians there will be attended with reasonable success. Much yet remains to be done to provide for the proper government of the Indians in other parts of the country to render it secure for the advancing settler, and to provide for the welfare of the Indian. The Secretary reiterates his recommendations, and to them the attention of Congress is invited.

The liberal provisions made by Congress for paying pensions to invalid soldiers and sailors of the Republic, and to the widows, orphans, and dependent mothers of those who have fallen in battle, or died of disease contracted, or of wounds received in the service of their country, have been diligently administered. There have been added to the pension rolls, during the year ending the 20'th day of June last, the names of 16,770 invalid soldiers, and of 271 disabled seamen, making the present number of Army invalid pensioners 22,767, and of Navy invalid pensioners 712.

Of widows, orphans, and mothers, 22,198 have been placed on the Army pension rolls, and 248 on the Navy rolls. The present number of Army pensioners of this class is 25,433, and of Navy pensioners 793, At the beginning of the year the

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I cheerfully commend to your continued patronage the benevolent institutions of the District of Columbia which have hitherto been established or fostered by Congress, and respectfully refer, for information concerning them, and in relation to the Washington acqueduct, the Capitol, and other matters of local interest, to the report of the Secretary.

The Agricultural Department, under the supervision of its present energetic and faithful head, is rapidly commending itself to the great and vital interest it was created to advance. It is peculiarly the people's Department, in which they feel more directly concerned than in any other. I commend it to the continued attention and fostering care of Congress.

The war continues. Since the last annual message all the important lines and positions then occupied by our forces have been maintained, and our arms have steadily advanced; thus liberating the regions left in the rear, so that Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and parts of other States have again produced reasonably fair crops.

The most remarkable feature in the military operations of the year is General Sherman's attempted march of three hundred miles directly through the insurgent region. It tends to show a great increase of our relative strength that our General-in-Chief should feel able to confront and hold in check every active force of the enemy, and yet to detach a well appointed large army to move on such an expedition. The result not yet being known, conjecture in regard to it is not here indulged.

Important movements have also occurred during the year to the effect of moulding society for durability in the Union. Athough short of complete success, it is much in the right direction, that twelve thousand citizens in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana have organized loyal State governments, with free constitutions, and are earnestly struggling to maintain and administer them. The movements in the same direction, more extensive, though less definite, in Missouri, Kentucky, and Tennessee, should not be overlooked. But Maryland presents the example of complete success. Maryland is secure to Liberty and Union for all the future. The genius of rebellion will no more claim Maryland. Like

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At the last session of Congress a proposed amendment of the Constitution, abolishing slavery throughout the United States, passed the Senate, but failed for lack of the requisite two-thirds vote in the House of Representatives. Although the present is the same Congress, and nearly the same members, and 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. Hence 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 so to 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 most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived through our popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its result, 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. The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls, give strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party also, may be fairly claimed to entertain and to be actuated by the same purpose It is an unanswerable argument to this effect, that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ventured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for 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

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The election has exhibited another fact not less valuable to be known —the fact that we do not approach exhaustion in the most important branch of national resources— that of living men. While it is melancholy to reflect that the war has filled so many graves and carried mourning to so many hearts, it is some relief to know that, compared with the surviving, the fallen have been so few. While corps, and divisions, and brigades, and regiments have formed and fought and dwindled and gone out of existence, a great majority of the men who composed them are still living. The same is true of the naval service. The election returns prove this. So many voters could not else be found. The States regularly holding elections, both now and four years ago, to wit: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, West Virginia, and Wisconsin, cast 3,982,011 votes now against 3,870,222 cast then, showing an aggregate now of 3,982,011. To this is to be added 33,762 cast now in the new States of Kansas and Nevada, which States did not vote in 1860, thus swelling the aggregate to 4,015,773, and the net increase during the three years and a half of war to 145,551. A table is appended showing particulars. To this again should be added the number of all soldiers in the field from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Indiana, Illinois, and California, who by the laws of those States could not vote away from their homes, and which number can not be less than 90,000. Nor yet is this all. The number in organized Territories is triple now what it was four years ago, while thousands, white and black, join us as the national arms press back the insurgent lines. So much is shown affirmatively and negatively by the election. It is not material to inquire how the increase has been produced, or to show that it would have been greater but for the war, which is probably true. The important fact remains demonstrated that we have more men now than we had when the war began; that we are not exhausted nor in process of exhaustion ; that we are gaining strength and may, if need be, maintain the contest indefinitely. This as to men. Material resources are now more complete and abundant than ever.

The national resources, then, are unexhausted, and, as we

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A year ago, general pardon and amnesty, upon specified terms, were offered to all, except certain designated classes; and it was, at the same time, made known that the excepted classes were still within contemplation of special clemency. During the year many availed themselves of the general provision, and many more would, only that the signs of bad faith in some, led to such precautionary measures as rendered the practical process less easy and certain. During the same time, also, special pardons have been granted to individuals of the accepted classes, and no voluntary application has been denied. Thus, practically, the door has

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In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable condition of ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract nothing heretofore said as 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 reen-slave 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.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
December 6, 1864.

Two Cabinet changes had occurred, since the retirement of Gov. Chase from the Secretaryship of the Treasury. At the time when an attempt was zealously made to divide the friends of the Administration on the basis of the Missouri classification of parties, it became the fashion, with those busiest in this work, to denounce Attorney-General Bates, and Postmaster-General Blair, as special representatives of "Conservatism" in the Cabinet. Mr. Seward had previously been regarded in the same light, but Messrs. Bates and Blair had a more direct relation to Missouri affairs, and they came to be more frequently assailed, during the summer of 1864, than the former, by the "Radicals." Mr. Lincoln had good reasons for reluctance to part with either of those gentlemen. Mr. Blair had almost alone, in the cabinet, stood firm against the policy —never favorably regarded for a moment by President Lincoln— of surrendering Fort Sumter to Rebel insolence, without a blow struck in its favor. That he was a prompt, watchful, and energetic officer, doing his executive work well.

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EXECUTIVE MANSION,
WASHINGTON CITY,
September 23, 1864. MY DEAR SIR:

You have generously said to me, more than once, that whenever your resignation could be a relief to me, it was at my disposal. The time has come. You very well know that this proceeds from no dissatisfaction of mine with you personally or officially. Your uniform kindness has been unsurpassed by that of any friend, and while it is true that the war does not so greatly add to difficulties of your Department as it does to some others, it is yet, much to say, as I most truly can, that in three years and a half, during which you have administered the General Post Office, I remember no single complaint against you in connection therewith
Yours, as ever,
A. LINCOLN.
Hon. MONTGOMERY BLAIR.

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MY DEAR SIR:

I have received your note of this date, referring to my offers to resign, whenever you should deem it advisable for the public interests that 1 should do so, and stating that, in your judgment, the time has now come. I now, therefore, formally tender my resignation of the office of Postmaster-General. I can not take leave of you without renewing the expressions of my gratitude for the uniform kindness which has marked your course toward
Yours, truly,
M. BLAIR.
The President.

Hon. William Dennison, Ex-Governor of Ohio, who had presided over the National Union Convention at Baltimore, was appointed Postmaster-General in Mr. Blair's stead, an appointment confirmed by the Senate at the beginning of the session.

Attorney-General Bates tendered his resignation soon after the Presidential election, to take effect on the 1st of December. Judge Bates had been the first member of Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet definitely decided upon, and whose appointment was mutually understood. He had many years before been offered a Secretaryship under a Whig Administration, but declined the honor. He was well-known throughout the country as an early and steadfast advocate of emancipation in Missouri, and had long ago shown the sincerity of his faith by freeing his own slaves. While in his official capacity, he was set down by some as a Conservative, he was on many questions of the time, fully up to the advance line of his associates, and lagged behind on none. His views were not, however, a mere echo of other men's opinions, or of those of the people indiscriminately. He was unwilling to go with the current when he believed it was wrong, but chose to use his influence toward directing it aright. Least of all could he brook factious dictation. Those who thoroughly understood him, felt little occasion to be proud of any difference with him. He was ever,

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Chief Justice Taney died on the 12th of October, 1864. One of the most zealous upholders of slavery, he did not survive the day on which the people of Maryland, his native State, decreed the freedom of their slaves. His name will be forever associated with one of the last bulwarks of the doomed institution, known as the Dred Scott decision. Perhaps the most noted, if not the only specially memorable utterance of his life, was the strangely inaccurate assertion that, in the early days of the Republic, the colored race were regarded as having "no rights which the white man was bound to respect." He was a jurist of ability, though too strong a partisan to be always an impartial judge. He was a man of upright and irreproachable private character, and had remained true to the Government in whose service he spent so large a portion of his long life. The first President to whom he administered the oath of office was Martin Van Buren; the last, Abraham Lincoln. For all those intermediate, he had officiated in like manner. The news of the death of Judge Taney came unexpectedly at last; his health having permitted his attendence on the courts, with little interruption, to the end, although he attained the age of eighty-seven years.

During the vacation of the Supreme Court, there was no occasion for filling the important office thus made vacant. A decision was consequently deferred until the assembling of Congress, on the first Monday in December. During the intermediate time, the popular expression in favor of the Hon. Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, became very general. This appoint-

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The action of the Canadian authorities in refusing to deliver up the St. Albans raiders for trial, on proper demand under the extradition treaty, produced intense feeling on the part of the people of the loyal States. Gen. Dix, in command of the Military Department including the frontier of New York and Vermont, promptly issued an order that marauding parties of like character, hereafter coming into the States from Canada, should be vigorously pursued, across the border if necessary, and captured or shot down wherever found. This order was undoubtedly warranted by recognized principles of international law. It met with a hearty response throughout the country, as did the arrest of Mason and Slidell on the Trent, by Commodore Wilkes, or more recently, the capture of the Rebel pirate-ship Florida, in Brazilian waters, by Commander Collins. But the policy of moderation, from high motives of expediency, still prevailed. There was an earnest desire on the part of the Rebels to embroil our nation with some strong foreign power, and the accomplishment of this object was probably one of the purposes entertained while organizing, in "neutral" British Territory, expeditions across the border. The President deemed it advisable that so much of Gen. Dix's

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On the 18th of December, a joint resolution was passed by the House of Representatives, authorizing the President to give the requisite notice to the Government of Great Britain for the termination of the treaty of the 5th of June, 1854, known as the Canadian Reciprocity treaty. This resolution, in a slightly modified form —subsequently agreed to by the House— passed the Senate on the 12th of January, 1865, by a vote of 33 to 8. The resolution as finally passed, and approved by President Lincoln, on the 18th of January, 1865, is in the following terms:

WHEREAS, It is provided in the reciprocity treaty concluded at Washington the 5th of June, 1854, between the United States of the one part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland of the other part, that this treaty "shall remain in force for ten years from the date at which it may come into operation, and further until the expiration of twelve months after either of the high contracting parties shall give notice to the other of its wish to terminate the same;" and whereas, it appears, by a proclamation of the President of the United States, bearing date 16th of March, 1855, that the treaty came into operation on that day; and whereas, further, it is no longer for the interests of the United States to continue the same in force, therefore,

Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That notice be given of the termination of the reciprocity treaty, according to the provision therein contained for the termination of the same; and the President of the United States is hereby charged with the communication of such notice to the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Another joint resolution, approved February 9th, 1865, ratifies the notice already given by the President on the 23d of

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On the 19th day of December, 1864, President Lincoln, in order to supply a deficiency of 260,000 men, on the previous call of July 18, 1864, for 500,000, issued another call for 300,000 volunteers, to serve for one, two, or three years— any portion of the quota for any locality not made up before the 15th day of February, to be filled by a draft commencing on that day.

The proposed constitutional amendment prohibiting slavery throughout the United States, and every where under its jurisdiction, had been defeated in the House of Representatives at the previous session, as already seen. Mr. Ashley's motion to re-consider the vote by which the joint resolution was lost, being called up, on the 6th of January, 1865, the question was discussed at great length during the three weeks following. The motion to reconsider prevailed on the 31st of January, by a vote of 112 yeas to 57 nays —it being ruled by Speaker Colfax that only a majority was needed for that purpose. On the final vote —two-thirds being required— the joint resolution was concurred in, yeas 119, nays 56, as follows:

YEAS — Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Arnold, Ashley, Baily, Augustus C. Baldwin, John D. Baldwin, Baxter, Beaman, Blaine, Blair, Blow, Boutwell, Boyd, Brandegee, Broomall, William G. Brown, Ambrose W. Clark, Freeman Clarke, Cobb, Coffroth, Cole, Colfax, Creswell, Henry Winter Davis, Thomas T. Davis, Dawes, Deming, Dixon, Donelly, Driggs, Dumont, Eckley, Eliot, English, Farnsworth, Frank, Ganson, Garfield, Gooch, Grinnell, Griswold, Hale, Herrick, Higby, Hooper, Hotchkiss, Asahel W. Hubbard, John H. Hubbard, Hulburd, Hutchins, Ingersoll, Jenckes, Julian, Kasson, Kelley, Francis W. Kellogg, Orlando Kellogg, King, Knox, Littlejohn, Loan, Longyear, Marvin, McAllister, McBride, McClurg, McIndoe, Samuel F. Miller, Moorhead, Morrill, Daniel Morris, Amos Myers, Leonard Myers, Nelson,

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NAYS — Messrs. James C. Allen, William J. Allen, Ancona, Bliss, Brooks, James S. Brown, Chanler, Clay, Cox, Cravens, Dawson, Denison, Eden, Edgerton, Eldridge, Finck, Grider, Hall, Harding, Harrington, Benjamin G. Harris, Charles M. Harris, Holman, Philip Johnson, William Johnson, Kalbfleisch, Kernan, Knapp, Law, Long, Mallory, William H. Miller, James R. Morris, Morrison, Noble, John O'Neill, Pendleton, Perry, Pruyn, Samuel J. Randall, Robinson, Ross, Scott, Wm. G. Steele, Stiles, Strous, Stuart, Sweat, Townsend, Wadsworth, Ward, Chilton A. White, Winfield, Benjamin Wood and Fernando Wood —56.

NOT VOTING — Messrs. Lazear, LeBlond, Marcy, McDowell, McKinney, Middleton, Rogers and Voorhees —8.

The result, up to the last moment, had been doubtful, and the affirmative decision of this momentous question was no sooner announced, than the members on the floor, and the spectators who thronged the galleries, spontaneously joined in enthusiastic and long-continued demonstrations of joy. Never was such, a scene before witnessed in any legislative hall. The sensation produced, wherever the news was spread by telegraph, was one of universal satisfaction and gladness that the great work was accomplished. The Republic had at last proclaimed itself truly FREE —needing only the State ratification provided for by the Constitution, and sure to be obtained, to settle the question forever. President Lincoln promptly approved the measure, and State after State has echoed and re-echoed the popular ratification,

The inhuman conduct of the Rebel leaders toward our prisoners in their hands, will fill the darkest pages of the history of the great insurrection. Starvation, freezing, delirium, prolonged agony yielding to the slow-coming relief of death, were the lot of tens of thousands of true and valorous men, whom the fortunes of war had thrown into Rebel hands. The names of

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There were those who urged what they believed the only remedy, retaliation. This policy was discussed at great length in the Senate, and found earnest advocates, whose arguments, enforced by the citation in detail of some portion of these horrible atrocities, may have seemed to some minds almost irresistible. While the discussion continued, relief was happily found in a manner less revolting to humanity. No retaliation was ever practiced. Under no circumstances would public sentiment have tolerated it. No Rebel prisoner ever had occasion to complain. But on the heads of the real authors of these crimes, retribution could not but be fervently invoked.

TIt was after these facts were known, that certain aiders, abettors and sympathizers in England, enriched by blockade-running, or by the fitting out of Rebel cruisers, or allied in character to these wretched despots, raised a fund for the alleged purpose of relieving the wants —not of these Union prisoners, subjected to slow torture, and murdered by thousands, through the aid of hunger, thirst and cold— but of the Rebel prisoners in our hands, who had never lacked any thing consistent with their condition, and who were undisputedly and notoriously well fed, sheltered and cared for. The following correspondence shows the origin, purpose and result, of this insolent attempt to shield the Rebels from the infamy of their prison murders, and of their prison tortures, worse than murder :

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Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State, Washington, D. C.:

SIR: I have received from Lord Wharncliffe, the Chairman of the British Association, organized to give aid and comfort to the Rebel cause, a note, a copy of which is transmitted herewith.
I append a copy of my reply.
I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient servant,
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

LORD WHARNCLIFFE TO MR. ADAMS.
WORTLEY HALL, SHEFFIELD,
November 12, 1864.

His Excellency, Hon. C. F. Adams:

YOUR EXCELLENCY: A bazaar has been held in St. George's Hall, to provide a fund for the relief of Southern prisoners of war. It has produced a clear sum of £17,000. In preference to any attempts to reach the intended object by circuitous means, a committee of English gentlemen has been formed to address you on this subject.

As chairman of this committee, I venture to ask your Excellency to request permission of your Goverment that an accredited agent may be sent out to visit the military prisons within the Northern States, and minister to the comfort of those for whom this fund is intended, under such supervision as your Government may direct.

Permit me to state that no political end is aimed at by this movement. It has received support from many who were opposed to the political action of the South. Nor is it intended to impute that the Confederate prisoners are denied such attentions as the ordinary rules enjoin. But these rules are narrow and stern. Winter is at hand, and the clothing which may satisfy the rules of war will not protect the natives of a warm climate from the severe cold of the North.

Sir, the issue of this great contest will not be determined by individual suffering, be it greater or less; and you, whose family name is interwoven with American history, can not view with indifference the sufferings of American citizens, whatever their State or opinions.

On more than one occasion, aid has been proffered by the people of one country to special classes, under great affliction in another. May it not be permitted to us to follow these

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MR. ADAMS TO LORD WHARNCLIFFE.
LEGATION OF THE UNITED STATES,
LONDON, November 18, 1864.

LORD WHARNCLIFFE: My Lord —I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 12th inst., asking me to submit to the consideration of my Government a request of certain English gentlemen, made through your lordship, to send out an accredited agent to visit the military prisoners held by the United States, and afford them such aid, additional to that extended by the ordinary rules of war, as may be provided by the fund which has been raised here for the purpose.

I am sure that it has never been the desire of my Government to treat with unnecessary or vindictive severity any of the misguided individuals, parties in this deplorable rebellion, who have fallen into their hands in the regular course of war. I should greatly rejoice were the effects of your sympathy extended to the ministering to the mental ailment, not less than the bodily sufferings of these unfortunate persons, thus contributing to put an end to a struggle which otherwise is likely to be only procrastinated by your labors.

Be that as it may, I shall be happy to promote any human endeavor to alleviate the horrors of this strife, and in that sense shall very cheerfully comply with your lordship's desire, so far as to transmit, by the earliest opportunity, to my Government, a copy of the application which has been addressed to me.

I beg your lordship to receive the assurance of my distinguished consideration.
CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS.

MR. SEWARD TO MR. ADAMS.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE,WASHINGTON,
December 5, 1864.

Sir: I have received your dispatch of the 18th of November, No. 807, together with the papers therein mentioned, namely, a copy of a letter which was addressed to you on the

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Your proceeding in that matter is approved. You will now inform Lord Wharncliffe that permission for an agent of the committee described by him to visit the insurgents detained in military prisons of the United States, and to distribute among them seventeen thousand pounds of British gold, is disallowed. Here it is expected that your correspondence with Lord Wharncliffe will end.

That correspondence will necessarily become public. On reading it, the American people will be well aware that while the United States have ample means for the support of prisoners, as well as for every other exigency of the war in which they are engaged, the insurgents, who have blindly rushed into that condition, are suffering no privations that appeal for relief to charity either at home or abroad.

The American people will be likely to reflect that the sum thus insidiously tendered in the name of humanity constitutes no large portion of the profits which its contributors may be justly supposed to have derived from the insurgents, by exchanging with them arms and munitions of war for the coveted productions of immoral and enervating slave labor. Nor will any portion of the American people be disposed to regard the sum thus ostentatiously offered for the relief of captured insurgents as a too generous equivalent for the devastation and dissolution which a civil war, promoted and protracted by British subjects, has spread throughout States which before were eminently prosperous and happy.

Finally, in view of this last officious intervention in our domestic affairs, the American people can hardly fail to recall the warning of the Father of our Country, directed against two great and intimately connected public dangers, namely: sectional faction and foreign intrigue. I do not think the insurgents have become debased, although they have sadly wandered from the ways of loyalty and patriotism. I think that, in common with all our countrymen, they will rejoice in being saved by their considerate and loyal Government from the grave insults which Lord Wharncliffe and his associates, in their zeal for the overthrow of the United States, have prepared for the victims of their unnatural and hopeless rebellion, I am, sir, your obedient servant,
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

An attempt of Lord Warncliffe, through the London Times, to give a color of propriety to the action thus summarily

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To THE EDITOR OF THE DAILY NEWS: Sir: —Lord Wharncliffe, in his letter published in the Times of yesterday, intimates on the faith of an American correspondent, whose letter he does not produce in full, and whose name he does not give, that the Confederate prisoners in the hands of the Federal Government are suffering unusual privations, and that a pile of them has been seen lying dead from want of nourishing food, and he accuses Mr. Seward, in effect, of excluding the agent of the Liverpool Southern Bazaar Fund from the prisons, lest by his testimony these cruelties should be brought to light.

In the course of the tour in the United States, from which I have just returned, I visited the prison at camp Douglas, near Chicago, and the Prisoner's Hospital at Baltimore. And I beg leave again to express the conviction, stated in my former letters, that the inmates of the prison were not suffering for want of nourishing food, or from any unusual privation; and that the inmates of the hospital were treated with the utmost liberality and kindness. I have among my papers, and hope to send you in the course of a day or two, the dietary of the hospital, from which it will appear that there is no disposition, in that case at least, to withhold a sufficiency of nourishing food. I beg leave, at the same time, to express my firm belief that the sentiment of the people at the North is strongly as possible in favor of a humane and generous treatment of the prisoners, both as a matter of duty and as an instrument of ultimate reconciliation, and this, notwithstanding that they are convinced, and in fact have the proof before their eyes, that their own soldiers are treated with the greatest barbarity in Southern prisons. I am, etc.,
Manchester, Dec. 27.
GOLDWIN SMITH.

In a spirit not unlike that exhibited by Lord Wharncliffe, certain officious intermeddlers in England, under the leadership of a titled Briton, named De Houghton, had prepared an

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MR. PARKER TO MR.SEWARD.
WASHINGTON, November 26, 1864.
Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, etc.:

HON. SIR : I beg to inform you that I have been deputed to convey to this country an address from the people of Great Britain and Ireland to the people of the United States of America. The address was presented to Governor Seymour, for him to present through the proper channel.

I was requested by him to convey it to the President of the United States, as the authorized channel of communication between the people of other nations and the people of the United States of America.

May I, therefore, ask the honor of an opportunity for so doing.
I am, Hon. Sir, yours most obediently,
JOSEPH PARKER.

MR. PARKER TO MR. SEWARD.
METROPOLITAN HOTEL,WASHINGTON,
November 26, 1864.
Hon. W. H. Seward, Secretary of State, etc.:

HON. SIR: In reply of your letter of to-day, permit me to state that the address which I have had the honor of being deputed by the parties signing it to bring to this country, and

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MR. SEWARD TO MR. PARKER. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON,
November 26, 1864.
To Joseph Parker, Washington, D. C.:

SIR : Your letter of this date, stating that you are the bearer of an address from the people of Great Britain and Ireland to the people of the United States, has been received. Before answering the question which your letter contains, it is desirable to be further informed whether you have authority from the Government of Great Britain and Ireland for the purpose referred to, and whether your mission has been made known to the diplomatic agent of that Government accredited to the Government of the United States?
I am, sir, your very obedient servant,
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

MR. SEWARD TO MR. PARKER.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON,
November 26, 1864.
To Joseph Parker, Esq., Metropolitan Hotel:

SIR : The Government of the United States can not receive the address which was mentioned in your notes of this morning. Your request for an interview with the President, to present the address, is, therefore, declined.
I am, sir, your obedient servant,
WILLIAM H. SEWARD.

In marked contrast with these demonstrations of Wharncliffe and De Houghton —and perhaps called out by their acts— was the address of the English Workingmen to President Lincoln, congratulating him on his re-election. This paper first appeared in the London News of December 23d, 1864, and was transmitted to the President through Mr. Adams. It affords a fitting conclusion to the foregoing papers :

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Sir: We congratulate the American people on your re-election by a large majority. If. resistance to the slave power were the reserved watchword upon your first election, the triumphant war-cry of your re-election is "death to slavery." From the commencement of the Titanic American strife the workingimen of Europe felt instinctively that the star-spangled banner carried the destiny of their class.

The contest for the territories which opened the dire epopee, was it not to decide whether the virgin soil of immense tracts should be wedded to the labor of the emigrant, or prostituted by the tramp of the slave-driver? When an oligarchy of three hundred thousand slaveholders dared to inscribe, for the first time in the annals of the world, slavery on the banner of armed revolt; when on the very spots where hardly a century ago the idea of one great democratic republic had first sprung up whence the first declaration of the rights of man was issued, and the first impulse given to the European revolution of the eighteenth century ; when on those very spots counter revolution, with systematic thoroughness, gloried in rescinding "the ideas entertained at the time of the formation of the Old Constitution," and maintained slavery to be a beneficent institution, indeed the only solution of the great problem of the relation of capital to labor, "and cynically proclaimed property in man" the corner stone of the new edifice; then the working-classes of Europe understood at once, even before the frantic partisanship of the upper classes for the Confederate gentry had given its dismal warning, that the slaveholders' rebellion was to sound the tocsin for a general holy crusade of property against labor, and that for the men of labor, with their hopes for the future, even their past conquests were at stake in that tremendous conflict on the other side of the Atlantic.

Everywhere they bore, therefore, patiently, the hardships imposed upon them by the cotton crisis, opposed enthusiastically the pro-slavery intervention importunities of their "betters," and from most parts of Europe contributed their quota of blood to the good cause. While the workingmen, the true political power of the North, allowed slavery to defile their own republic, while before the negro, mastered and sold with-out his concurrence, they boasted in the highest prerogative of the white-skinned laborer to sell himself and choose his own master, they were unable to attain the true freedom of labor, or to support their European brethren ia their struggle for emancipation; but this barrier to progress has been swept off by the red sea of civil war.

The workingmen of Europe feel sure that as the Americans

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A cordial speech of Baron de Wetterstedt, the minister representing the kingdom of Sweden and Norway, on the occasion of the elevation of his mission to a higher grade by his Sovereign, and his official presentation on the 20th of January, to the President, drew from Mr. Lincoln the following deservedly friendly response :

BARON DE WETTERSTEDT: My memory does not recall an instance of disagreement between Sweden and the United States. Your predecessor was most agreeable in his inter-course with this Government, and I greet you with the same good feeling which was entertained for him while he resided with us. The consideration which your Government has manifested by raising the rank of its mission here, is acknowledged with sincere satisfaction. You may be assured that on my part every occasion will be improved to exhibit the sincere desire which this Government entertains for the prosperity and welfare of the Government and Kingdom of Sweden and Norway.

On the 25th of January, a delegation of ladies and gentlemen from Philadelphia, headed by the Rev. Dr. Suddards, waited on the President, to present him with a vase of leaves, gathered by the lady donors, on the battle-field of Gettysburg, and placed on exhibition at the great Sanitary Fair, held during the previous summer at the former place. Mr. Lincoln replied to the presentation speech as follows:

REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I accept, with emotions of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift you have been pleased to present to me. You will, of course, expect that I acknowledge it. So much has been said about Gettysburg, and so well said, that for me to attempt to say more may, perhaps, only serve to weaken the force of that

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The State of Tennessee, under the Military Governorship of Andrew Johnson, had been steadily advancing toward a better condition, though still disturbed by a large Secession element of its population, bitterly hostile to the Government. The loyal portion of the inhabitants had readily fallen in with. the out-spoken anti-slavery policy of Gov. Johnson, as the only basis for re-organizing the State Government. The final defeat of the Rebel Hood, and his expulsion from the State— many of the worst enemies of the Union following him, as the same class had followed Price out of Missouri— left the party of malcontents and disunionists comparatively subdued and peaceful.

A State Convention, in calling which East Tennessee had taken the lead, inviting and receiving the co-operation of Middle and West Tennessee, assembled at Nashville on the 11th of January, 1865. Its object was the re-organization of a civil government for the State. No one who had borne arms in the Rebel service, or who had given aid and comfort to the rebellion, was permitted to take a seat in the convention. The number of votes to be cast for each county was at first determined on the basis of the vote against secession in 1861. This gave a decided preponderance to East Tennessee—ever the home of loyalty and freedom. As this created dissatisfaction among the delegates from other parts of the State, they were conciliated by a change, giving a more equal local repre-

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The action of the Convention was submitted to the people for ratification or rejection, the vote to be taken on the 22d of February— State officers and a Legislature to be chosen on the 4th of March, in case of a popular approval. Nearly three hundred delegates took part in the proceedings. The people approved the work of the Convention, ratifying these important changes in the organic law of the State. On the 4th of March, William G. Brownlow was elected Governor, and was duly installed in office. A Legislature was also chosen, and Tennessee has now a fully organized government as a Free State.

The policy pursued in Tennessee was entirely consonant in principle, though necessarily varied in some details, with that which the President had adopted in regard to Louisiana. In the former case, however, partly through the firm and energetic management of a Military Governor in the midst of people from whom he had received the highest honors in the gift of the State, the result was more complete. Gov. Johnson knew the men with whom he had to deal. They knew him as a statesman who had before been Chief Magistrate of the State by a popular election, and who had long represented them in the Senate. He had, too, a basis of immense strength in the indomitable spirit of freedom which pervaded East Tennessee, his own home, and which hailed the advent of universal liberty as the sole enduring foundation for the re-organization of civil order in the revolted States.

We have already seen something of the difficulties which

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The prominence given to this subject, and the factious opposition by which a small minority in the Senate succeeded, at the close of the session of 1864-5, in defeating, for a time, the final consummation by Congressional recognition of the long-continued efforts for the re-organization of a permanent local Government, gives importance to the following letter of the President, recently made public : "EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
August 5, 1863.

MY DEAR GEN. BANKS: While I very well know what I would be glad for Louisiana to do, it is quite a different thing for me to assume direction of the matter. I would be glad for her to make a new Constitution, recognizing the Emancipation Proclamation, and adopting emancipation in those parts of the State to which the proclamation does not apply. And while she is at it, I think it would not be objectionable for her to adopt some practical system by which the two races could gradually live themselves out of their old relations to each other, and both come out better prepared for the new. Education for young blacks should be included in the plan. After all, the power or element of "contract" may be sufficient for this probationary period, and by its simplicity and flexibility may be the better,

As an anti-slavery man, I have a motive to desire emancipa-

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Gov. Shepley has informed me that Mr. Durant is now taking a registry with a view to the election of a Constitutional Convention in Louisiana. This, to me, appears proper. If such convention were to ask my views, I could present little else than what I now say to you. I think the thing should be pushed forward, so that, if possible, its mature work may reach here by the meeting of Congress.

For my own part, I think I shall not, in any event, retract the Emancipation Proclamation; nor, as Executive, ever return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress. If Louisiana shall send members to Congress, their admission to seats will depend, as you know, upon the respective Houses, and not upon the President.
Yours, very truly,
(Signed.) A. LINCOLN.

It is difficult to see how a State government, organized in a regular manner from this beginning, with a constitution prohibiting slavery, could be intrinsically obnoxious, except on the theory—having as yet few supporters—that all the disloyal States should be reduced to the ''' territorial " condition. And it was in fact the author of this theory in the Senate, who, backed by a small minority, and resorting to parliamentary tactics little at home in that body, succeeded, near the close of the session, in defeating the will of a decided majority of both Houses, as clearly manifested in favor of the recognition of the Louisiana State government. It was of no such act that his leading (but unsuccessful) coadjutor in the House, and one of his associates in this transaction in the Senate, had said, arraigning the President in the midst of the canvass of the previous summer, that "a more studied outrage on the legislative authority of the people has never been perpetrated."

Arkansas followed the fortunes of Louisiana, in this failure of recognition, despite the will of a majority of both Houses, in which the President also cordially concurred. That State, too, had been re-organized on the basis of a free State constitution, ratified by a large loyal vote. The rejection of its Con-

700

In determining what States should be allowed a representation in the electoral college, Tennessee, Louisiana and Arkansas had been excluded—a respectable minority of the Union members voting in their favor. When that vote was taken, however, it was expressly understood that this action was not to be regarded as prejudicing the question of recognizing the State governments and chosen Congressional representatives in the two last-named States, which alone had reached that stage of re-organization. It is not difficult to appreciate the distinction between counting the electoral votes of States, which had undertaken to participate in the Presidential election, before any determination as to their condition, and the recognition of loyal governments in such States, with representation in Congress. But it is very difficult, if not impossible, to see by what method these States, as such, should become entitled to recognition at all, except on such a basis as the organizations already perfected. The President had, in fact, the satisfaction of knowing that a decided majority of both Houses coincided with him-self on this subject, though not of seeing their views prevail. Soon after the Presidential election, there was a considerable clamor —at first raised by Democratic leaders, and afterward joined by the same persons who had taken an interest in the Niagara Falls correspondence with the Canada conspirators— for opening some kind of communication with the spurious government at Richmond, with a view to agreeing on terms for a general pacification. To the Rebels, in their still unbroken pride and presumption, such a proposition was more likely to appear as an indication of weakness than of magnanimity. To most loyal people, unquestionably, it was evident that Grant and Farragut, Sherman, Thomas and Sheridan, were intrusted with the only practicable powers for securing peace guarantees from "an authority that can control the armies now at war with the United States." This was the more especially believed, after the repeated exhibitions of indomitable insolence and inveterate malice on the part of those presuming to exer-

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A fiendish desperation had become more and more manifest, after the 8th of November. Schemes of an infernal character were devised, or sanctioned in Richmond, as already partly known to the Government, to be afterward more fully discovered, while their execution was mainly intrusted to the men "in the confidential employment" of Jefferson Davis, who were provided with ample funds, over the Canada border. Emissaries were set at work on Lake Erie, to seize vessels and to enact piracy —as in the case of Beall, afterward convicted and hung in New York. On the 25th of November, Howell Cobb Kennedy and others, tools of the same Thompson-Clay cabal, attempted to execute a plan of wholesale arson and murder in the city of New York, by setting fire to many hotels and to shipping in the harbor, A party of men, afterward zealously defended by the same Canada conspirators, and bearing commissions from the pretended government at Richmond, stole, in disguise, across the British border into the village of St. Albans, in Northern Vermont, on the 19th of October, and, by a surprise, robbed the banks in that place, committing

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Unwilling to be misconstrued on either hand, as determined unncessarily to prolong the war, and heartily desiring peace, if by any possibility it could honorably and justly be had, President Lincoln at length consented that F. P. Blair, Senior, who was personally well known to the leading men at Richmond, should, purely on his own responsibility, make a visit to the Rebel capital. This journey of Mr. Blair, for the time enveloped in mystery, resulted in a second visit, and in the appointment of "commissioners" to present to the Government the Rebel ultimatum, before repeatedly proclaimed. A conference was had with these parties on board a steamer in Hampton Roads, by Mr. Seward at the outset, who was after-ward joined by President Lincoln. A concise version of this u negotiation" and its results was communicated by the Secretary of State in the following official dispatch to Mr. Adams, our Minister at the British Court:

DEPARTMENT OF STATE, WASHINGTON CITY,
February 7, 1865.

SIR: It is a truism that in times of peace there are always instigators of war. So soon as war begins, there are citizens who impatiently demand negotiations for peace. The advocates of war, after an agitation, longer or shorter, generally gain their fearful end, though the war declared is not unfrequently unnecessary and unwise. So peace agitators in time of war ultimately bring about an abandonment of the conflict, sometimes without securing the advantages which were originally expected from the conflict.

The agitators for war in time of peace, and for peace in time of war, are not necessarily, or perhaps ordinarily, unpatriotic in their purposes or motives. Results alone determine whether they are wise or unwise. The treaty of peace concluded at

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A few days ago, Francis P. Blair, Esq., of Maryland, obtained from the President a simple leave to pass through our military lines, without definite views known to the Government. Mr. Blair visited Richmond, and on his return he showed to the President a letter which Jefferson Davis had written to Mr. Blair, in which Davis wrote that Mr. Blair was at liberty to say to President Lincoln that Davis was now, as he always had been, willing to send commissioners if assured they would be received, or to receive any that should be sent; that he was not disposed to find obstacles in forms. He would send commissioners to confer with the President with a view to a restoration of peace between the two countries if he could be assured they would be received. The President thereupon, on the 18th of January, addressed a note to Mr. Blair, in which the President, after acknowledging that he had read the note of Mr. Davis, said that he was, is, and always should be, willing to receive any agents that Mr. Davis or any other influential person, now actually resisting the authority of the Government, might send to confer informally with the President, with a view to the restoration of peace to the people of our one common country. Mr. Blair visited Richmond with this letter, and then again came back to Washington.

On the 29th ultimo we were advised from the camp of Lieutenant-General Grant that Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell were applying for leave to pass through the lines to Washington, as peace commissioners, to confer with the President. They were permitted by the Lieutenant-General to come to his headquarters to await there the decision of the President. Major Eckert was sent down to meet the party from Richmond at General Grant's head-quarters. The Major was directed to deliver to them a copy of the President's letter to Mr. Blair, with a note to be addressed to them and signed by the Major, in which they were directly informed that if they should be allowed to pass

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On the morning of the 3d, the President, attended by the Secretary, received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell on board the United States steam transport River Queen, in Hampton Roads. The conference was altogether informal. There was no attendance of secretaries, clerks, or other witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The conversation, although earnest and free, was calm and courteous and kind on both sides. The Richmond party approached the discussion rather indirectly, and at no time did they either make categorical demands, or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals. Nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four hours, the several points at issue between the Government and the insurgents were distinctly raised, and discussed fully,

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The suggestion, though deliberately considered, was never-theless regarded by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he announced that we can agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities except on the basis of the disbandment of the insurgent forces and the restoration of the national authority throughout all the States in the Union. Collaterally, and in subordination to the proposition which was thus announced, the anti-slavery policy of the United States was reviewed in all its bearings, and the President announced that he must not be expected to depart from the positions he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation of emancipation and other documents, as these positions were reiterated in his last annual message. It was further declared by the President that the complete restoration of the national authority every-where was an indispensable condition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might be proposed. The President, assured the other party that while he must adhere to these positions, he would be prepared, so far as power is lodged with the Executive, to exercise liberality. Its power, however, is limited by the Constitution; and when peace shall be made, Congress must necessarily act in regard to appropriations of money and to the admission of representatives from the insurrectionary States. The Richmond party were then informed that Congress had, on the 31st ultimo, adopted, by a constitutional majority a joint resoluion submitting to the several States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union; and that there is every reason to expect that it will be soon accepted by three-fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national organic law.

The conference came to an end. by mutual acquiescence. without producing any agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, or any of them. Nevertheless, it is perhaps of some importance that we have been able to submit

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On the 8th of February, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling upon the President for information on the subject of this conference. On the 10th, he transmitted to that body the following response:

EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
February 10, 1863.
To the Honorable the House of Representatives:

In response to your resolution of the 8th inst., requesting information in relation to a conference recently held in Hampton Roads, I have the honor to state that on the day of that date, I gave Francis P. Blair, Sr., a card written on as follows, to-wit:

"Allow the bearer, F. P. Blair, Sr., to pass our lines, go south and return.
"December 28, 1864. A. LINCOLN."

That at the time I was informed that Mr. Blair sought the card as a means of getting to Richmond, Virginia, but he was given no authority to speak or act for the Government, nor was I informed of anything he would say or do on his own account or otherwise. Afterward Mr. Blair told me that he had been to Richmond and had seen Mr. Jefferson Davis, and he, Mr. B., at the same time left with me a manuscript letter as follows, to-wit:

MR. DAVIS 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.

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

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Afterward, and with the view that it should be shown to Mr. Davis, I wrote and delivered to Mr. Blair a letter, as follows:

"WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865."
F. P. Blair, Esq.:

"SIR : You having shown me Mr. Davis' letter to you of the 12th inst., 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 a view of securing peace to the people of our one common country.
"Yours, &c., "A. LINCOLN."

Afterward Mr. Blair dictated for, and authorized, me to make an entry on the back of my retained copy of the letter last above received, which entry is as follows:

[INDORSEMENT.]
"JANUARY 28, 1865.

"To-day Mr. Blair tells me that on the 21st inst., he delivered to Mr. Davis the original of which the within is a copy, and left it with him; that at the time of delivering it Mr. Davis read it over twice, in Mr. Blair's presence, at the close of which he (Mr. Blair) remarked that the part about 'our one common country' related to the part of Mr. D.'s letter about 'the two countries,' to which Mr. D. replied that he so understood it.
"A. LINCOLN."

Afterward the Secretary of War placed in my hands the following telegram, indorsed by him, as appears :

[Cipher.]
"OFFICE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH,"
WAR DEPARTMENT.

708

" ' The following dispatch, just received from Maj.-Gen. Parke, who refers it to me for my action. I refer it to you in Lieut.-Gen. Grant's absence.
" E. 0. C. ORD,
'" Major-General Commanding.' "

"'HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF POTOMAC,
4 P. M., January 29, 1865. "'
Maj.-Gen. E. O. G. Ord, Headquarters Army of the James: " ' The following dispatch is forwarded to you for your action, Since I have no knowledge of Gen. Grant's having had any understanding of this kind, I refer the matter to you as the ranking officer present in the two armies.
(Signed,) "' JOHN G. PARKE,
" 'Major-General Commanding.'"

" 'FROM HEADQUARTERS NINTH ARMY CORPS,
" ' January 29, 1865. "'
Major-General John G. Parke, Headquarters Army of Potomac :

" 'Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter and J. A. Campbell desire to cross my lines, in accordance with an under-standing claimed to exist with Lieut.-Gen. Grant, on their way to Washington as peace commissioners. Shall they be admitted? They desire an early answer to come through immediately. Would like to reach City Point to-night, if they can. If they can not do this, they would like to come through at 10 A. M. to-morrow morning.
(Signed,) " O. B. WILCOX,
" ' Major-General Commanding Ninth Corps.' "

It appears that about the time of placing the foregoing telegram in my hands, the Secretary of War dispatched Gen. Ord as follows, to-wit:

[Copy.]
" WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON CITY,"
January 29, 1865, 10 P. M.
Major-General Ord:

"This Department has no knowledge of any understanding by Gen. Grant to allow any person to come within his lines as commissioners of any sort. You will, therefore, allow no one to come into your lines under such character or profession

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Afterward, by my direction, the Secretary of War telegraphed Gen, Ord as follows, to-wit:

"WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON, D. C.,
10.30 A. M., January 30, 1865.
"Maj.-Gen. E. O. C. Ord, Headquarters Army of the James:"

By direction of the President, you are instructed to inform the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, that a messenger will be dispatched to them at or near where they now are, without unnecessary delay.
(Signed,) "EDWIN M. STANTON,
"Secretary of War."

Afterward, I prepared and put into the hands of Major Thomas T. Eckert the following instructions and message:

"EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865. "Major T. T. Eckert:

"SlR: You will proceed with the documents placed in your hands, and on reaching (Gen. Ord will deliver him the letter addressed to him by the Secretary of War; then, by Gen. Ord's assistance, procure an interview with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, or any of them, deliver to him or them the paper on which your own letter is written, note on the copy which you retain the time of delivery and to whom delivered, receive their answer in writing, waiting a reasonable time for it, and which, if it contain their decision to come through, without further condition, will be your warrant to ask Gen. Ord to pass them through, as directed in the letter of the Secretary of War to him. If by their answer they decline to come, or propose other terms, do not have them passed through. And this being your whole duty, return and report to me.
"Yours, truly, A. LINCOLN."

"Messrs, Alex. H. Stephens, J. A. Campbell and R. M. T. Hunter:

"GENTLEMEN: I am instructed by the President of the United States to place this paper in your hands, with the infor-

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[Copy.]
"WASHINGTON, January 18, 1865."
F. P. Blair, Esq.:

" SIR : You having shown me Mr. Davis' letter to you of the 12th inst, 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, &c., A. LINCOLN."

Afterward, but before Major Eckerthad departed, the following dispatch was received from Gen. Grant:

[Cipher.] "OFFICE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH,
" WAR DEPARTMENT. " The following telegram received at Washington, M., January 31, 1865:
"'FROM CITY POINT, VIRGINIA, 10.30 A. M., "January 31, 1865.

" 'His Excellency) Abraham, Lincoln, President of the United States:
"'The following communication was received here last evening:

" ' PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA, January 30, 1865.
Lieut.-Gen, Grant, Commanding Armies U. S. A.:

" ' SIR: We desire to pass your lines under safe-conduct, and

711

"I have sent directions to receive these gentlemen, and expect to have them at my quarters this evening, awaiting your instructions.
" U.S. GRANT,
" Lieutenant-General Commanding Armies U. S."

This, it will be perceived, transferred Gen. Ord's agency in the matter to Gen. Grant. I resolved, however, to send Maj. Eckert forward with his message, and accordingly telegraphed Gen. Grant as follows, to-wit:

[Telegram—Copy.]
"EXECUTIVE MANSION, " WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865.
" Lieut.-Gen. Grant, City Point, Virginia:

" A messenger is coming to you on the business contained in your dispatch. Detain the gentlemen in comfortable quarters until he arrives, and then act upon the message he brings as far as applicable, it having been made up to pass through Gen. Ord's hands, and when the gentlemen were supposed to be beyond our lines.
(Signed,) " A. LINCOLN." Sent in cipher, at 1.30 P. M.

When Major Eckert departed, he bore with him a letter of the Secretary to Gen. Grant, as follows, to-wit:

[Letter—Copy.]
" WAR DEPARTMENT,"
WASHINGTON, January 30, 1865.
"Lieut.-Gen. Grant, Commanding, etc. :

"GENERAL: The President desires that you will please prore for the bearer, Major Thomas T. Eckert, an interview with

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Supposing the proper point to be then reached, I dispatched the Secretary of State with the following instructions, Major Eckert, however, going ahead of him:

" EXECUTIVE MANSION, " WASHINGTON, January 31, 1865, "
Hon. Wm. H. Seward, Secretary of State:
" You will proceed to Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and informally confer with Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, on the basis of my letter to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you have.
" You will make known to them that three things are indispensable, to wit:
" 1. 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.
" 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 they have to say, and report it to me.
" You will not assume to definitely consummate anything."
" Yours, etc., ABRAHAM LINCOLN."

On the day of its date the following telegram was sent to Gen. Grant:

[Copy.]
"WAR DEPARTMENT, " WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 1, 1865."
Lieut.-Gen. Grant, City Point, Va.:

"Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military movements or plans.
(Signed) "A. LINCOLN."
Sent in cipher at 1.30 A. M.

713

[In cipher.]
The following telegram received at Washington, 2.30 P. M.,
Feb. 1, 1865:
" FROM CITY POINT, VA., " Feb. 1 —2.30 P. M.
"His Excellency A. Lincoln, President of the United States :

" Your dispatch received; there will be no armistice in conse quence of the presence of Mr. Stephens and others within our lines. The troops are kept in readiness to move at the shortest notice, If occasion should justify it,
" U. S. GRANT, Lieut.-Gen."

To notify Major Eckert that the Secretary of State would be at Fortress Monroe, and to put them in communication, the following dispatch was sent:

[Telegram—Copy.]
"WAR DEPARTMENT," WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb. 1, 1865.
" Major T, T. Eckert, care Gen. Grant, City Point Va. :

"Call at Fortress Monroe, and put yourself under direction of Mr. S., whom you will find there.
(Signed,) " A. LINCOLN."

Sent in cipher at 5.30 P. M.

On the morning of the 2d inst., the following telegrams were received by me respectively from the Secretary of State and Major Eckert:
" FORT MONROE, VA., " 11.30 P. M., February, 1, 1865.
" The President of the United States :
" Arrived at ten (10) this evening. Richmond party not here. I remain here.
" WM. H. SEWARD."
Received 4.30 A. M., Feb. 2, in cipher.

" CITY POINT, VA., 10 P. M., Feb. 1, 1865.
" His Excellency A. Lincoln, President of the United States:

" I have the honor to report the delivery of your communication, and my letter, at four fifteen (4.15) this afternoon, to which I received a reply at six (6) P. M., but not satisfactory. " At eight (8) P. M. the following note addressed to Gen. Grant, was received :

714

" ' SIR : We desire to go to Washington to confer informally with the President personally in reference to the matters mentioned in his letter to Mr. Blair, of the eighteenth (18th) January ultimo, without any personal compromise on any question in the letter.
" ' We have the permission to do so from the authorities in Richmond.
" ' Very respectfully yours,
(Signed,) "'ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS,
"'R. M. T. HUNTER,
"'J. A. CAMPBELL.'

" At nine-thirty (9.30) P. M. I notified them that they could not proceed further unless they complied with the terms expressed in my letter. The point of meeting designated in above note, would not, in my opinion, he insisted upon; think Fortress Monroe would be acceptable. Having complied with my instructions, I will return to Washington tomorrow, unless otherwise ordered.
"Thos. T. ECKERT,
" Major and A. D. C." :

Received in cipher, Feb. 2d. On reading this dispatch of Major Eckert I was about to recall him and the Secretary of State, when the following telegram, of Gen. Grant to the Secretary of War was shown me:

[In cipher.]

The following telegram received at Washington 4.35 A. M., Feb. 2, 1865:
" FROM CITY POINT, VA., Feb. 1, 10.30 P. M. "
Hon. E. M. Stanton, Secretary of War

" Now that the interview between Major Eckert, under his written instructions, and Mr. Stephens and party has ended, I will state confidentially, but not officially, to become a matter of record, that I am convinced, upon conversation with Messrs. Stephens and Hunter, that their intentions are good and their desire sincere to restore peace and Union. I have not felt myself at liberty to express even views of my own or to account for my reticency. This has placed me in an awkward position, which I could have avoided by not seeing them in the first instance. I fear now their going back without any expression from any one in authority will have a bad influence. At the

715

This dispatch of Gen. Grant changed my purpose; and, accordingly, I telegraphed him and the Secretary of State respectively as follows:
" WAR DEPARTMENT, " WASHINGTON, D. C., Feb 2, 1865.
Lieut.-Gen. Grant, City Point, Va.:

" Say to the gentlemen I will meet them at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can get there,
(Signed,) " A. LINCOLN."
Sent in cipher at 9 A. M.

Before starting the following dispatches were shown me. I proceeded, nevertheless:
"OFFICE U. S. MILITARY TELEGRAPH,"
WAR DEPARTMENT,

"The following cipher telegram received at Washington, Feb. 2, 1865 :
" FROM CITY POINT, VA., " 9 A. M., Feb. 2, 1865.
"Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State, Fortress Monroe:
[Copy to Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, Washington.]

" The gentlemen have accepted the proposed terms, and will leave for Fort Monroe at 9.30 A. M.
" U. S. GRANT, Lieut.-Gen."

On the night of the 2d, I reached Hampton Roads, found the Secretary of State and Major Eckert on a steamer anchored off shore, and learned of them that the Richmond gentlemen were on another steamer, also anchored off shore in the Roads, and that the Secretary of State had not yet seen or communi-

716

[COPY.]
" CITY POINT, VA., Feb. 1, 1865. "
Thomas T. Eckert, Major and A. D. C.:
" MAJOR : Your note delivered by yourself this day has been considered. In reply, we have to say that we were furnished with a copy of a letter of President Lincoln to Francis P. Blair, Esq., of the 18th of January, ult., another copy of which is appended to your note. Our instructions are contained in a letter of which the following is a copy:

" ' RICHMOND, Jan. 28, 1865.
" ' In conformity with the letter of Mr. Lincoln, of which the foregoing is a copy, you are to proceed to Washington City for informal conference with him upon the issues involved in the existing war, and for the purpose of securing peace to the two countries.
" 'With great respect, your obedient servant,
(Signed,) " 'JEFFERSON DAVIS.'

" The substantial object to be obtained by the informal conference is to ascertain upon what terms the existing war can be terminated honorably.

"Our instructions contemplate a personal interview between President Lincoln and ourselves at Washington City, but, with explanation, we are ready to meet any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint, at such place as he may designate. Our earnest desire is that a just and honorable peace may be agreed upon, and we are prepared to receive or submit propositions which may, possibly, lead to the attainment of that end.
"Very respectfully, yours,
(Signed,) "ALEX. H. STEPHENS,
" R. M. T. HUNTER,
" JOHN A. CAMPBELL."

A note of these gentlemen, subsequently addressed to Gen. Grant, has already been given in Major Eckert's dispatch of the 1st inst.

717

[COPY.]
" CITY POINT, VA., Feb. 2, 1865. "
Thomas T. Eckert, Major and A. D. C.:
" MAJOR : In reply to your verbal statement that your instructions did not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a passport could be given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to Fortress Monroe and there to have an informal conference with any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter to Francis P. Blair, of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other terms or conditions that he may hereafter propose, not inconsistent with the principles of self-government and popular rights, on which our institutions are founded.

"It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of ideas and information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just and honorable peace can be established without the further effusion of blood, and to contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a result.

" We think it better to add that in acccepting your passport we are not to be understood as committing ourselves to any-thing, but to carry to this informal conference the views and feelings above expressed.
Very respectfully yours, etc.,
(Signed,) "ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS,
" J. A. CAMPBELL,
"R M. T. HUNTER."

" NOTE.—The above communication was delivered to me at Fortress Monroe at 4:30 P. M., February 2d, by Lieut.-Col. Babcock, of General Grant's staff.
(Signed,) "Thos. T. ECKERT,
" Major and A..D. C."

On the morning of the 3d, the gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer and had an interview with the Secretary of State and myself of several hours duration. No question of preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made or mentioned. No other person was present; no papers were exchanged or produced ; and it was, in advance, agreed that the conversation was to be informal, and verbal merely.

On our part the whole substance of the instruction to the

718

This detailed report of the processes and result of a some time mysterious "negotiation," was quite satisfactory to the country. It demonstrated the futility of the "resources of statesmanship," in an attempt to settle issues that the Rebels had determined to leave to the arbitrament of arms. It gave a new impulse, throughout the loyal States, to united efforts for a decisive settlement at the tribunal to which the Secession party had been so prompt to appeal. The use made of this conference at the South, and the view publicly given to the affair by the Rebel leaders will appear from their version, which is subjoined, as published in the Richmond Whig of February 7.

To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Confederate States:

Having received a written notification, which satisfied me that the President of the United States was disposed to confer informally with unofficial agents that might be sent by me, with a view to the restoration of peace, I requested the Hon. Alex. H. Stephens, the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter, and the Hon. John A. Campbell to proceed through our lines, and to hold conference with Mr. Lincoln, or such persons as he might depute to represent him.

I herewith submit, for the information of Congress, the report of the eminent citizens above named, showing that the enemy refused to enter into negotiations with the Confederate States, or any of them separately, or to give to our people any other terms or guarantees than those which the conqueror may grant, or permit us to have peace upon any other basis than an

719

RICHMOND, February 5, 1865.
To the President of the Confederate Slates:

SIR : Under your letter of appointment of the 28th ultimo, we proceeded to seek an "informal conference" with Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, upon the subject mentioned in the letter.

The conference was granted, and took place on the 30th ult., on board of a steamer anchored in Hampton Roads, where we met President Lincoln and the Hon. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States. It continued for several hours, and was both full and explicit.

We learn from them that the message of President Lincoln to the Congress of the United States, in December last, explains clearly and distinctly his sentiments as to the terms, conditions, and method of proceeding by which peace can be secured to the people, and we were not informed that they would be modified or altered to obtain that end.

We understood from him that no terms or proposals of any treaty or agreement looking to an ultimate settlement would be entertained or made by him with the authorities of the Confederate States, because that would be a recognition of their existence as a separate power, which under no circumstances would be done; and, for like reasons, that no such terms would be entertained by him from the States separately that no extended truce or armistice (as at present advised) could be granted or allowed, without a satisfactory assurance, in advance, of a complete restoration of the authority of the Constitution and laws of the United States over all places within the States of the Confederacy ; that whatever consequence may follow from the re-establishment of that authority must be accepted. But that individuals subject to pains and penalties under the laws of the United States might rely upon a very liberal use of the power confided to him to remit those pains and penalties, if peace be restored.

720