Page:Appletons' Cyclopædia of American Biography (1892, volume 3).djvu/762

724 we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled by the bondsman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by an- other drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said, ' The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous al- together.' With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his orphan — to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and a lasting peace among ourselves, and with all nations." through them with the Confederate authorities, Mr. Lincoln despatched him to Niagara Falls, and sent an open letter addressed, " To whom it may con- cern ' (see illustration). It is in the possession of Mr. William H. Appleton, of New York, and now appears in fac-simile for the first time. This docu- ment put an end to the negotiation. The Confed- erate emissaries in Canada, and their principals in Richmond, made no use of this incident except to employ the president's letter as a text for denuncia- tion of the National government. But later in the year, the hopelessness of the struggle having be- come apparent to some of the Confederate leaders, Mr. Davis was at last induced to send an embassy to Portress Monroe, to inquire what terms of ad- justment were possible. They were met by Presi- dent Lincoln and the secretary of state in person.

The triumphant election of Mr. Lincoln, no less than the steady progress of the National armies, convinced some of the more intelligent of the southern leaders that their cause was hopeless, and that it would be prudent to ascertain what terms of peace could be made before the utter destruc- tion of their military power. There had been already several futile attempts at opening negotia- tions ; but they had all failed of necessity, because neither side was willing even to consider the only terms that the other side would offer. There had never been a moment when Mr. Lincoln would have been willing to receive propositions of peace on any other basis than the recognition of the na- tional integrity, and Mr. Davis steadfastly refused to the end to admit the possibility of the restora- tion of the national authority. In July, certain unauthorized persons in Canada, having persuaded Horace Greeley that negotiations might be opened The plan proposed was one that had been suggested, on his own responsibility, by Mr. Francis Preston Blair, of Washington, in an interview he had been permitted to hold with Mr. Davis in Richmond, that the two armies should unite in a campaign against the French in Mexico for the enforcement of the Monroe doctrine, and that the issues of the war should be postponed for future settlement. The president declined peremptorily to entertain this scheme, and repeated again the only conditions to which he could listen : The restoration of the national authority throughout all the states, the maintenance and execution of all the acts of the general government in regard to slavery, the cessation of hostilities, and the disbanding of the insurgent forces as a necessary prerequisite to the ending of the war. The Confederate agents reported at Richmond the failure of their embassy, and Mr. Davis denounced the conduct of President