Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 7.djvu/608

 5 76 Lincoln's dealing with peace overtures. [1862-4 the contending parties the prospect of decisive victory seemed distant, and the final issue of the war involved in great doubt. For the moment, public opinion permitted a freer expression of the hope always latent in many minds that the burdens and sacrifices of war might be removed; and the expression manifested itself in the speeches of individuals, the editorials of newspapers, and the resolutions of meetings, and occasionally even in the debates and proceedings of both the Federal and Confederate Congresses. As yet, however, such manifestations were feeble and sporadic in comparison with the great mass of public sentiment both North and South; and it is worthy of mention here only to show the manner in which it was dealt with by President Lincoln. A prominent but some- what eccentric member of the Democratic party, Fernando Wood, a representative in Congress, wrote to the President that he had "reliable and truthful authority" to say that the Southern States would send representatives to the next Congress, provided that a full and general amnesty should permit them to do so. He asked further that he might be allowed to hold unofficial correspondence with Southern leaders on the subject, such correspondence to be submitted to the President. Lincoln replied to him under date of December 12, that he strongly suspected that his information would prove groundless, but that, if "the people of the Southern States would cease resistance, and would re-inaugurate, submit to, and maintain the national authority within the limits of such States under the Constitution of the United States, the war would cease ; and that, if within a reasonable time 'a full and general amnesty' were necessary to such end, it would not be with- held. I do not think it would be proper now for me to communicate this formally or informally to the people of the Southern States. . .nor do I think it proper now to suspend military operations to try any experiment of negotiation." Nothing more was heard from Wood's "reliable and truthful authority." In June, 1863, Alexander H. Stephens, the Confederate Vice- President, became impressed with the belief that existing military and political conditions might enable him as a former intimate personal friend of Lincoln to accomplish something in the way of opening peace negotiations ; and Jefferson Davis authorised him to propose a conference about an exchange of prisoners. Stephens applied to Admiral Lee at Fortress Monroe for permission to proceed to Washington in his own steamer in order to deliver a written communication to the President. When Lincoln received the dispatch in which Admiral Lee forwarded the request, he himself drafted an answer to be sent by the Secretary of the Navy refusing the permission, and explaining that military communications would be readily received through the well understood military channels; adding also, "of course nothing else will be received by the President, when offered as in this case in terms assuming the independence of the so-called Confederate States;