Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/515

Rh more than the fate of political parties. The peace feeling after nearly three years of fighting was still repressed into impotency by the same spirit which had at first &quot;let loose the dogs of war.&quot; Two samples of the maneuvering which meant no more than those plays with pawns designed to draw out more potent pieces, are here given to show that the &quot; son of peace &quot; did not rule over the American house.

President Lincoln had made proclamation calling on the people to give thanks to God for recent victories, reciting the advantages belonging to a united country, whereupon Mr. Wood, of New York, offered a resolution in Congress that &quot; Whereas, in view of these triumphs it is no longer beneath our dignity, nor dangerous to our safety to evince a generous magnanimity becoming a great and powerful people, by offering to the insurgents an opportunity to return to the Union without imposing upon them degrading and destructive conditions; there fore, resolved, that the President be requested to appoint three commissioners who shall be empowered to open negotiations with the authorities at Richmond to the end that this bloody, destructive and inhuman war shall cease, and the Union be restored upon terms of equity, fraternity and equality under the Constitution.&quot; The resolution was laid on the table by a party vote of 98 yeas and 59 nays. On the same day Mr. Green Clay Smith offered resolutions that &quot; believing as we do that the only hope of saving this country and preserving this government is by the power of the sword, we oppose any armistice, or intervention, or mediation, or proposition for peace from any quarter so long as there shall be found a rebel in arms against the government, and this resolution was agreed to by a similar vote of 96 yeas against 65 nays. Mr. Rogers offered resolutions declaring that the States in rebellion have the right to reorganize their State governments, to elect representatives in Congress and to be represented in the Union with all the rights of