Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/555

Rh had inaurguated war and with at least a seeming desire to abandon sectionalism had assumed the title of &quot; The National Union Party, although the platform certainly belied the name, and lacked the one plank for which North and South were yearning. It lacked the plain declaration that all the States could at once resume toward each other and toward the government their former co-equal relations, a distinct negativing of the policy of conquest and military reconstruction. On the contrary it emphasized subjugation by arms, and denounced with vigor any compromise with rebels or any offer to them of terms of peace except such as may be based on unconditional surrender. It even assumed the responsibility of endorsing all the war measures, notwithstanding the courts had in some form expressed judicial condemnation of them. Yet notwithstanding these flies in the pot of ointment the way to peace was not entirely closed. Mr. Lincoln on his first response to the nomination shrewdly avoided committing himself to the platform and in his formal letter merely said,&quot; the resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily approved. Doubt less he meant a full approval without subjecting himself to the iron-clad restraints of a document manifestly designed to catch the votes of extremists without losing the support of the &quot; war democracy.&quot;

Nearly two important months followed before the meeting of the third or Democratic convention, during which time the whole question of peace went under formal review.

The Southern aspect of the peace question at this juncture may now be considered. On account of information early in 1864 that there was a state of political feeling favorable to the termination of the war, a special commission was sent to Canada as a position where interviews might be held which could lead to an amicable settlement. Clay, of Alabama; Holcombe, of Virginia; and Thompson, of Mississippi, three among the most