Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/583

Rh the effort to enter into conference with the view to secure peace to the two countries. {{right|{{sc|Jefferson Davis}}.&quot;

With this important letter Mr. Blair returned to Washington, and showing it to President Lincoln, obtained from him a communication designed to be read by the Confederate President. This letter, also addressed to Mr. Blair, and dated at Washington, January 18, 1865, was as follows:

&quot;Sir: You having shown me Mr. Davis letter to you of the 12th instant, 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. {{right|{{sc|Abraham Lincoln}}.&quot;

Thus far the preliminaries seemed to gratify Mr. Blair. &quot;It was well you wrote me that letter,&quot; he said to Mr. Davis when he reached Richmond, on his second visit bearing the letter from Mr. Lincoln, and on which action was taken at once notwithstanding its careful avoidance of all recognition of Confederate States officials, its characterization of the Confederate President as simply one of a number of &quot;influential persons engaged in resisting the national authority,&quot; and its plain foil of the intimation of Mr. Davis that there were two countries.

What prevented the success of this mission? President Davis thought that during Blair s stay in Richmond he discovered more than ought to have been known abroad concerning the weakness of the Confederacy, and the anxiety for peace which disturbed men s minds. His visits excited great interest and great hopes in Richmond. His high character, his Southern blood, his sage-like appearance, his supposed influence at Washington, all contributed to make him and his objects deeply interesting