Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/174

 passed the Senate by a two-thirds majority) forever prohibiting slavery in the United States.

These explicit declarations in the message left no uncertainty as to the terms upon which the Civil War would be ended. The House promptly passed the amendment by a majority of more than two-thirds, fifty-six Democrats voting against it. All of the Iowa members, in both House and Senate, were warm supporters of the amendment.

During the winter, an attempt was made by three Confederate commissioners, Stephens, Campbell and Hunter, on the part of the Confederate Government, to secure peace on some basis of separation from the Union. These commissioners were permitted to pass through General Grant’s lines at Petersburg, to meet and confer with President Lincoln and Secretary Seward at Fortress Monroe. A free conference took place, but the President would concede no terms that did not restore the Union of all of the States, and the Confederate Commissioners were not authorized to surrender the independence of the Confederacy, and so ended the last effort to establish peace by negotiation.

In the meantime, Sherman’s great army was sweeping through Georgia and South Carolina with irresistible power. In it were a large number of veteran Iowa regiments. Thomas had won a great victory over Hood at Nashville and driven his army out of Tennessee. Grant was closing the coils around Lee’s veteran army at Petersburg and Richmond.

In the spring of 1865 the Confederate cause was desperate. A most merciless conscription had already dragged almost every able bodied man of the middle and lower classes into the ranks. The wealthy scions of chivalry were holding Government positions or filling the offices in the army. The resources of men and money to be drawn upon were exhausted and all realized that the collapse was near at hand.

Soon after the inauguration of President Lincoln, in