Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 03.djvu/179

 General Jackson's election to the Presidency and his administration, and, indeed, through the whole period succeeding it up to the election of President Lincoln, adhered to the Government party, and labored earnestly for its success. Finding that things were going much further than he had anticipated, and becoming alarmed for the consequences, he interposed earnestly in the cause of peace and procured the opportunity to visit Richmond, where he saw many old friends and party associates. Here his representations were not without effect upon his old Confederates who for so long had been in the habit of taking counsel with him on public affairs. He said what seemed to many of us to have much truth, that the disparity of resources was so great in favor of the Federals as would make a much further resistance on the part of the Confederacy impracticable. The United States, he said, if necessary for their purpose, could empty the population of Europe upon the Southern coasts by the offer of the lands of the dispossessed Southern landholders, and they would come in such number that any attempt at resistance would be hopeless. If the resistance, too, were protracted much further, such a temper would be exerted among the adherents of the Government that they would not object to the exchange, but be quite willing for it. Believing this to be the disposition of our opponents, and that a real danger was to be apprehended from a continuance of the war, my own attention was now more seriously directed to peace than heretofore. It turned the thoughts of many Confederates toward peace more seriously than ever before since the commencement of the war. But the very fact of the existence of such disposition on the part of the United States Government, showed how small were the chances for a peaceful and friendly settlement of existing differences between the parties.

The talk about peace became so earnest and frequent in the capital of the Confederacy, and the indications of a desire for it among many members of the Confederacy became so plain and obvious, that President Davis and his friends began to feel that it was expedient that the Confederate Government should show some desire for peace on fair terms. To show no sense of responsibility for the terrible conflict then waging, and no desire for peace on any terms, would injure the Confederate Government in the eyes of its own people. The intrinsic difficulties in the way of a fair accommodation were scarcely appreciated, and the desire for change so