Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/503

 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 497 to Washington, that they might confer with the president. Mr. Lincoln wrote the safe- conduct and intrusted it to Mr. Greeley, who, finding that the supposed commissioners were not authorized to do or say anything definite, would not deliver it without further instruc- tions. Considerable correspondence ensued, and then the president sent the following by his private secretary, which was delivered to the confederate agents on July 20 : " To whom it may concern : Any proposition which em- braces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole and with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the United States, will be received and consid- ered by the executive government of the United States, and will be met by liberal terms on substantial and collateral points, and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have sale-con- duct both ways." On receipt of this, the confederate agents ad- dressed a long letter to Mr. Greeley, declaring that it " precluded negotiation, and prescribed in advance the terms and conditions of peace," and revealing in the closing paragraphs that the main if not the sole purpose of the proceed- ing had been to influence the pending presi- dential election. Mr. Lincoln was charged with having suddenly and entirely changed his views and the terms on which the agents were to be received at Washington. At the presi- dent's request, Postmaster General Blair re- signed on Sept. 23, and William Denison of Ohio was appointed in his place. During September and October Gen. Sheridan, by several brilliant victories, swept the Shenan- doah valley clean of the confederate forces that had occupied it under Early. Hood was defeated in all his operations against Sherman's communications, and finally dashed himself to pieces against the defences of Nashville. The early state elections in Maine, Vermont, Penn- sylvania, Ohio, and Indiana were carried by the republicans, and Maryland, by a close vote, adopted a new constitution forbidding slavery. As the presidential election approached, threats and rumors of revolution at the north were rife, and a body of soldiers under Gen. Butler was sent to New York to prevent an outbreak. Such precautions were taken in other places also that the election was the quietest ever known, though a heavy vote was polled. On the popular vote Lincoln received 2,213,665; McClellan, 1,802,237. The latter carried New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky, while all the other states which held an election gave their votes to Lincoln. Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia held no election. In responding to a serenade, Nov. 10, the presi- dent said : "So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man's bosom. While I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a reelection, and duly grateful, as I trust, to Almighty God for having direct- ed my countrymen to a right conclusion,* as I think, for their good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any other man may be disap- pointed by the result. May I as*k those who have not differed with me to join with me in this same spirit toward those who have ? " In counting the electoral votes, congress excluded those of Louisiana and Tennessee; their ad- mission, however, would not have changed the result. The total number counted was 233, of which Lincoln and Johnson had 212, Mc- Clellan and Pendleton 21. On Nov. 19 the president by proclamation opened the ports of Norfolk, Va., and Fernandina, Fla. The con- federate cruiser Florida, while in the port of Bahia, Oct. 7, had been seized by a man-of- war, and the affair caused a slight disturb- ance in the diplomatic relations between the United States and Brazil. But the government promptly disowned the act of the commander, surrendered the crew, and was only prevent- ed from restoring the Florida by the fact that she sunk in Hampton Roads from injuries re- ceived in a collision. Attorney General Bates resigned on Dec. 1, and was succeeded by James Speed of Kentucky. Chief Justice Taney had died in October, and on Dec. 6 the president conferred the office on Salmon P. Chase. The annual message to congress (Dec. (i, 1864) closed with this paragraph : "In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the insurgents as the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to sla- very. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation. Nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that pro- clamation or by any of the acts of congress. If the people should, by whatever mode or means, make it an executive duty to reenslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it. In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it." As the call of July 18 had been largely filled by the application of credits for men previously enlisted, the president on Dec. 19 called for 200,000 more. The release by a Canadian justice of raiders who had recrossed to Canada after committing robbery and murder in St. Albans, Vt., when they were demanded under the extradition treaty, caused intense indigna- tion ; but an order by Gen. Dix directing the troops under his command to cross the border if necessary to capture such raiders in future, was promptly revoked by the president. The latter, however, ordered that no person should enter the country without a passport, except emigrants coming directly by sea ; and congress directed the president to give notice to the Canadian government of the termination of the reciprocity treaty, which was made in 1854 and had proved largely advantageous to Can- ada. Sherman completed his grand march through Georgia in time to present the gov- ernment with the city of Savannah "as a Christmas gift ;" Grant's lines were extended further around Petersburg, cutting off the Weldon railroad ; and in January Fort Fisher, commanding the harbor of Wilmington, where blockade-running had been most successful,
 * Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by