speak or act for the Government was conferred upon him. On his return he brought Mr. Lincoln a letter from Jefferson Davis, addressed to himself, the contents of which he had been authorized by Davis to communicate to the President, in which Davis stated he was now, as he always had been, willing to send commissioners, or receive them, and "to enter into a conference with a view to secure peace to the 'two countries."" ." Thereupon the President addressed a note to Mr. Blair, dated January 18th, 1865, in which, after stating that he had read the note of Davis, he said he had been, was now, and should continue, ready to receive any agent whom Davis, or other influential person resisting the national authority might informally send to him with a view of securing peace to the people of "our common country." This note was delivered by Mr. Blair to Jefferson Davis. The visit of Mr. Blair resulted in the appointment by Davis of Alexander H. Stephens, R. M. T. Hunter, and John A. Campbell, to confer with the President on the subject of peace, on the basis of his letter to Mr. Blair. When their arrival at the camp of General Grant was announced, Secretary Seward was charged by the President with representing the Government at the proposed informal conference. With the frankness which was characteristic of Mr. Lincoln, he instructed Mr. Seward to make known to Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell that three things were indispensable, to wit:

1. The restoration of the national authority throughout all the States.

2. No receding by the Executive of the United States on the slavery question, from the position assumed thereon in the late annual message to Congress, and in preceding documents.

3. No cessation of hostilities short of an end of the war, and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government.

He was further instructed to inform them that all propositions of theirs not inconsistent with the above, would be considered and passed upon, in a spirit of sincere liberality. He was further instructed "to hear and report, but not to consummate anything."

However, before any conference was had, the President joined Secretary Seward at Fortress Monroe; and on the 3d

of February, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter,' and Campbell came on board the steamer of the President, and had an interview of several hours with him.

The conditions as contained in the President's instructions to Mr. Seward were stated and insisted upon. Those conditions, it will be observed, contained an explicit statement that the Executive would not recede from the Emancipation Proclamation, nor from any of the positions which he had taken in regard to the abolition of slavery. The agents of Davis were also informed that Congress had by a constitutional majority, adopted the joint resolution, submitting to the States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that there was every reason to believe it would be adopted by three-fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the constitution. The rebel agents earnestly desired a temporary cessation of hostilities, and a postponement of the questions, but to this the President would not listen. So far from this, Mr. Lincoln said to General Grant: "Let nothing that is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military movements or plans." The conference ended without result. *

*Mr. Stephens is stated by a Georgia paper to have repeated the following characteristic anecdote, as having occurred during the interview: "The three Southern gentlemen met Mr. Lincoln and Mr. Seward, and after some preliminary remarks, the subject of peace was opened. Mr. Stephens, well aware that one who asks much may get more than he who confesses to humble wishes at the outset, urged the claims of his section with that skill and address for which the Northern papers have given him credit. Mr. Lincoln, holding the vantage-ground of conscious power, was, however, perfectly frank, and submitted his views almost in the form of an agreement.

"**** Davis had on this occasion, as on that of Mr. Stephens' visit to Washington, made it a condition that no conference should be had, unless his rank as commander or President should first be recognized. Mr. Lincoln declared that the only ground on which he could rest the justice of war-either with his own people or with foreign powers-was that it was not a war for conquest, for that the States had never been separated from the Union. Consequently, he could not recognize another government inside of the one of which he alone was President; nor admit the separate independence of States that were yet a part of the Union. 'That,' said he, 'would be doing what you have so long 'asked Europe to do in vain, and be resigning the only thing the armies of the Union have been fighting for.'

"Mr. Hunter made a long reply to this, insisting that the recognition of Davis' power to make a treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace, and referred to the correspondence between King Charles I. and his Parliament, as a trustworthy precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels. Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that indiscribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked: 'Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and I don't pretend to be bright. My only distinct recollection of the matter is, that Charles lost his head.' That settled Mr. Hunter for a while."

It appears from a statement of Mr. Hunter, one of the persons appointed by Davis to represent the Confederacy at this conference, that Mr. Lincoln was very explicit upon a most important point in regard to reconstruction as it is called. Mr. Hunter, before the rebellion, had been Speaker of the House of Representatives, Senator of the United States, and was one of the ablest men of the Confederates. In a carefully prepared speech made at Richmond on his return from the peace conference, he said: "Whenever we go into the United States as a conquered people, we give up the laws of the United States, and must take such as they choose to make for us; and we go in without representation in making those laws; for," said he, "Mr. Lincoln told us, told me, that while we could send Representatives to the Yankee Congress, yet it rested with that Congress to say whether they would admit them or not."* If Mr. Hunter tells the truth, here is another expression of opinion by Mr. Lincoln, directly upon the point that it rested with Congress exclusively to determine whether Representatives from the rebellious States should be admitted. This statement, made directly after the conference, upon a point upon which Mr. Hunter would naturally feel peculiarly solicitous, may be regarded as entitled to consideration; especially, as it is in harmony with the statements and positions of Mr. Lincoln upon other occasions.

Mr. Lincoln might now well feel confident of early and decisive success. Grant held the forces of Lee so that they could not safely leave their fortifications. Thomas, with a victorious army, was in the West; Sherman, with his invincible army in the South, and it only remained for the comprehensive mind of Grant, after destroying some additional outposts, to close in, and crush the waning military power of the rebels. The army of Hood, having been defeated and nearly destroyed, General Grant directed General Thomas to send General Schofield, with his corps to the East; it was promptly sent, reaching Washington on the 23d of February, and was immediately dispatched to North Carolina. That State was now constituted a military Department,

*This speech will be found quoted in Appleton's Encyclopedia of 1865, p. 191.

and General Schofield assigned to its command, and placed under the orders of General Sherman. General Schofield, in coöperation with the fleet of Admiral Porter, proceeded to reduce Wilmington. The Union troops followed, and entered that city on the morning of the 22d of January, the enemy having retreated towards Goldsboro.

In this extremity, General Lee was, on the 2d of February, appointed to the command of all the armies of the Confederacy. The rebel authorities, in their desperate fortunes, now resolved to call upon the poor, despised negro for aid. Freedom was now offered to him if he would fight for his master. Mr. Benjamin, the Secretary of State of the Confederacy, in a public meeting after the peace conference at Hampton Roads, said the Confederates had 680,000 black men, and he expressed his regret that they had not been called into the field. He continued: "Let us now say to every negro who wishes to go into the ranks on condition of being free, go and fight-you are free.' My own negroes have been to me and said, 'master, set us free, and we'll fight for you.' "He continued: "You must make up your minds to try this, or see your army withdrawn from before your town. * I know not where white men can be found." General Lee had long before recommended this policy, and declared that the war could be carried on only by the employment of negro soldiers. On the 16th of February, the Legislature of Virginia passed resolutions authorizing and consenting that such number of able-bodied slaves might be enlisted into the military service, as might be deemed necessary. A bill was passed in the Confederate Congress, authorizing the employment of slaves, but it came too late to be of service, if, indeed, it ever could have availed.

Sherman, on the 1st of February, started his army from Savannah. A broad track of desolation, sweeping along the great lines of railroads, marked his path. On the 17th, he captured Columbia, South Carolina; thence, he moved on Goldsboro, North Carolina, by Fayetteville, reaching the latter city on the 12th of March, and opening communications with General Schofield. On the 25th of February, General Joe Johnston was appointed by Jefferson Davis to

command the army of the Tennessee, and all the troops of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.

On the 15th of March, Sherman resumed his march upon Goldsboro, and after a severe fight at Averysboro, compelled the enemy to retreat. On the 18th, the combined forces of . the enemy under Johnston, attacked Sherman's advance at Bentonville, capturing three guns and driving it back upon the main body, but on the night of the 21st they retreated.

Sherman's forces now united with those of Generals Terry and Schofield. Among the most important fruits of the campaign of Sherman into South Carolina, none were more gratifying than the fall of Charleston. The march of Sherman to Columbia compelled its evacuation, which took place on the night of the 17th, and it was occupied by the Union troops on the 18th of February. The Union flag had been lowered at Sumter, the 14th of April, 1861. For nearly four years, this proud city had successfully resisted all attacks upon it, but was forced at last to yield to the army of Sherman, which had marched unchecked half across the Republic, from North to South, and from West to East. It was now occupied and held by colored troops, many of them recruited from South Carolina. Here, as elsewhere throughout the slave States, the Union soldiers were received by the negroes with acclamations of delight. They followed the National flag through the streets singing:

"Ye's long been a'comin,

Ye's long been a'comin, etc.,
For to take de land.

"And now ye's a'comin,

And now ye's a'comin, etc.,
For to rule de land."

While the Union armies were everywhere marching on from victory to victory, let us return to the Capital, to witness the second inauguration of him who was the central figure of the vast and complicated machinery now moving forward with irresistible force to crush into one common grave slavery and rebellion.

On the night of the 3d of March, 1865, as is usual on the last night of the session, the President, with his Cabinet, was