198 



CONFEDERATE STATES. 



EXECUTIVE OFFICE, RICHMOND, Jan. 8, 1864. 



DEAU SIR : I have received your letter of the 30th 

 ultimo, containing suggestions of the measures to be 

 adopted for the purpose of removing "the sources 

 of discontent " in North Carolina. The contents of 

 the letter are substantially the same as those of the 

 letter addressed by you to Senator Dortch, extracts 

 of which were by him read to me. I remarked to 

 Mr Dortch that you were probablynot aware of the ob- 

 stacles to the course you indicated, and without ex- 

 pressing an opinion on the merits of the proposed 

 policy, I desired him in answering your letter to 

 write suggestions as to the method of opening ne- 

 gotiations, and as to the terms which you thought 

 should be offered to the enemy. I felt persuaded 

 you would appreciate the difficulties as soon as your 

 attention was called to the necessity of considering 

 the subject in detail. As you have made no sug- 

 gestions touching the manner of overcoming the 

 obstacles, I infer that you was not apprised by Mr. 

 Dortch of my remarks to him. 



Apart from insuperable objections to the line of 

 policy you propose (and to which I will presently 

 advert) I cannot see how the more material obstacles 

 are to be surmounted. We have made three distinct 

 efforts to communicate with the authorities at Wash- 

 ington, and have been invariably unsuccessful. 

 Commissioners were sent before hostilities were 

 begun, and the Washington Government refused to 

 receive them or hear what they had to say. A sec- 

 ond time I sent a military officer with a communi- 

 cation addressed by myself to President Lincoln. 

 The letter was received by Gen. Scott, who did not 

 permit the officer to see Mr. Lincoln, but promised 

 that an answer would be sent. No answer has ever 

 been received. The third time, a few months 

 ago, a gentleman was sent, whose position, char- 

 acter, and reputation were such as to insure his 

 reception, if the enemy were not determined to re- 

 ceive no proposals whatever from the Government. 

 Vice-President Stephens made a patriotic tender of 

 his services in the hope of being able to promote the 

 cause of humanity, and although little belief was 

 entertained of his success, I cheerfully yielded to 

 his suggestion that the experiment should be tried. 

 The enemy refused to let him pass through their 

 lines or to hold any conference with them. He was 

 stopped before he ever reached Fortress Monroe on 

 his way to Washington. 



To attempt again (in the face of those repeated 

 rejections of all conference with us) to send com- 

 missioners or agents to propose peace, is to invite 

 insult and contumely, and to subject ourselves to 

 indignity without the slightest chance of being 

 listened to. No true citizen, no man who has our 

 cause at heart, can desire this, and the good people 

 of North Carolina would be the last to approve of 

 such an attempt, if aware of all the facts. So far 

 from removing sources of discontent, such a course 

 would receive, as it would merit, the condemnation 

 of those true patriots who have given their blood 

 and their treasure to maintain the freedom, equality, 

 and independence which descended to them from 

 the immortal heroes of King's Mountain and other 

 battle-fields of the Revolution. If, then, these pro- 

 posals cannot be made through envoys because the 

 enemy would not receive them, bow is it possible to 

 communicate our desire for peace otherwise than by 

 the public announcement contained in almost every 

 message I ever sent to Congress? I cannot recall at 

 this time one instance in which I have failed to an- 

 nounce that your only desire was peace, and the 

 only terms which formed a sine qua non were pre- 

 cisely that you suggested, namely, "a demand only 

 tc be let alone." 



But suppose it were practicable to obtain a confer- 

 ence through commissioners with the Government of 

 President Lincoln, is it at this moment that we are 

 to consider it desirable or even at all admissible ? 

 Have we not just been apprised by that despot that* 



we can only expect his gracious pardon by emanei 

 pating all pur slaves, swearing allegiance and obe- 

 dience to him and his proclamation, and becoming, 

 in point of fact, the slaves of our own negroes? Can 

 there be in North Carolina one citizen so fallen be- 

 neath the dignity of his ancestors as to accept or to 

 enter into conference on the basis of these terms ? 

 That there are a few traitors in the State who would 

 be willing to betray their fellow-citizens to such a de- 

 graded condition in hope of being rewarded for 

 treachery by an escape from the common doom, may 

 be true. But I do not believe that the vilest wretch 

 would accept such terms for himself. I cannot con- 

 ceive how the people of your State, than which none 

 has sent nobler or more gallant soldiers to the field 

 of battle (one of whom it is your honor to be), can 

 have been deceived by anything to which you refer 

 in "the recent action of the Federal House of Kep- 

 resentatives." I have seen no action of that House 

 that does not indicate, by a very decided majority, 

 the purpose of the enemy to refuse all terms to the 

 South except absolute unconditional subjugation or 

 extermination. But if it were otherwise, how are we 

 to treat with the House of Representatives ? It is 

 with Lincoln alone that we ever could confer, and his 

 own partisans at the North avow unequivocally that 

 his purpose in his message and proclamation was to 

 shut out all hope that he could ever treat with us on 

 any terms. If we will break up our government, 

 dissolve the Confederacy, disband our armies, eman- 

 cipate our slaves, take an oath of allegiance binding 

 ourselves to obedience to him, and of disloyalty to 

 our own States, he proposes to pardon us, and not to 

 plunder us of any thing more than the property 

 already stolen from us, and such slaves as still re- 

 main. In order to render his proposals so insulting 

 as to secure their rejection, he joins to them a promise 

 of support with his army to one-tenth of the people 

 of any State who will attempt to set up a govern- 

 ment over the other nine-tenths, thus seeking to sow 

 discord and suspicion among the people of the seve- 

 ral States, and to excite them to civil war in further- 

 ance of his ends. 



I knew well it would be impossible to get your peo- 

 ple, if they possessed full knowledge of these facts, to 

 consent that proposals should now be made by us to 

 those who control the Government at Washington. 

 Your own well-known devotion to the great cause of 

 liberty and independence, to which we all have com- 

 mitted whatever we have of earthly possessions, 

 would induce you to take the lead in repelling the 

 bare thought of abject submission to the enemy. Yet 

 peace on other terms is now impossible. To obtain 

 the sole terms to which you or I could listen, this 

 struggle must continue until the enemy is beaten out 

 of his vain confidence in our subjugation. Then, and 

 not till then, will it be possible to treat of peace. Till 

 then all tender of terms to the enemy will be received 

 as proof that we are ready for submission, and will 

 encourage him in the atrocious warfare which is 

 waging. 



I fear much, from the tenor of the news I receive 

 from North Carolina, that an attempt will be made 

 by some bad men to inaugurate movements which 

 must be considered as equivalent to aid and comfort 

 to the enemy, and which all patriots should combine 

 to put down at any cost. You may count on my aid 

 in every effort to spare your State the scenes of civil 

 warfare which will devastate its homes if the designs 

 of these traitors be suffered to make headway. I 

 know that you will place yourself in your legitimate 

 position in the lead of those who will not suffer the 

 name of the Old North State to be blackened by such 

 a stain. Will you pardon me for suggesting tliat my 

 only source of disquietude on the subject arises from 

 the fear that you will delay too long the action which 

 now appears inevitable, and that by an over-earnest 

 desire to reclaim by conciliation men whom you be- 

 lieve to be sound at heart but whose loyalty is more 

 than suspected elsewhere, you will permit them to 



