780 



UNITED STATES. 



tired of fighting, and want peace ; and as they bear 

 all the burden and suffering of the war, is it not right 

 they should have peace, and have it on such terms as 

 they like ? 



JDavi-s I don't understand you ; be a little more 

 explicit. 



Gllmore Well, suppose the two Governments 

 should agree to something like this : To go to the 

 people with two propositions : say, peace with dis- 

 union and Southern independence, as your propo- 

 sition and peace, with union, emancipation, no con- 

 fiscation, and universal amnesty, as ours. Let the 

 citizens of all the United States (as they existed be- 

 fore the war) vote "yes" or "no" on these two 

 propositions, at a special election within sixty days. 

 If a majority votes disunion, our Government to'be 

 bound by it, and to let you go in peace. If a major- 

 ity votes Union, yours to be bound by it and to stay 

 in peace. The two Governments can contract in this 

 way, and the people, though constitutionally unable 

 to decide on peace or war, can elect which of the two 

 propositions shall govern their rulers. Let Lee and 

 Grant, meanwhile, agree to an armistice. This 

 would sheathe the sword ; and, if once sheathed, it 

 would never again be drawn by this generation. 



Davis The plan is altogether impracticable. If 

 the South were only one State, it might work ; but as 

 it is, if one Southern State objected to emancipation 

 it would nullify the whole thing ; for you are aware 

 the people of Virginia cannot vote slavery out of 

 South Carolina, nor the people of South Carolina 

 vote it out of Virginia. 



Gilmore But three-fourths of the States can 

 amend the Constitution. Let it be done in that way ; 

 in any way so that it be done by the people. I am 

 not a statesman or a politician, and I do not know 

 just how such a plan could be carried out; but you 

 get the idea that the people shall decide the ques- 

 tion. 



Davis That the majority shall decide it, you 

 mean. We seceded to nd ourselves of the rule of the 

 majority, and this would subject us to it again. 



Gilmore But the majority must rule finally, either 

 with bullets or ballots. 



Davis I am not so sure of that. Neither current 

 events nor history shows that the majority rules, or 

 ever did rule. The contrary, I think, is true. Why, 

 sir, the man who should go before the Southern peo- 

 ple with such a proposition, with any proposition 

 which implied that the North was to have a voice in 

 determining the domestic relations of the South, 

 could not live here a day. He would be hanged to 

 the first tree, without judge or jury. 



Mr. Benjamin, Secretary of State, in an of- 

 ficial letter to James M. Mason, commissioner 

 in Europe, says : 



Mr. Gilmore then addressed the President, and in 

 a few minutes had conveyed the information that 

 these two gentlemen had come to Richmond impress- 

 pd with the idea that this Government would accept 

 8 peace on a basis of a reconstruction of the Union, 

 /he abolition of slavery, and the grant of an amnesty 

 to the people of the States as repentant criminals. 

 In order to accomplish the abolition of slavery, it 

 was proposed that there should be a general vote of 

 all the people of both federations, in mass, and the 

 majority of the vote thus taken was to determine that 

 as well as all other disputed questions. These were 

 stated to be Mr. Lincoln's views. 



The President answered, that as these proposals 

 had been prefaced by the remark that the people of 

 the North were a majority, and that a majority ought 

 to govern, the offer was, in effect, a proposal that the 

 Confederate States should surrender at discretion, 

 admit that they had been wrong from the beginning 

 of the contest, submit to the mercy of their enemies, 

 and avow themselves to be in need of pardon for 

 their crimes ; that extermination was preferable to 

 dishonor. He stated that if they were themselves so 



unacquainted with the form of their own Government 

 as to make such propositions, Mr. Lincoln ought tc 

 have known, when giving them his views, that it was 

 out of the power of the Confederate Government to 

 act on the subject of the domestic institutions of the 

 several States, each State having exclusive jurisdic- 

 tion on that point, still less to commit the decision of 

 such a question to the vote of a foreign people. 



The next attempt to prepare the way for ne- 

 gotiations was of a semi-official character, and 

 resulted in a clear statement hy the President 

 of his terms of settlement so indefinitely brought 

 out in the preceding conversation. Mr. Horace 

 Greeley, who was the active participant on the 

 Union side, thus relates the origin of the cor- 

 respondence which took place : 



Some time since it was announced by telegraph 

 from Halifax that Messrs. C. C. Clay, of Alabama, 

 Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi (ex-United States 

 Senators'), Professor J. P. Holcombe, of the Univer- 

 sity of Virginia, and George N. Sanders, of Ken- 

 tucky, had reached that city from Dixie -via Bermu- 

 da, on important business, and all of those but Mr. 

 Thompson (who is in Toronto) were soon quartered 

 at the Clifton, on the Canada side of Niagara Falls. 

 I heard soon after of confidential interviews between 

 some or all of.those gentlemen and leading Democrats 

 from our own and neighboring States, and there were 

 telegraphic whispers of overtures for reconstruction, 

 and conditions were set forth as those on which the 

 Confederates would consent to reunion. (I cannot 

 say that any of these reports were authentic.) At 

 length, after several less direct intimations, I receiv- 

 ed a private letter from Mr. Sanders, stating that 

 Messrs. Clay, Holcombe, himself, and another, desired 

 to visit Washington, upon complete and unqualified 

 protection being given by the President or the Sec- 

 retary of War. 



As I saw no reason why the opposition should be 

 the sole recipients of these gentlemen's overtures, if 

 such there were (and it is stated that Mr. Clay afore- 

 said is preparing or to prepare an important letter to 

 the Chicago Convention), I wrote the President, 

 urging him to invite the rebel gentlemen aforesaid to 

 Washington, there to open their budget. I stated 

 expressly that I knew not what they would propose 

 if so invited ; but I could imagine no offer that might 

 be made by them which woutd not conduce, in one 

 way or another, to a restoration of the integrity and 

 just authority of the Union. 



The President ultimately acquiesced in this view 

 so far as to consent that the rebel agents should visi 

 Washington, but directed that I should proceed to 

 Niagara, and accompany them thence to the capital. 

 This service I most reluctantly undertook, feeling 

 deeply and observing that almost any one else might 

 better have been sent on this errand. But time 

 seemed precious, and I immediately started. 



The correspondence was as follows : 

 Mr. Sanders to Mr. Greeley. 



[Private and confidential.] 

 ClIFTOX HOUSE, NlAGAKA FALLS, C. W. I 



July 12, 1SC4. j 



SIR : I am authorized to say that Hon. Clement C. 

 Clay, of Alabama, Professor James P. Holcombe, of 

 Virginia, and George N. Sanders, of Dixie, are ready 

 and willing to go at once to Washington, upon com- 



Elete and unqualified protection being given, either 

 y the President or Secretary of War. Let the per- 

 mission include the three names and one other. 



Very respectfully, GEORGE N. SANDERS. 

 To Hon. HORACE GEEELEY. 



Mr. Greeley 1 s Reply. 



NIAGARA FALLS, N. Y., Jn}y 17, 18C4. 

 GENTLEMEN- : I am informed that you are duly 

 accredited from Richmond as the bearers of propo- 



