Chapter XXIII: Tightening the Lines

Speech at a Serenade--Reply to a Presentation Address--Peace
Rumors--Rebel Commissioners--Instructions to Secretary Seward--
The Conference in Hampton Roads--Result--Extra Session of the
Senate--Military Situation--Sherman--Charleston--Columbia--
Wilmington--Fort Fisher--Sheridan--Grant--Rebel Congress--
Second Inauguration--Inaugural--English Comment--Proclamation to
Deserters.

As illustrative of the genial, pleasant manner of the President, take the following, in response to a serenade, December 6th, 1864:

“FRIENDS AND FELLOW-CITIZENS:--I believe I shall never be old
enough to speak without embarrassment when I have nothing to talk
about. I have no good news to tell you, and yet I have no bad news
to tell. We have talked of elections until there is nothing more
to say about them. The most interesting news we now have is from
Sherman. We all know where he went in at, but I can’t tell where he
will come out at. I will now close by proposing three cheers for
General Sherman and his army.”

On the 24th of January, 1865, having been made the recipient of a beautiful vase of skeleton leaves, gathered from the battle-field of Gettysburg, which had been subscribed for at the great Sanitary Fair, held in Philadelphia during the previous summer, in reply to the warmly sympathetic and appreciative address of the Chairman of the Committee entrusted with the presentation, he said:

“REVEREND SIR, AND LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:--I accept, with emotions
of profoundest gratitude, the beautiful gift you have been pleased
to present to me. You will, of course, expect that I acknowledge
it. So much has been said about Gettysburg and so well said, that
for me to attempt to say more may perhaps, only serve to weaken the
force of that which has already been said.

“A most graceful and eloquent tribute was paid to the patriotism
and self-denying labors of the American ladies, on the occasion of
the consecration of the National Cemetery at Gettysburg, by our
illustrious friend, Edward Everett, now, alas! departed from earth.
His life was a truly great one, and, I think, the greatest part of
it was that which crowned its closing years.

“I wish you to read, if you have not already done so, the glowing,
and eloquent, and truthful words which he then spoke of the women
of America. Truly the services they have rendered to the defenders
of our country in this perilous time, and are yet rendering, can
never be estimated as they ought to be.

“For your kind wishes to me, personally, I beg leave to render you,
likewise, my sincerest thanks. I assure you they are reciprocated.
And now, gentlemen and ladies, may God bless you all.”

* * * * *

With the opening of the new year, the air--as often before--was filled with rumors that the insurgents were anxious to negotiate for peace.

Some there were, even among Mr. Lincoln’s friends and supporters, who were apprehensive that his “To whom it may concern” announcement of the previous year, was somewhat too curt and blunt. Without claiming to have as good an opportunity as the President for judging in the premises, they could not yet divest themselves of the idea that something definite and tangible might result from an interview with representatives from rebeldom; if nothing more, at least a distinct understanding that no peace could be attained, without separation, unless it were conquered.

Thoroughly familiar with the designs and purposes of the leading rebels as Mr. Lincoln was, and well aware that any such attempt must prove futile, he was nevertheless determined that no valid ground for censure should be afforded by himself, in case a favorable opening presented itself.

Accordingly, when he learned--as he did during the last week of January, from his friend, Francis P. Blair, who had visited Richmond, with the President’s permission--that the managers there were desirous of sending certain persons as commissioners to learn from the United States Government upon what terms an adjustment of difficulties could be made, and that A. H. Stephens, of Georgia, R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, and J. A. Campbell, of Alabama, had been sent through the enemy’s lines by Davis for the purpose of a conference upon the subject, Mr. Lincoln, not choosing that the commissioners should visit Washington, entrusted the matter to Secretary Seward, furnishing him with the following letter of instructions, dated Executive Mansion, Washington, January 31st, 1865:

“HON. WILLIAM H. SEWARD, Secretary of State:--You will proceed to
Fortress Monroe, Virginia, there to meet and informally confer with
Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on the basis of my letter
to F. P. Blair, Esq., of January 18, 1865, a copy of which you have.

“You will make known to them that three things are indispensable,
to wit:

“1. The restoration of 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.

“You will inform them that all propositions of theirs not
inconsistent with the above, will be considered and passed upon in
a spirit of sincere liberality.

“You will hear all they may choose to say, and report it to me.

“You will not assume to definitely consummate any thing.

“Yours truly, A. LINCOLN.”

On the 2d of February, the President himself left for the point designated, and on the morning of the 3d, attended by Mr. Seward, received Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, on board a United States steamer anchored in Hampton Roads.

The conference that ensued was altogether informal. There was no attendance of Secretaries, clerks, or witnesses. Nothing was written or read. The conversation, although earnest and free, was calm and courteous and kind, on both sides. The Richmond party approached the discussion rather indirectly, and at no time did they make categorical demands or tender formal stipulations or absolute refusals; nevertheless, during the conference, which lasted four hours, the several points at issue between the Government and the insurgents were distinctly raised and discussed fully, intelligently, and in an amicable spirit. What the insurgent party seemed chiefly to favor was a postponement of the question of separation, upon which the war was waged, and a mutual direction of the efforts of the Government as well as those of the insurgents, to some extraneous policy or scheme for a season, during which passions might be expected to subside, and the armies be reduced, and trade and intercourse between the people of both sections be resumed.

It was suggested by them that through such postponement we might have immediate peace, with some, not very certain, prospect of an ultimate satisfactory adjustment of political relations between the Government and the States, section or people engaged in conflict with it. The suggestion, though deliberately considered, was nevertheless regarded by the President as one of armistice or truce, and he announced that we could agree to no cessation or suspension of hostilities except on the basis of the disbandonment of the insurgent forces, and the restoration of the national authority throughout all the States in the Union collaterally, and in subordination to the proposition which was thus announced.

The anti-slavery policy of the United States was reviewed in all its bearings, and the President announced that he must not be expected to depart from the positions he had heretofore assumed in his proclamation of emancipation and other documents, as these positions were reiterated in his annual message.

It was further declared by the President that the complete restoration of the national authority everywhere was an indispensable condition of any assent on our part to whatever form of peace might be proposed. The President assured the other party that while he must adhere to these positions he would be prepared, so far as power was lodged with the Executive, to exercise liberality. Its power, however, is limited by the Constitution, and when peace should be made Congress must necessarily act in regard to appropriations of money and to the admission of representatives from the insurrectionary States.

The Richmond party were then informed that Congress had, on the 31st of January, adopted, by a constitutional majority, a joint resolution submitting to the several States the proposition to abolish slavery throughout the Union, and that there was every reason to expect that it would soon be accepted by three-fourths of the States, so as to become a part of the national organic law.

The conference came to an end by mutual acquiescence, without producing an agreement of views upon the several matters discussed, or any of them.

On the following morning the President and Secretary returned to Washington, and shortly afterward, in compliance with a resolution to that effect, Congress was informed in detail of all that had led to the interview and its issue.

Thus was spiked the last gun bearing upon the terms on which the rebels would consent to peace. Whatever might have been the impression previously it was then well understood that to the armies in the field then converging toward Richmond, and not to the Executive of the nation, resort was to be had for peace upon any basis which loyal men would indorse.

On the 17th of February, in accordance with the general custom at the expiration of a Presidential term, the Senate was convened in active session by the following proclamation:

“WHEREAS, objects of interest to the United States require that the
Senate should be convened at twelve o’clock on the fourth of March
next, to receive and act upon such communications as may be made to
it on the part of the Executive--

“Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, have considered it to be my duty to issue this my
proclamation, declaring that an extraordinary occasion requires
the Senate of the United States to convene for the transaction of
business, at the Capitol, in the city of Washington, on the fourth
day of March next, at twelve o’clock at noon on that day, of which
all who shall at that time be entitled to act as members of that
body are hereby required to take notice.

“Given under my hand and the seal of the United States, at
Washington, the 17th day of February, in the year of our Lord one
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of the Independence of
the United States of America, the eighty-ninth.

“By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“WILLIAM. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”

At this time, the military situation was very interesting to every friend of the Union, whatever might have been the feelings it created among those who had so long been in arms against the Government.

Sherman had “come out” at Savannah, capturing it and presenting it as a Christmas gift to the nation, after an extraordinary march from Atlanta--which he had deprived of all power for harm--directly through the heart of Georgia; a march as to which the rebel journalists made ludicrous efforts to be oracular in advance, predicting all manner of mishaps from the Georgia militia and the various “lions” in his way.

Thomas had fallen back leisurely to Nashville, forcing Hood, his antagonist, who had supplanted Johnston on account of his fighting qualities, to the loss of almost his entire army in a sanguinary battle which occurred near that city, Thomas being the attacking party. With the remnants of his discomfited force, the fighting general had fallen back, where was not definitely known, but evidently to some secure support.

Sherman having recuperated his army, had left Savannah and marched into South Carolina, where, according to the beforenamed veracious chroniclers, he was to flounder in bogs and quagmires, at the mercy of his valorous foes. He floundered on, truly--floundered, so as to flank Charleston, that nursery and hot-bed of treason, which had so long insulted the land--and compel its hurried evacuation; floundered, so as to capture and occupy Columbia, the capital of the Palmetto State; floundered, so as to threaten Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina; and at the time of which we write, had at last floundered to Goldsborough, where he had effected a connection with another column, which had pierced to that point after the capture of Wilmington, North Carolina, the pet port of disinterested blockade-runners--a capture rendered certain by the storming of Fort Fisher, commanding the entrance to its harbor, in connection with which one Major-General was made and another unmade--whether the latter result was brought about with or without the coöperation of the commander of the naval part of the expedition, it boots not here to inquire.

Whither Sherman would flounder next became to all rebeldom a question of the very deepest interest. Davis having been compelled by his Congress to assign the discarded Johnston to a command, and Lee to the command of all the rebel armies, Johnston was dispatched to head Sherman off, should he be insane enough to attempt to move any nearer Richmond--a species of insanity to which, it must be confessed, he had shown a marked tendency.

Sheridan, too, having chased Early up and out of the Shenandoah Valley--that Early the one of whom his troops were wont to remark, that his principal business seemed to be “to trade Confederate cannon for Yankee whiskey”--had been raiding around Richmond in whatsoever direction he listed, severing communications, gobbling up supplies, and creating a general consternation.

And still the bull-dog’s teeth were firmly fastened in his victim. Not twistings, nor squirmings, nor strugglings, nor counterbites could do more than to defer--and that but for a short time--the inevitable.

The rebel congress, at the very last moment of its last session, had squeezed through a bill for arming the slaves, and Davis had grimly wished them a safe and pleasant journey to their respective homes. It was too late, both for the slaves and the homes.

Meantime, on Saturday, March 4th--a day which opened unpropitiously, so far as the elements were concerned, but which redeemed itself before noontide, becoming bright and cheerful--at the hour appointed, the oath of office was for the second time administered to Mr. Lincoln--not, however, by the same Chief Justice, for Roger B. Taney slept with his fathers, and in his place stood Salmon P. Chase--after which, on a staging erected at the eastern portico of the Capitol, he read in a clear, distinct voice, his second inaugural, occupying not more than ten minutes in the act:

“FELLOW-COUNTRYMEN:--At this second appearing to take the oath of
the Presidential office, there is less occasion for an extended
address than there was at the first. Then a statement somewhat
in detail of a course to be pursued seemed very fitting and
proper. Now, at the expiration of four years, during which public
declarations have constantly been called forth on every point and
phase of the great contest which still absorbs the attention and
engrosses the energies of the nation, little that is new could be
presented.

“The progress of our arms, upon which all else chiefly depends,
is as well known to the public as to myself, and it is, I trust,
reasonably satisfactory and encouraging to all. With high hope
for the future, no prediction in regard to it is ventured. On the
occasion corresponding to this four years ago, all thoughts were
anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all
sought to avoid it. While the inaugural address was being delivered
from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without
war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it,
without war; seeking to dissolve the Union and divide the effects
by negotiation.

“Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather
than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather
than let it perish, and the war came.

“One-eighth of the whole population were colored slaves, not
distributed generally over the Union, but located in the southern
part of it. These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful
interest. All knew that this interest was somehow the cause of
the war. To strengthen, perpetuate and extend this interest was
the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union by war,
while the Government claimed no right to do more than to restrict
the territorial enlargement of it. Neither party expected the
magnitude or the duration which it has already attained. Neither
anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease, even before
the conflict itself should cease. Each looked for an easier triumph
and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same
Bible and pray to the same God, and each invokes his aid against
the other. It may seem strange that any man should dare to ask a
just God’s assistance in wringing his bread from the sweat of other
men’s faces. But let us judge not, that we be not judged.

“The prayer of both should not be answered. That of neither has
been answered fully. The Almighty has his own purposes. ‘Woe unto
the world because of offences, for it must needs be that offences
come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh.’ If we shall
suppose that American slavery is one of these offences which, in
the providence of God, must needs come, but which, having continued
through his appointed time, he now wills to remove, and that he
gives to both North and South this terrible war as the woe due
to those by whom the offence came, shall we discern therein any
departure from those Divine attributes which the believers in a
living God always ascribe to him?

“Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray that this mighty scourge
of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue
until all the wealth piled by the bondman’s two hundred and fifty
years of unrequited toil shall be sunk and until every drop of
blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the
sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must
be said, that the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether.

“With malice towards none, with charity for all, with firmness in
the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to
finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care
for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow and his
orphans, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace among ourselves and with all nations.”

Of this address--which was of course made the subject for the coarsest comments of those who enjoyed nought so much as aiding the pack that hounded Mr. Lincoln while living--an English journal, second to none in ability and judgment, and leader of the better class of thinkers in that country, thus spoke:

“It is the most remarkable thing of the sort, ever pronounced by
any President of the United States from the first day until now.
Its Alpha and its Omega is _Almighty God_, the God of justice and
the Father of mercies, who is working out the purposes of his love.
It is invested with a dignity and pathos, which lift it high above
every thing of the kind, whether in the Old World or the New.
The whole thing puts us in mind of the best men of the English
Commonwealth; there is, in fact, much of the old prophet about it.”

On the 16th of March, in accordance with an Act of Congress, grace was extended to deserters by the following proclamation:

“WHEREAS, The twenty-first section of the act of Congress,
approved on the 3d instant, entitled ‘an act to amend the several
acts heretofore passed to provide for the enrolling and calling
out of the National forces, and for other purposes,’ requires
that, in addition to the other lawful penalties of the crime
of desertion from the military or naval service, ‘all persons
who have deserted the military or naval service of the United
States, who shall not return to the said service or report
themselves to a provost-marshal within sixty days after the
proclamation hereinafter mentioned, shall be deemed and taken
to have voluntarily relinquished and forfeited their rights to
become citizens; and such deserters shall be forever incapable of
holding any office of trust or profit under the United States,
or of exercising any rights of citizens thereof; and all persons
who shall hereafter desert the military or naval service, and all
persons who, being duly enrolled, shall depart the jurisdiction
of the district in which he is enrolled, or go beyond the limits
of the United States, with the intent to avoid any draft into the
military or naval service duly ordered, shall be liable to the
penalties of this section. And the President is hereby authorized
and required forthwith, on the passage of this act, to issue
his proclamation setting forth the provisions of this section,
in which proclamation the President is requested to notify all
deserters returning within sixty days, as aforesaid, that they
shall be pardoned on condition of returning to their regiments and
companies, or to such other organizations as they may be assigned
to, unless they shall have served for a period of time, equal to
their original term of enlistment’--

“Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United
States, do issue this my proclamation, as required by said act,
ordering and requiring all deserters to return to their proper
posts, and I do hereby notify them that all deserters who shall
within sixty days from the date of this proclamation, viz.: on or
before the tenth day of May, 1865, return to service, or report
themselves to a provost-marshal, shall be pardoned, on condition
that they return to their regiments and companies or such other
organizations as they may be assigned to, and serve the remainder
of their original terms of enlistment, and, in addition thereto, a
period equal to the time lost by desertion.

“In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the
seal of the United States to be affixed.

“Done at the city of Washington, this eleventh day of March, in the
year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, and of
the Independence of the United States the eighty-ninth.

“By the President: ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

“W. H. SEWARD, Secretary of State.”