Edward Alfred Pollard, The lost cause; a new Southern history of the War of the Confederates ... Drawn from official sources and approved by the most distinguished Confederate leaders.

[569] the Constitution. He said: “I approve the declaration in favour of st amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the nation. When the people in revolt, with a hundred days of explicit notice that they could, within those days, resume their allegiance, without the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could not resume it afterwards, elected to stand out, such amendment to the Constitution as is now proposed, became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final success of the Union cause. Such alone can meet and cover all cavils. Now, the unconditional Union men, North and South, perceive its importance, and embrace it. In the joint names of Liberty and Union, let us labour to give it legal form and practical effect.” He thus clearly declared that abolition by an amendment of the Constitution was the “legal form” of procedure, which “alone can meet and cover all cavils.” But the pressure of the canvass soon drove him away from this position; and forced him to propound a project for the abolition of slavery by unconstitutional proceeding. This project was interpolated by Mr. Lincoln into the platform of his party in his notable rescript of the 18th of July, dated from the Executive chamber, and addressed “To whom it may concern.” That extraordinary and unique partisan document was promulgated under the following circumstances:

Early in the summer of 1864, the Confederate Government had sent, as we have seen, a commission of intelligent persons to Canada, as a convenient and important theatre for the presence of a judicious agency. The commission held no specific authority themselves to participate directly in any conference with the Government at Washington looking to peace. In the action which they took, they went no further than to propose to confer on the expediency and preliminary conditions of such a meeting. The commissioners were Messrs. Clement C. Clay, James P. Holcombe, and Jacob Thompson. It is proper to observe that these persons were agents of the Confederate Executive; that their nominations to any mission were never communicated to the Congress at Richmond; and that they were paid out of the secret service fund. Using George N. Sanders and W. C. Jewett as intermediaries, they exchanged notes with Mr. Horace Greeley, with a view to obtain from President Lincoln, through the influence of that well-known politician, a safe-conduct to the city of Washington. This correspondence with Mr. Greeley commenced on the 12th July, 1864. By the 17th of the month, the President seemed to have consented to grant the safe-conduct; and Mr. Greeley had repaired to Niagara, apparently to deliver it to the commissioners. But it was soon developed in correspondence that the commissioners had no particular authority from their Government themselves to enter upon the subject of peace; and that Mr. Lincoln's passport, in terms, implied that its bearers should be expressly accredited to his Government on that subject. The commissioners could not therefore accept or make use of the paper. After various explanations,