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.

---

[682] Alexander H. Stephens, in a negotiation with Washington, and for this purpose to bring him and President Davis to a friendly understanding. There had long been a coolness between these two high officers. Mr. Stephens had blown hot and cold in the war. At the beginning of the contest he opposed secession; after the great battles of 1862 around Richmond, he was intensely Southern, and thought the death of every individual in the Confederacy preferable to subjugation; at later periods of the war he squinted at “reconstruction,” and dallied with the “Union” faction in the South. The reputation of this man is a striking example of how difficult it is in all parts of America for the people to distinguish between a real statesman and an elaborate demagogue. Mr. Stephens had a great idea of his personal consequence; he was touchy and exacting in his intercourse with other public men; and he refused to pass a word with President Davis until he had obtained from him the concession of a circuitous message that “the President would be glad to see Mr. Stephens.” In the interview which took place, President Davis remarked graciously, but with a tinge of sarcasm in his tone, that he knew of “no one better calculated to conduct a peace negotiation with the North than Mr. Alexander H. Stephens.” In the statement of his views the President was remarkably liberal. He allowed Mr. Stephens to name for himself the associate commissioners, who were R. M. T. Hunter of Virginia, and J. A. Campbell of Alabama; he burdened him with no detail of instructions; he said: “I give you a carte-blanche, only writing on it the one word, ‘Independence.’ ”

The anxiously expected conference did not take place until the 3d of February. It was attended on the Federal side by President Lincoln himself, accompanied by his Secretary of State, Mr. Seward; the presence of the Northern President having been induced by an earnest telegram from Gen. Grant, expressing his personal belief that the Confederate commissioners, who had passed through his lines, were sincere in their desire for peace, and his strong conviction that a personal interview with them on the part of Mr. Lincoln was highly desirable. The Confederate commissioners were entertained on board of a steamer lying in Hampton Roads. The conference was studiously informal; there were no notes of it; there was no attendance of secretaries or clerks; there was an irregular conversation of four hours, enlivened by two anecdotes of Mr. Lincoln; but there being absolutely no basis of negotiation between the two parties, not even a single point of coincidence between them, they separated without effect. The Confederate commissioners obtained only from the interview the distinct, enlarged, and insolent demand of Mr Lincoln, that the South should submit unconditionally to the rule of the Union, and conform to the advanced position of the Federal Executive on the subject of slavery, which included an amendment to the Constitution abolishing this domestic institution