[520] The following letter was given by me to Blair:
When Blair returned and gave me this letter of Lincoln of January 18th, it being a response to my note to Blair of the 12th, he said it had been a fortunate thing that I gave him that note, as it had created greater confidence in Lincoln regarding his efforts at Richmond. Further reflection, he said, had modified the views he formerly presented to me, and that he wanted to have my attention for a different mode of procedure. He had, as he told Lincoln, held friendly relations with me for many years; they began as far back as when I was a schoolboy at Lexington, Kentucky, and he a resident of that place. In later years we had belonged to the same political party, and our views had generally coincided. There was much, therefore, to facilitate our conference. He then unfolded to me the embarrassment of Lincoln on account of the extreme men in Congress and elsewhere who wished to drive him into harsher measures than he was inclined to adopt, whence it would not be feasible for him to enter into any arrangement with us by the use of political agencies; that, if anything beneficial could be effected, it must be done without the intervention of the politicians. He therefore suggested that Generals Lee and Grant might enter into an arrangement by which hostilities would be suspended, and a way paved for the restoration of
