Southern Historical Society Papers, Volume 27.
Reverend J. William Jones, Ed.

[368] Clement C. Clay, Jr., and James P. Holcombe, unless they could show ‘written authority from Jefferson Davis’ to make unconditional surrender. Greeley, who had procured their coming to negotiate for a cessation of the war, protested against Lincoln's action as follows, in a letter written him in July, 1864 (see Holland's Life, etc., page 478): ‘Our bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country longs for peace, shudders at the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of further wholesale devastations and new rivers of human blood; and there is a widespread conviction that the Government and its supporters are not anxious for peace, and do not improve proffered opportunities to achieve it.’ He further intimates (page 482) the possibility of a Northern insurrection.

Ben Perley Poore, in Reminiscences of Lincoln, collected and edited by Allen Thorndyke Rice (page 248), shows Beecher's censures of Lincoln, and so do Beecher's editorials in the Independent of 1862. Hapgood's Abraham Lincoln quotes (page 164) Wendell Phillips about Lincoln, ‘Who is this huckster in politics? Who is this county court lawyer?’ Morse's Lincoln (Vol. I, page 177) gives severe censures of Lincoln by Wendell Phillips. McClure's Lincoln, etc., records in two places (pages 112 and 259) the reprobation of Lincoln by Thad. Stevens, ‘The Great Commoner.’ Miss Ida Tarbell, in McClure's Magazine for 1899 (page 277), calls Sumner, Wade, Winter Davis and Chase ‘malicious foes of Lincoln,’ on the authority of one of Lincoln's closest intimates, Leonard Swet, and in the same magazine for July, 1899 (page 218, et seq.), says: ‘About all the most prominent leaders * * * were actively opposed to Lincoln,’ and mentions Greeley as their chief. McClure's Lincoln, etc. (page 54, et seq.), shows the hostility to Lincoln of Sumner, Trumbull and Chandler, and of his Vice-President, Hamlin.

Fremont, who, eight years before, had received every Republican vote for President, charged Lincoln (Holland's Life, etc., page 469, et seq.,) with ‘incapacity and selfishness,’ with ‘disregarding personal rights,’ with ‘violation of personal liberty and the liberty of the press,’ with ‘feebleness and want of principle,’ and we find (page 470, et seq.,) quoted from a letter of Fremont: ‘Had Lincoln remained faithful to the principles he was elected to defend, no schism could have been created and no contest could have been possible. * * * The ordinary rights under the Constitution and laws of the country have been violated;’ and he further accused Lincoln of ‘managing the war for personal ends.’

Seward has been much criticised, and accused of rare presumption,