Gen. Lee did not Contemplate Early surrender.
Lincoln offered no Terms—The veteran statesman Denies that the Confederate commissioners could have ended the War upon conditions that would have been satisfactory and creditable to the Southen people.Hon. John Goode, President of the Constitutional Convention, one of the few survivors of the Confederate Congress, has, at the request of Lee Camp Confederate Veterans, furnished that body with a paper that is a most valuable contribution to Confederate history. Some time ago in addressing the Camp, Mr. Goode stated that he [178] wished to correct two errors of history. One was that General Lee, shortly before his surrender, advised the Confederate authorities that further resistance would be useless, and the other was that at the so-called peace conference in Hampton Roads, the Confederate commissioners, if they had displayed real statesmanship, could have secured terms by which the war could have been ended on terms satisfactory and creditable to the Southern people. Mr. Goode was requested to write out his recollections as to these matters for publication. He shows conclusively that General Lee, not very long before the surrender, manifested and expressed his intention to carry on the war. Mr. Goode also makes it very plain that Mr. Lincoln did not offer any terms to the South which our people could have even thought of accepting.
