Niagara Falls, Clifton House, July 21, 1864.
To the Honorable Horace Greeley:—
Sir : — The paper
handed to Mr. Holcombe on yesterday, in your presence, by Major Hay, A. A. G.,
as an answer to the application in our note of the 18th instant, is couched in
the following terms:—
EXECUTIVE MANSION,
Washington, July 18, 1864
To
WHOM IT MAY CONCERN:
Any
proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole
Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and with an authority
that can control the armies now at war against the United States, will be received
and considered by the Executive Government of the United States, and will be
met by liberal terms on other substantial and collateral points, and the bearer
or bearers thereof shall have safe-conduct both ways.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
The application to
which we refer was elicited by your letter of the 17th instant, in which yon
inform Mr. Jacob Thompson and ourselves that you were authorized by the
President of the United States to tender us his safe-conduct, on the hypothesis
that we were ‘duly accredited from Richmond as bearers of propositions looking
to the establishment of peace,’ and desired a visit to Washington in the
fulfilment of this mission. This assertion, to which we then gave and still do,
entire credence, was accepted by us as the evidence of an unexpected but most
gratifying change in the policy of the President, — a change which we felt
authorized to hope might terminate in the conclusion of a peace mutually just,
honorable, and advantageous to the North and to the South, exacting no condition
but that we should be ‘duly accredited from Richmond as bearers of propositions
looking to the establishment of peace.’ Thus proffering a basis for conference
as comprehensive as we could desire, it seemed to us that the President opened
a door which had previously been closed against the Confederate States for a
full interchange of sentiments, free discussion of conflicting opinions, and
untrammelled effort to remove all causes of controversy by liberal
negotiations. We, indeed, could not claim the benefit of a safe-conduct which
had been extended to us in a character we had no right to assume, and had never
affected to possess; but the uniform declarations of our Executive and
Congress, and then thrice-repeated and as often repulsed attempts to open
negotiations, furnish a sufficient pledge to us that this conciliatory
manifestation on the part of the President of the United States would be met by
them in a temper of equal magnanimity. We had, therefore, no hesitation in
declaring that if this correspondence was communicated to the President of the
Confederate States, he would promptly embrace the opportunity presented for
seeking a peaceful solution of this unhappy strife. We feel confident that you
must share our profound regret that the spirit which dictated the first step
toward peace had not continued to animate the councils of your President. Had
the representatives of the two governments met to consider this question, the
most momentous ever submitted to human statesmanship, in a temper of becoming
moderation and equity, followed, as their deliberations would have been, by the
prayers and benedictions of every patriot and Christian on the habitable globe,
who is there so bold as to pronounce that the frightful waste of individual happiness
and public prosperity which is daily saddening the universal heart might not
have been terminated, or if the desolation and carnage of war must still be
endured through weary years of blood and suffering, that there might not at
least have been infused into its conduct something more of the spirit which
softens and partially redeems its brutalities?
Instead of the
safe-conduct which we solicited, and which your first letter gave us every
reason to suppose would be extended for the purpose of initiating a
negotiation, in which neither government would compromise its rights or its
dignity, a document has been presented which provokes as much indignation as
surprise. It bears no feature of resemblance to that which was originally
offered, and is unlike any paper which ever before emanated from the
constitutional executive of a free people. Addressed ‘to whom it may concern,’
It precludes negotiations, and prescribes in advance the terms and conditions of
peace. It returns to the original policy of ‘no bargaining, no negotiations, no
traces with Rebels except to bury their dead, until every man shall have laid
down his arms, submitted to the government, and sued for mercy.’
Whatever may be the
explanation of this sudden and entire change in the views of the President, of
this rude withdrawal of a courteous overture for negotiation at the moment it
was likely to be accepted, of this emphatic recall of words of peace just
uttered, and fresh blasts of war to the bitter end, we leave for the
speculation of those who have the means or inclination to penetrate the
mysteries of his cabinet, or fathom the caprice of his imperial will It is
enough for us to say that we have no use whatever for the paper which has been
placed in our hands.
We could not
transmit it to the President of the Confederate States without offering him an
indignity, dishonoring ourselves, and incurring the well-merited scorn of our
countrymen. While an ardent desire for peace pervades the people of the
Confederate States, we rejoice to believe that there are few, if any, among
them who would purchase it at the expense of liberty, honor, and self-respect.
If it can be secured only by their submission to terms of conquest, the
generation is yet unborn which will witness its restitution.
If there be any
military autocrat in the North who is entitled to proffer the conditions of
this manifesto, there is none in the South authorized to entertain them. Those
who control our armies are the servants of the people, — not their masters; and
they have no more inclination, than they have the right, to subvert the social
institutions of the sovereign States, to overthrow their established
constitutions, and to barter away their priceless heritage of self-government.
This correspondence will not, however, we trust, prove wholly barren of good
result.
If there is any
citizen of the Confederate States who has clung to a hope that peace was
possible with this administration of the Federal government, it will strip from
his eyes the last film of such delusion; or if there be any whose hearts have
grown faint under the suffering and agony of this bloody struggle, it will
inspire them with fresh energy to endure and brave whatever may yet be
requisite to preserve to themselves and their children all that gives dignity
and value to life or hope and consolation to death. And if there be any
patriots or Christians in your land, who shrink appalled from the illimitable
vista of private misery and public calamity which stretches before them, we
pray that in their bosoms a resolution may be quickened to recall the abused
authority, and vindicate the outraged civilization of their country. For the
solicitude you have manifested to inaugurate a movement which contemplates
results the roost noble and humane we return our sincere thanks, and are most
respectfully and truly your obedient servants,
C. C. Clay, Jr.
James P. Holcombe.
SOURCE: James Parton, The Life of Horace Greeley, p. 475-7
