The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

648 THE LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND
the national authority. It was not, therefore, without a
good deal of solicitude that the public learned that Mr.
Francis P. Blair, an able, resolute, and experienced politician, had left Washington for Richmond, armed with a
pass from President Lincoln, and that the real object of
his visit was to prevail upon Jefferson Davis to send, or
receive, commissioners to treat of peace between the contending parties. The rumor proved to be substantially
true. The President had given Mr. Blair a pass through
our lines and back. He had gone to Richmond, and had
held free conf;erences with Mr. Davis and other members
of the Rebel Government. He returned to Washington
on the 16th of January, bringing with him a written assurance, addressed to himself, from Jefferson Davis, of
hi — willingness to enter into negotiations for peace, to
receive a commissioner whenever one should be sent,
and of his readiness, whenever Mr. Blair could promise
that he would be received, to appoint such a commissioner, minister, or other agent, and thus " renew the effort
to enter into a conference with a view to secure peace between the two countries." Mr. Blair presented this letter
to President Lincoln, who at once authorized him to return to Richmond, carrying with him his written assurance that he had constantly been, was then, and should continue to be, "ready to receive any agent whom Mr. Davis,
or any other influential person now resisting the national
authority, may informally send me, with a view of securing peace to the people of our common country." Mr.
Blair left Washington on the 20th of January for Richmond, and on the next day placed in the hands of Mr.
Davis this response of President Lincoln to his previous
assurance; and Mr. Davis then learned that commissioners from him could be received to treat of peace, only on
the assumption that the people of the United States still
had one " common country," and not on the assumption,
which Mr. Davis had advanced, that they were divided
into two independent powers.
In consequence of these communications, on the 29th
of January, three persons, Alexander H. Stephens, R. M.