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.

STATE PAPERS OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 663
ognition of the South as an independent nation, an interview with the President and Secretary Seward was obtained. But they did not secure the consent of their Executive to negotiate upon the only basis which Mr. Lincoln would for a moment admit-the absolute and
acknowledged supremacy of the National Government;
and the whole scheme, therefore, fell to the ground.*
The attempt at negotiation, however, served a useful
purpose. It renewed the confidence of the people
throughout the loyal States in the President's unalterable
determination to maintain the Union, while it proved his
willingness to'end the war whenever that great and paramount object could be secured; and, at the same time, it
dispelled the delusive hopes, with wh-ich the rebel leaders had so long inspired the hearts of the great body of
the Southern people, that peace was possible with the independence of the Southern States. The attempt of Mr.
Davis, in the message we have already cited,t to "fire
the Southern heart" afresh, by his vivid picture of the
tyrannical and insulting exactions of President Lincoln,
was utterly fruitless. His appeals fell upon wearied ears
and despondent hearts.
Other important affairs had also arisen to occupy the
* Since the overthrow of the rebellion an account of this conference has
been published in the Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, said to have been prepared under
the supervision of Mr. A. H. Stephens. It adds nothing material to the facts
already known, but the following paragraphs are not without interest:"Davis had on this occasion, as on that of Mr. Stephens's visit to Washtonton, made It a
condition that no conference should be had unless his rank as commander or President should
first be recognized. Mr. Lincoln declared that the only ground upon which he could rest the
justice of the war-either with his own people or with foreign powvrs-was, that it was not
a. war for conquest, but that the States never had been separated from the Union. Consequently, he could not recognize another government inside of the one of which he alone was
President, nor admit the separate independence of States that were yet a part of the Union.
That,' said he, 'would be doing what you so long asked Europe to do in vain, and be resigning
the only thing the armies of the Union are fighting for.'
"Mr. Hunter made a long reply, insisting that the recognition of Davis's power to make a
treaty was the first and indispensable step to peace, and referring to the correspondence between
King Charles the First and his Parliament as a reliable precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels.," Mr. Lincoln's face then wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked: ' Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he
is posted in such things, and I don't profess to be. But my only distinct recollection of the
matter is, that Charles lost his head.' That settled Mr. Hunter for a wbile."
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