The end of the conference.
I did not advert to the fact that we were with arms in our hands upon this occasion when we came to treat with him, but I replied this had been often done, especially by Charles I, when at civil war with the British Parliament.
He laughed, and said that “
Seward could talk with me about Charles I, he only knew that Charles I had lost his head.”
I said not for that, but because he made no satisfactory settlement at all. But it was of no use to talk with him upon this subject.
It was evident that both he and
Seward were terribly afraid of their constituents.
They would hint at nothing but unconditional submission, although professing to disclaim any such demand.
Reunion and submission seemed their sole conditions.
Upon the subject of a forfeiture of lands,
Mr. Lincoln said it was well known that he was humane and not disposed to exact severe terms.
It was then that I expressed myself more freely on the subject of the negotiation and the condition of affairs.
It seemed, I said, that nothing was left us but absolute submission both as to rights and property, a wish to impose no unnecessary sacrifice on us as to landed property on the part of one branch of our Government, but no absolute assurance as to this.
I might have said it was the expression of an absolute determination not to treat at all, but to demand a submission as absolute as if we were passing through the
Candine forks.
Such a rebuke to negotiation after a civil war of half this magnitude in any
European nation, probably would have called down the intervention of its neighbors; nor is it probable that the parties to a civil war in any civilized
European nation could have met for purposes of adjustment without some plan of relief or amelioration on the part of the stronger in favor of the weaker.
Mr. Seward, it is true, disclaimed all demand for unconditional submission.
But what else was the demand for reunion and abolition of slavery, without any compensation for negroes or even absolute safety for property proclaimed to have been forfeited?
