As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.
In what is one of the condemning actions of President Abraham Lincoln, was the intrigue engaged in, in never contemplating the peaceful union of America, but was hell bent on dominating the Southern Americans and dictating to them using slave terror in order to continue the war to the genocide of the Southern race.
Abraham Lincoln absolutely knew the Southern Government was not going to agree to being an occupied slave race for Washington City and agree to slitting it's own throat on Rights. The responsibility for every death in America was Abraham Lincoln's alone.
The tragedy of this, is before the war was engaged in, when secession was just a political idea, General Winfield Scott stated that the South would return sooner in peace than the length a war would take.
Abraham Lincoln absolutely understood this, and Lincoln for financier profits chose war.
There is so much more to this though than Lincoln subterfuge, as there were honest men like General Ord and General Longstreet, who were engaged in this process, as General Longstreet was married into the same Dent family which General Grant was joined in marriage to.
There was rightful expectation for an honorable peace on both sides, to save lives, to rejoin America, but when the decision came, Abraham Lincoln opted after Gettysburg, more Gettysburgs in more butchery of Americans North and South.
The politicians were too afraid of peace in the North, and it was left to the military to attempt peace, but when the peace was offered, Lincoln chose what he did from the start in absolute war.
During the early days of February, Hon. Montgomery Blair visited Richmond upon a mission of peace, and brought about a meeting at Hampton Roads between President Lincoln and Secretary Seward and the Confed- erate Vice-President, Alexander H. Stephens, and the Hon. R. M. T. Hunter and Judge J. A. Campbell. Presi- dent Lincoln was firm for the surrender of the Confed- erate armies and the abolition of slavery, which the Con- federate President did not care to consider. About the 15th of February, Major-General J. C. Breckenridge was appointed Secretary of War, and Briga- dier-General F. M. St. John was appointed commissary- general of subsistence. General Ord, commanding the Army of the James, sent me a note on the 20th of February to say that the bar- tering between our troops on the picket lines was irregu- lar ; that he would be pleased to meet me and arrange to put a stop to such intimate intercourse. As a soldier he knew his orders would stop the business ; it was evident, therefore, that there was other matter he would intro- duce when the meeting could be had. I wrote in reply, appointing a time and place between our lines. We met the next day, and presently he asked for a side interview. When he spoke of the purpose of the meeting, I mentioned a simple manner of correcting the matter, which he accepted without objection or amendment. Then he spoke of affairs military and political. Referring to the recent conference of the Confederates with President Lincoln at Hampton E-oads, he said that the politicians of the North were afraid to touch the ques- tion of peace, and there was no way to open the subject except through officers of the armies. On his side they thought the war had gone on long enough ; that we should come together as former comrades and friends and talk a little. He suggested that the work as belligerents should be suspended ; that General Grant and General Lee should meet and have a talk ; that my wife, who was an old acquaintance and friend of Mrs. Grant in their girl- hood days, should go into the Union lines and visit Mrs. Grant with as many Confederate officers as might choose to be with her. Then Mrs. Grant would return the call under escort of Union officers and visit Richmond ; that while General Lee and General Grant were arranging for better feeling between the armies, they could be aided by intercourse between the ladies and officers until terms honorable to both sides could be found. I told General Ord that I was not authorized to speak on the subject, but could report upon it to General Lee and the Confederate authorities, and would give notice in case a reply could be made. General Lee was called over to Richmond, and we met at night at the President's mansion. Secretary-of-War Breckenridge was there. The report was made, several hours were passed in discussing the matter, and finally it was agreed that favorable report should be made as soon as another meeting could be arranged with General Ord. Secretary Breckenridge expressed especial approval of the part assigned for the ladies.
General Longstreet in trust, as did General Lee, took the offer from General Ord on faith that real peace could be established and put an end to this war. Cover was given to the meeting proposed for General Grant and General Lee, but in the best laid plans of mice and men, General Grant though returned to the Lincoln position as once again the political actors who had others suffering and dying for their war, ruled America in death and war, instead of life and peace.
As we separated, I suggested to General Lee that he should name some irrelevant matter as the occasion of his call for the interview with General Grant, and that once they were together they could talk as they pleased. A telegram was sent my wife that night at Lynchburg calling her to Richmond, and the next day a note was sent General Ord asking him to appoint a time for an- other meeting. The meeting was appointed for the day following, and the result of the conference was reported. General Ord asked to have General Lee write General Grant for an interview, stating that General Grant was prepared to receive the letter, and thought that a way could be found for a military convention, while old friends of the military service could get together and seek out ways to stop the flow of blood. He indicated a desire on the part of President Lincoln to devise some means or excuse for paying for the liberated slaves, which might be ar- ranged as a condition and part of the terms of the con- vention, and relieve the matter of political bearing ; but those details were in the form of remote probabilities to be discussed when the parties became advanced in their search for ways of settlement. On the 1st of March I wrote General Lee giving a report of the second interview, and on the 2d he wrote General Grant as follows : Head- QUARTERS Confederate States Armies, March 2, 1865. Lieutenant- General U. S. Grant, Commanding United States Armies: General, — Lieutenant- General Longstreet has informed me that, in a recent conversation between himself and Major- General Ord as to the possibility of arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy difficulties by means of a military convention, General Ord states that if I desired to have an interview with you on the subject you would not decline, provided I had authority to act. Sincerely desiring to leave nothing untried which may put an end to the calamities of war, I propose to meet you at such convenient time and place as you may designate, with the hope that upon an interchange of views it may be found practicable to submit the subjects of controversy between the belligerents to a convention of the kind mentioned. In such event I am authorized to do whatever the result of the proposed interview may render necessary or advisable. Should you accede to this proposition, I would suggest that, if agreeable to you, we meet at the place selected by Generals Ord and Longstreet for their interview, at eleven a.m. on Monday next. ''Very respectfully, your obedient servant, ''E. E. Lee, '' General
So much for Abraham Lincoln's celebrated and empty words of better angels of their nature, charity toward all and malice toward none, but the last words of Lincoln were his propaganda salvation at Gettysburg in few would note what was said there, because Abraham Lincoln's words were without worth. The South was moving forward toward honorable peace.
What instead occurred was the Battle of Five Forks from Abraham Lincoln.
agtG
