In their answer the rebel ambassadors de- | it will strip from his eyes the last film of such deluclared themselves not so accredited, but sion; or if there be any whose hearts have grown added: 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 consola. tion to death. And if there be any patriots or Christians in your land, who shrink appalled from the illimitable vortex 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.” "We are, however, in the confidential employment of our government, and are entirely familiar with its wishes and opinions on that subject; and we feel authorized to declare that, if the circumstances disclosed in the correspondence were communicated to Richmond, we would be at once invested with the authority to which your letter refers; or other gentlemen, clothed with full powers, would be immediately sent to Washington with the view of hastening a consummation so much to be desired, and terminating at the earliest possible moment the calamities of the war." was a mere trick to make political capital against the administration. If so, the President's course proved him to be quite as sagacious as his enemies in the politician's art. All of which meant-do not vote for LinAnd they again solicited the journalist's coln for President. Public opinion settled intervention to procure the safe passage de-down into the belief that the proposed visit sired. This, of course, quite changed the aspect of the mission; and the journalist having proceeded, at the President's request, to Niagara Falls, to accompany the agents to Washington--telegraphed to Mr. Lincoln for further instructions. Mr. Lincoln then dispatched one of his private secretaries to Niagara, armed with the following missive, dated from the Executive Mansion, July 18th, 1864: "TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN- Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integ. rity 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." Whatever may have been the secret motive of the would-be diplomats, this closed all debate in advance. July 21st, Messrs. Clay and Holcomb addressed a note to the journalist, through the public press, expressive of their views of this basis, in terms which One good result, indeed, came of the correspondence. It demonstrated, even to the dullest apprehension, that the only way to peace was through victory to the National arms; and that, as the Republican standard bearer, Mr. Lincoln was irrevocably committed to a suppression of the rebellion and to the abolition of slavery. Upon those issues the battle of ballots was fought and won, as recorded. Five Hundred Thousand More, The very day which witnessed this enunciation of the President's views of peace, was also signalized by a call for five hundred thousand volunteers, and a notification that in fifty days from date thereof a draft for troops to serve one year should be held in every town or precinct whose quota was then unfilled. The secret associations alluded to were a source of Secret Societies. much uneasiness to loyal men. Revelations made during July, proved them to be dangerous combinations, and Government, through the Bureau of Military Justice, instituted a series of inquiries and investigations, chiefly by means of spies, which unmasked the conspirators' plans so fully as to make them comparatively harmless. In a report dated October 8th, Judge Advocate General Holt revealed the entire scheme, giving its origin, history, names, etc.; its organization and PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S ANNUAL officers; its extent and force; its armed force; its ritual, oaths and interior forms; its written principles; its specific purposes and operations; the witnesses and their testimony. This exposure quite disarmed the organizations, and, in no small degree, contributed to strengthen the National cause. Baffled in their efforts to carry the election for the Democratic or Peace candidate, and having failed to excite the popular disturbance counted upon as the result of the formation of the secret societies refer Attempt to Burn New York City. red to, certain emissaries of the South made the attempt to fire New York city. On the evening of November 25th, the incendiaries, to the number of fifty or more, took rooms in the various hotels, several days in advance of the time chosen, and on the evening named, twelve principal hotels were fired simultaneously. The "New York Hotel" being the recognised Southern headquarters, was spared. Said a city journal: "The plan of firing the hotels suggested the theory that some person well versed in chemistry must have been engaged in it. In all the hotels the materials used seem to have been turpentine and phosphorus. The phosphorus was in solution, placed in glass vials of six or eight ounces capacity. These vials were sealed with plaster of Paris, to prevent the air from coming in contact with their contents. It is unnecessary to explain that. at ordinary temperatures, when exposed, phosphorus undergoes combustion. These bottles were found in the rooms of the hotels, generally on the upper floors, unsealed, and the beds were saturated with turpentine, which some people suppose contained phosphorus in solution, but which probably was not the case, the intention being that the bed and clothes should readily catch the fire created by the ignition of the phosphorus. When we contemplate the completeness of all these preparations, it seems truly wonderful how they could have proved so unsuccessful in every instance. In all the rooms black leather valises were found containing bottles of phosphorus and turpentine. The carpet on the floors, the sheeting, * One resolution of the series adopted by the National Democratic Convention whose nominee Gen. McClellan was, declared the war to have been a failure, and, by indirection made propositions for a settlement of differences. This " 'plank" of the platform," however, was not acceptable to a large mass of Democrats, who believed in fighting "for the Union" to the end. The want of success was owing to the perfection of the City Fire Department. By its system of fire telegraphs information immediately was forwarded to the central office, when the whole diabolical plan was made apparent, and the Superintendent gave all hotel-keepers and all theatres instant warning of danger. The police quickly were out en masse, and, in not a single instance did the fire gain any headway. The precautions then taken did not prevent other attempts but all failed, and the plan must stand on record as one of unequalled villainy. Its authors never were discovered further than to be identified as Southern men. The President's Message at the opening of Congress, December 6th, was a satis Lincoln's Annual Message. factory document. Its exhibit of the Government's financial condition was particularly gratifying. He said: The receipts during the year, from all sources, upon the basis of warrants signed by the Secretary of the Treasury, including loans and the balance in the treasury on the first day of July, 1863, were $1,394,796.007 62; and the aggregate disbursements, upon the same basis, were $1,298,056.101 S9, leaving a balance in the treasury, as shown by warrants, of $96,739,905 73. "Deduct from these amounts the amount of the principal of the public debt redeemed, and the amount of issues in substitution therefor, and the actual cash operations of the treasury were: receipts, $884.076,646 57; disbursements, $865,234,087 86; which leaves a cash balance in the treasury of $18,842,558 71. "Of the receipts, there were derived from customs $102,316 152 99; from lands, $588,333 29; from direct taxes, $475,648 96; from internal revenue $109,741.134 10; from miscellaneous sources, $47,511,448 10; and from loans applied to actual exIpenditures, include former balance, $623,443,929 13. "There were disbursed, for the civil service, $27,505,599 46; for pensions and Indians, $7,517,930 97; for the War Department. $690,791,842 97; for the Navy Department, $85,733,292 77; for interest of the public debt, $53,685,421 69-making an aggregate of $865 234.087 86, and leavin6 a balance in the treasury of $18,842,558 71, as before stated." The development of the National Banks was treated as evidencing their usefulness and popularity: "The national banking system is proving to be acceptable to capitalists and to the people. On the twenty-fifth day of November five hundred and eighty-four national banks had been organized, a considerable number of which were conversions from State banks. Changes from State systems to the national system are rapidly taking place, and it is hoped that, very soon, there will be in the United States no banks of issue not authorized by Congress, and no bank-note circulation not secured by the Government. That the Government and the people will derive great benefit from this change in the banking systems of the country can hardly be questioned." The progress made by the Federal Army and Navy was regarded as highly satisfactory. The total number of men in the naval service was reported at 51,000. "There have been captured by the navy during the year 324 vessels, and the whole number of naval captures since hostilities commenced is 1379, of which 267 are steamers. The gross proceeds arising from the sale of condemned prize property, thus far reported, amount to $14,396,250 51." Regarding action upon the proposed Constitutional Amendment-which at the previous session passed the Senate, but failed in the House, from lack of the requisite twothirds vote--the President urged a reconsideration and passage of the measure. The recent elections, he conceived, had decided in favor of it, and its passage by the incoming Congress (XXXIXth) would certainly follow. Of the people's voice, as expressed at the ballot-box, he said: "The most reliable indication of public purpose in this country is derived through out popular elections. Judging by the recent canvass and its result, the purpose of the people, within the loyal States, to maintain the integrity of the Union, was never more firm, nor more nearly unanimous than President's Message. now. The extraordinary calmness and good order with which the millions of voters met and mingled at the polls give strong assurance of this. Not only all those who supported the Union ticket, so called, but a great majority of the opposing party also, may be fairly claimed to entertain, and to be actuated by, the same purpose. It is an unanswerable argument to this effect, that no candidate for any office whatever, high or low, has ven tured to seek votes on the avowal that he was for giving up the Union. There have been much impugning of motives, and much heated controversy as to the proper means and best mode of advancing the Union cause; but on the distinct issue of Union or no Union the politicians have shown their instinctive knowledge that there is no diversity among the people. In affording the people the fair oppertunity of showing, one to another and to the world, this firmness and unanimity of purpose, the election has been of vast value to the national cause." A tribute to the masses of those who voted for the "opposition" candidate which-considering the peace insinuations of their party "platform"-was unexpected, and yet was unquestionably just. Aside from the large body of Southern sympathisers and pro-slave adherents who sought to control the action of the Democratic party, it was not to be denied that the majority of those who voted for its candidates were not for peace at the sacrifice of the Union. Peace the President did not regard as attainable by negotiation. He said: "On careful consideration of all the evidence accessible, it seems to me that no attempt at negotiation with the insurgent leader could result in any good. He would accept nothing short of severance of the Union-precisely what we will not and cannot give. His declarations to this effect are explicit and oft-repeated. He does not attempt to deceive us. He affords us no excuse to deceive ourselves. He cannot voluntarily re-accept the Union; we cannot voluntarily yield it. Between him and us the issue is distinct, simple, and inflexible. It is an issue which can only be tried by war, and decided by victory. If we yield, we are beaten; if the Southern people fail him, he is beaten. Either way, it would be the victory and defeat following war. What is true, however, of him who heads the insurgent cause is not necessarily true of those who fol low. Although he cannot re accept the Union, they Some of them, we know, already desire peace and re-union. The number of such may increase. They can, at any moment, have peace simply by can. JEFF. DAVIS' LAST ANNUAL MESSAGE. laying down their arms and submitting to the national authority under the Constitution." And he added this declaration: 467 are fraught with instruction and encouragement. Repeatedly during the war have formidable expedi tions been directed by the enemy against points ig norantly supposed to be of vital importance to the Confederacy. Some of these expeditions have, at immense cost, been successful; but in no instance have the promised fruits been reaped. Again, in the present campaign, was the delusion fondly cherished that the capture of Atlanta and Richmond would, if effected, end the war, by the overthrow of our government and the submission of our people. We can now judge by experience how unimportant is the influence of the former event upon our capa "In presenting the abandonment of armed resistance to the national authority on the part of the insurgents, as the only indispensable condition to ending the war on the part of the Government, I retract nothing heretofore said as to slavery. I repeat the declaration made a year ago, that while I remain in my present position I shall not attempt to retract or modify the emancipation proclamation, nor shall I return to slavery any person who is free by the terms of that proclamation, or by any of the acts of Congress.' If the people should, by what-city for defense, upon the courage and spirit of the ever mode or means, make it an Executive duty to re-enslave such persons, another, and not I, must be their instrument to perform it. "In stating a single condition of peace, I mean simply to say that the war will cease on the part of the Government whenever it shall have ceased on the part of those who began it." Davis' Message. people, and the stability of the government. We may, in like manner, judge that if the campaign against Richmond had resulted in success instead of failure; if the valor of the army under the leadership of its accomplished commander had resisted in vain the overwhelming masses which were, on the contrary, decisively repulsed; if we had been com pelled to evacuate Richmond as well as Atlanta, the In striking contrast to Confederacy would have remained as erect and dethe subject matter and tone fiant as ever. Nothing could have been changed in of this Message was that of Jefferson Davis, the purpose of its government, in the indomitable addressed to the Confederate Congress, Nov. valor of its troops or in the unquenchable spirit of 7th, 1864. The military successes in Louisi- its people. The baffled and disappointed foe would ana, Texas and Arkansas were pronounced in vain have scanned the reports of your proceedgratifying; the invasion of Missouri had "af-ings, at some new legislative seat, for any indication forded our oppressed brethren in that State an opportunity of which many availed themselves of striking for liberation from the tyranny to which they have been subjected." The progress east of the Mississippi, "in spite of some reverses," he said, was cause for "much gratulation." The Federal concentration necessitated had given up large sections of country to be re-occupied by Confederate arms, and all attempts to penetrate from the Atlantic or Gulf coast had failed. "On the entire ocean," he declared, "and Gulf coast of the Confederacy, the whole success of the enemy, with the enormous naval resources at his command, has been limited to the capture of the outer defenses of Mobile bay." that progress had been made in his gigantic task of conquering a free people. The truth so patent to us must ere long be forced upon the reluctant Northern mind. There are no vital points on the preser vation of which the continued existence of the Con. federacy depends. There is no military success of the enemy which can accomplish its destruction. Not the fall of Richmond, nor Wilmington, nor Mobile, nor Charleston, nor Savannah nor of all combined, can save the enemy from the constant and exhaustive drain of blood and treasure which must continue until he shall discover that no peace is attainable unless based on the recognition of our inde feasible rights." In the Federal concentration which had compelled the abandonment of certain sections of the West and South, he should have found cause for apprehension rather than of Equal cause of gratulation was found in felicitation, since it placed it in Sherman's Federal operations against Atlanta, as well power to walk at will through the Gulf as in the situation in Virginia. This portion States, and enhanced Grant's ability for harm of the Message, indeed, affords a remarkable in the East, as was evident from the closing evidence of the Confederate Executive's du- around Richmond of a hand from which there plicity, or of his want of common sagacity. was no escape. Lee realized it, as we shall He said: sce by his testimony before the Senate Com"The lessons afforded by the history of this war mittee, which, being alarmed at the situation Davis' Message. The one during December and Jan- | between the use of slaves as soldiers in the defense uary, without Davis' know- of their homes, and the incitement of the same persons to insurrection against their masters. ledge, made the military leader a “General-in-Chief," having command of all the is justifiable if necessary, the other is iniquitous and unworthy of a civilized poople." insurgent armies. This gave him powers for concentration which, before were wanting. The Confederate foreign relations were adverted to with much bitterness of expression. Neutral nations, the Exccutive declared, were largely responsible for the continuance of the war, in failing to recognise the independence of the Southern States. "In a word," he said, "peace is impossible without independence, and it is not to be expected that the enemy will anticipate neutrals in the recognition of that independence. When the history of this war shall be fully disclosed, the calm judgment of the impartial publicist will, for these reasons, be unable to absolve the neutral nations of Europe from a share in the moral responsibility for the myriads of human lives that have been unnecessarily sacrificed during its progress." A very significant and interesting portion of the message was that devoted to the employment of slaves in a military or semi-military capacity. The slave was pronounced property, but, the unusual concession was made that he, also, was a person. We quote: "Viewed merely as property, and therefore on the subject of impressment, the service or labor of the slave has been frequently claimed for short periods, in the construction of defensive works. The slave, however, bears another relation to the State -that of a person. * * Throughout his discourse on this subjest appears the fear of the master; making slaves conversant with the use of arms, boded evil to the slave institution and danger to the State. How a government enunciating such atrocious doctrines as those expressed and implied, could hope, or even ask, for the countenance of Christendom, is one of the anomalies of the rebellion. Regarding human beings as property was offensive enough to the moral sense of the world, but, to coolly allot them to military service and then say that it was a question whether or not they should have the right to tarry in their native States, after such service, argued an inhumanity which could but excite disgust in every honorable mind. This document elicited Opposition to Use of much comment in "We hold it to be an act of cruelty to deprive the slave of the care and guardianship of a master. If the slave must fight, he should fight for the blessings he enjoys as a slave, and not for the miseries that would attend him if freed. The second proposition is still more startling. It is a concession that the Confederate Government has the power and right to exterminate slavery by the simple process of impressing or purchasing all slaves, and then emancipating them. Lincoln has never gone so far as this; for, in his plan of compensated emancipation, he expressly referred the question to the State, acknowledging that they only could determine it. It is unnecessary to dwell on this subject." The employment of the negro in any capa city where he could become enlightened, or could learn the use of arms, was very generally deprecated; but, as we shall see, only a few weeks passed ere the Confederates were calling upon the blacks to save their cause from ruin. |