Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1863-09-17
The Ramofs of Peace Proposals E1-Mayor
Wood and President Lincoln.
From the New York Times.

| From the New York Times
For some months past the whole countr1
has been assured BY gentlemen of the Peace
| party" thar President Lincoln had dsofizaed {
! proposition from leaders Of the Southern
! Confederacy, which looked toward and would
| have insured a restoration of the Union. Mr..
| Fallandigham ventured on a very distinct
statement to this effect during some of the
harangues which led to his arrest, and our
| fellow citizen, Ex-Mayor Wood, has more
than once made the same assertion, with all
the emphasi fhich he usually gives where
intrinsic improbabiities require this ex-
traneous support. It is only few days since
he declared his belief, IN a note published in
the Times, that the Government might have
ended the war ami restored the Union at any
time within the last year, il it had desired TO
do so.
We are at last enabled to test the precise
value OF these assurances. We are indebted
to Ex-Mayor Wood for the correspondence
between himself and President Lincoln, upon
which they have al been based, and which we
publish in another column. 1t seems that on
the Sth of December last, Mr.. Wood wrote to
Mr.. Lincoln, stating that he had been in
formed, by an authority which he deemed
likely to be nell informed as well as reliable
and truthful, that the Southern States would
send representatives to the next Congress,
Prop1ded, that full and general amnesty
should permit them to do So" Mr.. Wood
therefore suggested that Z" Gentlemen whose
former political and social relations nth tie Iea-
eTS Of the Southern repott" rendered it proper.
might be permitted to correspond with them
on the subject
1t will be observed that in all this there
was no lntlmation that any official parsonage
or anybody authorized to speak for the reb-
els, had expressed any such wish. .Some6odu
whom Mr.. Wood deems reliable, had express
ed the opinion that the Southern leaders w0d
send their representatives to Congress on
condition OF an amnesty; and on the strength
OF this anonymous belief, Air. Lincoln vas
asked to appoint Commission, composed OF
gentlemen holding political and social rela-
lions" with the rebel leaders. to negotiate
with them and to proclaim an amnesty -
There was no pretence of any authority on
the part of Mr.. Woods informant it is only
claimed for him that he is well informed,
reliable and truthful" and even this rests
solely and exclusively on Mr.. Woods opinion.
The opinion may not have been well found
ed; but no man Of sound judgment could for
a moment claim that Mr.. Lincoln ought to
have acted upon it. How could he presume
authorized to speak for the rebel leaders, or
that his opinion as to their wishes, was worth
more than that Of any other man? To have
done so would have been to assume that Mr..
Wood was in communication with the rebel
leaders-that he was authorized to sneak
their sentiments and to utter their wishes
and this would at once have made him a con-
tederate In their plans and sharer of their
treason.
The President treated this letter in precise
accordance with its merits. He meets pre-
clsely and with emphatic directnesS the only
point which 1t contains He discredits en-
tlrely the information on which Mr.. Wood
processes to have acted; but he saws that if
the Southern people will communicate to him
their willingness to end the war on such
terms, 'Me Udr WouLd cease on the part of the
United States and full and general antneStu
2c0,Ad not be wittheld." Here is a full, explicit
and satisfactory answer to Mr.. Woods sug-
gestion. If he had any "informants" author
lied to speak for the South and anxious to
know the disposition of the President, all he
had to do was to convey to them this intor-
nation. 1t was all they could possibly ask
it was everything which, according to Mr.
Wood himself, they professed to desire If
his protestati0ns were sincere, here was a
chance to show 1t. If he desired to inaugu-
rate negotiations for peace, the President
here put into his hands the means Of doing it,
Mr. Wood did not avail himself of this op-
portunity to serve his country and restore the
Union. On the contrary, he evaded the Pres
ident's direct aud unmistakeable offer of an
amnesty, and rushed into a sweeping and hos
tile criticism of the general policy of the
Administration. He insisted on the amnesty
IN adea'ece. He wanted the President to stop
the war, in order to ascertain whether three
was any truth in the story that the South
wished it stopped. The President very natu-
rally and very properly declined according to
this request. And there the matter ends.
We do not think that either Mr.. Wood, or
the Peace party which he represents, has
made anything By the publication of this
correspondence. 1t pricks the bubble with
which they have so long been amusing the pub
lie, and proves conclusively that there is not
the slightest foundation for their reiterated
assertion that the President has refused to
accede to propositions for negotiation. 1t
shows, moreover, that the correspondence
was simply political trick, in which the over
reaching cunning of Ex-Mayor Wood was
completely foiled by the direct and straight
forward honesty of Mr.. Lincoln.