The Burlington weekly hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington [Iowa]) 1860-1876, 1863-10-31
Rebel Terms Of Peace.

We tried last Winter, unsuccessfully but
earnestly, to ascertain on what conditions
the Rebel chiefs were ready to restore Peace
to this distracted country. We didnot have
to leave our desks to find Democrats
who were very anxious for Peace, and wish
ed our aid in effecting it; but we never
found one OF them in possession of anthem.
tic propositions or suggestions from Rebel
leaders looking to any sort of tolerable
Peace--we mean, tolerable even for him.
The readiness OF the Confederates to make
an acceptable Peace was always assumed
it was never demonstrated, nor even
countenanced, by any sort of evidence
But The Richmond Engairer-which has
been from the first the more especial organ
of JEFF. Davis and his Cabinet-on the 10Th
inst. favored its readers with the following
frank statement of the terms on which the
head traitors UiU not make Peace. It says:
"Save our own terms, we can accept no
peace whatever, and must fight till Dooms-
day rather than yield an iota Of them; and
our terms are:
Recognition by the enemy of the inde-
pendence Of the Confederate States.
Withdrawal of Yankee forces from ev-
cry foot of Confederate ground, Including
kentucky and Missouri.
Withdrawal of Yankee soldiers from
Maryland, until that State shall decide, by
a free vote, whether she shall remain in the
old Union, or ask admission into the Con-
federacy.
Consent on the part of the Federal Gov
eminent to give up to the Confederacy its
proportion Of the Navy as it stood at the
time of Secession, or to pay for the same.
yielding up all pretension on the part
OF the Federal Government to that portion
OF the old Territories which lies west Of the
Confederate States.
OF our absolute independence and equal
rights, OF all accounts of the Public Debt
and Public Lands and the advantages ac-
crulng from foreign treaties.
Ihese provisions, we apprehend, COM
prise the minimum ofwhat we must require
before we lay down our arms. That is to
say, the North must yield all; aUe nothing.
The whole pretension of that country to
prevent by force the separation of tbs
States must be abandoned, which will be
equivalent to an avowal that our enemies
were wrong from the first and, Of course,
as they waged causeless and wicked
war upon us, they ought, in strict justice,
to be required, according to usage in such
case, to reimburse to us the whole of our
expenses and losses in the course of the
war; .-.. 5000 ......
whether this last proviso is to be in
sisted upon or not, certain we are that we
cannot have any peace at all until we shall
be in position, not only to demand and
exact, but also to enforce and collect the
treasure for our own reimbursement, out
OF the wealthy cities Of the enemys coun-
try. In other words unless we can destroy
or scatter their armies and break up their
Government, we can have no peace, and
If we can do that, then we can, and ought,
not only to eXtort from them our own full
terms, and ample acknowledgment of their
wrong, but also handsome indemnity for
the trouble and expense caused to as by
their crime"
This is no new overture. From the first
hour OF the contest to the present, the earn
est Rebels have held but one language, and
its burden was this: "This is war to the
death. We must absolutely triumph or
utterly fail. There can be no accommodate
tion-no compromise. We are in for the
whole or nothing. Until the North is ready
to concede everything, submit to anything,
War must go on, though it should absorb
all the blood and wealth of the country
Woe to the conquered!'
Now, then, we demand of the Democratic
journals that these facts be known to their
readers. We ask but light. Let them set
forth the naked truth as to the best terms
on which the Rebel leaders are now or ever
were ready to make Peace, and tell their
readers frankly that they would or would
not have them accepted. Crying Peace,
Peace, when there is no Peace" is a
would not make Peace on the only practi-
cable terms, and then either 60 in earnest
ly, unreservedly, for prosecuting and in
MIGRATING the War, or let us know what is
your alternative. For our own part, anx-
ious for the earliest possible Peace, so that
it be honorable and lasting, we see no way
to achieve it but through energetic and
successful war.-N Y. Tribune.
-O
The TRAITOR LETCHER.-Mr. Harvev
Birch, a refugee from Richmond, notices
the case of Mr.. Fitzgerald. a bigh-toned.