Prescott journal. [volume] (Prescott, Wis.) 1861-1871, 1864-08-06
The Recent Peace Negotiations.

of Messrs. GREELEY, SANDERS, JEwETT, CLAY
and HoLcoMB, at Niagara Falls, and the pub
lished correspondence between them. The
copperhead papers are trying to make all
the capital possible out of Mr.. LIocoISs pithy
note in which he set forth the terms on which
he would receive proposals of peace from
the rebels, but their success in this line is
not brilliant.
The Union papers of the country give
cordial endorsement of President LINcoLN's
position in the matter.
Mr. GREELEY in the Tribune says:
"The telegraphic stories concerning peace
conferences at Niagara Falls have slender
foundation in fact, but most of the details are
very wide of the truth The editor of this
paper has taken part in and been privy to no
further or other negotiations than were fully
authorized and more than authorized !;
but these related solely to bringing the antag
onists face to face in amicable rather than
belligerent attitude, with the view to the ini-
tiation of an earnest effort for peace, to be
prosecuted at Washington. The movement
has had no immediate success.
OF course all reports that the writer has
been engaged in proposing, or receiving, or
discussing, hypothetical terms or bases of
peace, whether with accredited agents of the
Richmond authorities or others, are utterly
mistaken. He has never had the slightest
authorization to do anything of the sort; and
he is quite aware of those provisions of law
which relate to volunteer negotiators with
public enemies. Those provisions he hearth
ly approves, and is nowise inclined to violate.
"More than this he does not as yet feel at
liberty to state, though he soon may be. All
that he can now add is his general inference
that the pacifcation of our country is neither
so difficult or so distant as seems to be gene
rally supposed"
The New York Eee1aing Post has an excel
lent article on this subject, which expresses
our own ideas so well, that we copy the prin-
cipal portion of it as follows:
1t is lamentable that person of Mr.. Gree
le,'s ability and position should be so desti-
tute of common sense or discretion as to lend
himself to the plots of a parcel of miserable
tricksters. Mr. Sanders of Dixie" as the
rogue impudently styled himself, who invited
him to an interview with pretended rebel en-
VOWS at the Clifton House, he must have
known as a low, cunning, debauched and ut
terly irresponsible adventurer, who never in
his life had a particle of influence among
gentlemen North or South, and whose words
are of no more account than the windy eruc-
tations of any other hanger-on of the pot
houses. Yet on the strength of this mans
assurances Mr.. Greeley puts himself in COM
munication with the government and with
Messrs. Clay and Holcombe, with real hope
apparently that a peace might be brought
about through their fundamentally. His
credulity is amiable, and peace itself so much
to be desired that we readily forgive little
foolshness for the sake of it; but the pro-
ceedings were none the less weak and inju-
rious.
Any person of ordinary discernment not
oVerpersuaded by outside influences, would
have seen from the first note of Messrs. Clay
and Holcombe that they were'nOt authorized
| in any way to open negotiations with our gov
eminent. They did not claim to be, but
merely limited that it was possible they might
be invested with powers, if they could get a
safe conduct to Washington and thence to
| Richmond. All that these gentlemen wanted,
| having been a considerable time from their
| hOmes-outcasts, in a word, on the face of
| the earth-was a secure passage through our
/ lines; or if that should be refused, an i'm
piled recognition of their character as the
| agents of an independent government. In
| either event they could loose nothing and
might gain something.
Mr.. Greeley fell into the trap, and busted
himself with getting the pass. He wrote TO
the President, but Mr.. Lincoln, somewhat
used to dealing with rebels, with hard sense
that ALWAYS comes to his aid, wrote to all
whom it concerned that he was ready to hear
propositions for the restOratinn of peace,
| the integrity of the Union, and the abandon
ment of slavery-the three things in fact be-
| ing but one--and Mr.. Lincoln further stated
that he would give safe cunduct back and
forth to the bearers of any such message
| This, however, was not what the rebel ennis
sares wanted; they were not recognized in
any way; they were not so much as mention
| toned by name; and the pass offered them
did not include the coveted journey to Rich
mond They were baked in their whole in
tention by the simple honesty of the Presi-
dent, who sent them to bed with flea in
each ear almost as big as an elephant. Mr..
Greeley, being a water-drinker, slept more
profoundly, doubtless, than either of his
friends, though even he must have felt tri-
| fle smaller in the morning
| The letter with which the explosive ennis
saries close the correspondence shows that all
this palavering about peace is nonsensical;
the peace they mean is not the peace we
mean; they want separation and independ-
ence if they can get it, or if they cannot get
| it, a mere nominal Union like the old Confed-
Grafton, which fell to pieces OF itself, or the
Ipresent rickety and staggering Confederacy /;
| but we want a real Union, such as our faith
ers and the progress of events have made-a
living organized nation-a republic of repub-
| lies, whose bonds shall be as firm as the liga-
ments of the human body, and whose opera
tions as harmonious and lasting as those of
the solar system. The political leaders of
| the South will never consent to abandon their
desperate position until we destroy the
armies by which they maintain it, or until
their own people, in the extremity of their
sufferings, drive them out of it. They have
nothing to hope from peace or a restoration
of the Union but everlasting contempt at
home and abroad. They win, therefore, fight
on as long as they can, and our best negotia-
| tors for the present are Sherman's marches
and Grants death-grips These must soon
bring the more rational part of the southern
people to reflection, when we shall have pro-
posals to which the North may honorably
listen, and when, too, we may return an ans
wer that will show us as magnanimous in
concession as we have been energetic in COM
bat. Meantime the rebels, BY this Niagara
game, have tried to shove a card into the
hands of the patriots who meet next month
at Chicago. 1a~-
An EASTERN HORSE STEALER.-The follow
ing instance of endurance of pain would not
have disgraced Spartan. A notorious horse
thief coveted the horse of wealthy native,
who, however, by some chance, became
aware of his intention, and redoubled his
violence The man succeeded in oattiner turo