The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1865-06-21

1 ton upon the condition Of submission
to the lawful authority of the Unite
Estates as defined by the Constitution
/ the United States courts, and the at
1thoritiesrf the Unitbd States supper,
led by these courts" He then re
marked to me that General B9eckir
ridge. q major general in the Confet
crate army, was near BY, and, if
had no objections, he would like I
have him present. ] called his after
ton to the fact that ! had on the da.
before explained to him that any ne
gotiations between rs must be coMn
ed to beIligerents. He replied thath
understood that perfectly.
"But,' said he, "Breck:nridge
whom you do not know, save BY pub
lie rumor, as Secretary Of War, is, il
fact, a major general; Igive you my
word for that. Have you any ohjec
|tion to his being present as majol
generalw I replied, y" have no OBJ
lection to any military officer yon de
lsire being present as a part of your
personal staff" I myself had my
own officers near me at call
BreckinrIdge came d stranger to
me, whom ! had never spoken to in
my life, and he Joined in the CONVERSE
ton; while that conversation was go.
ing on a courier arrived and handed
to General Johnston a package Of pa
pers; he and Breckinriidge sat down
and looked over them for some time
and put them away in their pockets;
what they were / knew not, but one
of them was slip of paper, written,
as General Johnston told me, by Mr..
Reagan, Postmaster General of the
Southern Confederacy; they seemed
to talk about it s0tto voes. and finally
handed it to me; 1 glanced over it /;
it was preceded by preamble and
closed with few general terms; /
rejected it at once.
We then discussed matters; talked
about slavery; talked about every
thing. There was universal assent
that slavery was as dead as anything
could be; that it was one Of the is.
sues ofthe war long since determined;
and even General Johnston faughed
at the folly Of the Confederate gov.
eminent in raising negro solaiers,
whereby they gave us all the points
OF the case. / told them that slavery
had been treated by US as a dead in
stitution, first by one class Of men
from the initiation Of the war, and
then from the date Of the Emancipa.
ton proclamation Of President Lin.
coin, and finally by the ASSERT Of all
parties. As to reconstruction, I told
them / did not know what the views
OF the administration were. Mr. Lin
coin, up to that time, in letters and
and by kilograms 10 me, encouraged
me by all the words which could be
used in general terms to believe, not
only in his Willingness, but in his
desires that 1 should make terms with
civil authorities, g vernors and legis-
latures, even as far back as 1868. 1t
then occurred to ne that I might
write OF some general propositions.
meaning little, OF moaning much, &C
cording tosthe construction Of parties
what ! would term 'glittcring gen
eraRtics'--and send them to Wash.
ilgton, whichI could do in fourdays.
That would enable the newircsident
to give me a clue to his policy IN the
important juncture which was then
upun us, for the war was over: the
highest military authorities Of the
Southern Cppfederacy SO confessed
tome openly, uuconcealedly and re-
peatedly. | therefore drew up the
memorandum, (which has been pub
lished to the world for the purpose
of referring Ito the proper Execn-
tive authority Of the United States,
and enabling him to define to me
what ! might promise, simply toscov-
er the pride Of the Southern men,
who thereby become subordinate to
the laws Of the United States, civil
and military. I made concessions
to Gen. Johnston's army or the troops
under his direction and immediate
control; and if any concessions were
made III those general terms, they
were made because | then believed,
and now believe, they would have de-
.livered into the hands ef tile United
States the absolute control nf every
Confederate officer and soldier, all
their nuster-rulls and all their arms.
It would save us all incidental ex.
pense resulting from the military oc-
cupatlon Of that country by provost
marshals, provost guards, military
governors, aid all the machinery BY
which alone military power can reach
the people IF q civilized country. It
would have surrendered to us the ar.
mics Of Dick Taylor and Kirby Smith,
both Of them capable Of doing inf
mite mischief to US by exhausting the
resources Of the whole country upon
which we were to depend for the flu
ture extinguishment of our debt,
forced upon US by their wrongful and
|rebellious conduct. Inever designed
to shelter human being from any
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