The Norfolk post. [volume] (Norfolk, Va.) 1865-1866, 1865-10-24
DUFF GREEN ON PRESIDENT
LINCOLN AND THE WADS-
WORTH LETTER.
WASHINGTON, Sept. &c.

To the Editor ofAe World:
In your paper of to-day is comment
on what purports to be an extract from a
letter of the late President Lincoln to
General Wadsworth, in which letter, ii
is said, he pledged himself to require a
qualified negro suffrage as a condition
of general amnesty. After Mr.. Lincoln's
first election, in 1860, having ascertain
ed that Messrs. Davis and 'Toombs, of
the Senate committee of thirteen, to
whom the subject was referred, had
agreed to accept Mr.. Crittendcn's reso-
lutioIs as an adjustment of the issue be-
tween the North and the South, if offer
ell in good faith by the North, and that
that proposition had been rejected, after
consulting with the then President Blu
chanan and others, went to Springfield
to induce Mr.. Lincoln to come to Wash
ington, by his influence with his friends
secure its adoption, and thereby prevent
disunion. Mr.. Buchanan authorized
me to say to Mr.. Lincoln that if he
would do so he would be received with
all the respect due to him as the Presi-
dent elect. Mr.. Lincoln declined going
to Washington, but wrote, AS he told me,
to one of the Senators from Illinois, CIV
ing his assent. ..
After the fall of Richmond Isaw Presi-
dent Lincoln there. He told me that he
came to Washington resolved to carry
out, in good faith, the pledges that he
gave to me at Springfield, viz: That, as
President, he would favor no measure of
which the South would have cause to
| complain and that it was upon his re-
| concentration that the Constitutional
| amendment, proposed by Mr.. COrwin as
| a substitute for the one offered by Mr..
Adams, of Massachusetts, was adopted
by his friends in Congress, as follows:
THAT no amendments shall be made
to the Constitution which will author
ize or give Congress power to abolish, or
interfere, within any State, with the do
nestle institutions thereof, including
that of persons held to labor or servitude
by the laws of said State.n t.'
In reply to an appeal which made to
him for peace, President Lincoln's words
were, in substance, as follows:
"If you want peace, come back into
the Union. If you wish to keep your
slaves, come in and vote, as States,
against the constitutional amendment,
abolishing slavery. / cannot recall my
proclamations. 1t will be for the courts
to decide whether they are law or not
Of that you must judge. But have the
pardoning power, and will use it freely"
This conversation was in the presence
of General Weitzel, Judge Campbell,
late of the Supreme Court, one of Gen.
eral Weitzels aids, and several others !;
and was told, and believe, that in con-
sequence ofthe conversation held with
Judge Campbell and myself, and the
pledges then given to us, President Lin
coin, in letter addressed to General
Weitzel, authorized the meeting of the
Virginia Legislature, according to the
notice subsequently, inserted in the
Richmond papers. -'f T-elH =
General Sherman's comment on the
proceedings ofthe Secretary of War JUS
titles the belief that Mr.. Lincoln's i'm.
structions to him, relative to the terrni.
nation of the war, were given in the
same spirit; and the disavowal of the ar.
rangements first made between Generals
Sherman and Johnston indicates thai
the surrender of Gen. Lee having inter
vened, the Government at Washington