Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1865-10-17
Duff Green on President Lincoln and
the WadsWorth Letter.

WASHINGTON, Sept. 70
To the Editor Of the World:
In your paper of to-day is comment on
of the late President Lincoln to General
Wndsworth, in which letter, it is said, he
pledged himself to require qualified negro
suffrage as a condition Of general amnesty.
After Mr.. Lincon's first election, in 1860,
having ascertained that Messrs. Davis and
Toombs, of the Senate committee of thirteen,
to whom the subject was referred, had agreed
to accept Mr.. Crittenden's resolutions as an
adjustment of the issue between the North
and the South, if offered in good faith by the
North, and that that proposition had been re-
jected after consulting with the then Presi-
dent Buchanan and others, went to Spring
field to induce Mr. Lincoln to come to Wash
ington, by his influence with his friends Sc
cure its adoption, and thereby prevent dis
union 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 President elect Mr. Lincoln de-
clined going to Washington, but wrote, as he
told me, to one of the Senators from Illinois
giving his assent.
After the fall of Richmond saw President
Lincoln there. He told me that he came to
Washington resolved to carry out, in good
faith, the pledges that he gave to ne 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 recommendation that the Con-
stitutional amendment, proposed by Mr. Cor
win 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 authorize or give
Congress power to abolish, or interfere, with
in any State, with the domestic institutions
thereof, including that of persons held to "a.
Dor or servitude by the laws of said State.
In reply to an appeal which | made to him
for peace, President Lincoln's words were, In
substance as follows:
off you want peace, come back into the
Union. If you wish to keep your slaves,
come in and vote, as States, against the con-
stitutional amendment abolishing slavery. |
cannot recall my proclamati ons. 1t will be
for the courts to decide whether they are law
or not Of that you must judge. But I
have the pardoning Iower, and will use it
freely"
This conversation was in the presence of
General Weitzel, Judge Campbell, late ofthe
Supreme Court, one of General WeitzePs aids,
and several others; and [ was told, and be-
leve, that in consequence Of the conversa-
tons held with Judge Campbell and myself,
and the pledges then given to us, President
Lincoln, in letter addressed to General
Wetzel, authorized the meeting of the Vir-
ginia Legislature, according to the notice sub
sequently inserted in the Richmond papers.
General Sherman's comment on the pro
ceedings Of the Secretary Of War justifes the
belief that Mr.. Lincoln's instructions to him
relative to the termination Of the war, were
given in the same spirit; and the disavowa
of the arrangements first made between Gen
erals Sherman and Johnston indicates thai
the surrender of General Lee having inter
vened. the Government at Washington were
then unwilling to make peace on the terms
suggested by Mr.. Lincoln at Richmond.
make no comment. The facts are az
stated. DUFF GREEN.