The weekly North-Carolina standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 186?-1869, 1866-01-17
Hon. A. II. stephens.

Is Hon. A. H. stephens.
An extract from letter from this distin-
guished man is going the rounds Of the pa
pers, in which he says he finds the country,
on his return to Georgia, in worse condi-
ton, physically, morally, and politically,
than he expected. He also says, the wise
and the good will always take things as they
find them, and do the best they can with
them as they present themselves"
Mr.. Stephens is doubtless wise and good
man, but he is not great. As one of the
commissioners appointed by Jefferson Davis
on the 3Oth january, 1865, to treat for peace
with President Lincoln and Secretary Sew
ard, he might have exercised controlling
influence, and could have saved his section
from much of the ruin that has befallen it
Gen Lee had called for two hundred thousand
negro troops The so-called Confederate
Congress refused to grant them. Gen. Lee,
by making this call, admitted that the Con-
federate cause was desperate; and if he had
been the Christian patriot and warrior his
friends claim that he is, he would have re-
signed at that time, and washed his hands of
the horrors that followed Mr.. Stephens
knew that the cause was hopeless. By ne
gotiating with Mr.. Lincoln he might have
secured the gradual emancipation of slavery,
and would have prevented the devastation of
large portions of Georgia, South Carolina,
North Carolina, and Virginia. But he failed
to do this, and the work of carnage went on.
He was not equal to the occasion. A great
man would have seized the occasion to savehis
country. He would have disregarded the
wicked determination of JEFF Davis, who, it
is said, wrote on slip of paper as his ulti-
matum, the word INDEPENDENCE, and deliv-
cred it to them as their instructions when
they left Richmond There is this excuse,
however, for Mr.. Stephens and for members
of the so called Confederate Congress who
were anxious for peace on the best terms
they could get: They were more or less cow
ed by the all-shadowing and horrible despo-
tism which Mr.. Davis had established over the
minds and bodies of Southern men and,
unsupported as they supposed they would be
by the chiefs of the Confederate armies, they
had reason to apprehend that if they consen-
ted to any peace on the basis of reconstruc-
ton, the more vicious portion of the army
would fall upon them and take their lives
The great body of both armies wanted peace,
and would have hailed the peacemakers as
their friends and benefactors; out there
were desperate officers and desperate men,
who would have gloried in taking the life of
any one who had agreed, in conference with
Mr.. Lincoln, to abandon independence and
accept the reconstruction of the Union
There is this excuse also for Mr.. Stephens,
that the States, though they had the power
to throw off the yoke of Davis, were new
ertheless either passive, or, through their
Governors, bent on the indefinite prolonga-
ton of the war. In this State, for example,
while alarge majority of the people were for
peace on the basis of reconstruction, the
Governor, q. B. Vance,) who welded the
military power, was thoroughly with Davis,
and would instantly have proclaimed even
Alexander H. Stephens an infamous traitor,
if he had madepeace, as he should have done,
with Mr.. Lincoln. These worthless, Davis
and Vance, wanted the war to 60 on, but
they were very careful to keep out of it them
selves. 1t was all well enough that the
"wool hat boys" should die, to crafty their
ambition and their hatred of the Northern
people; but when the crisis came, one es-
capped towards Georgia, and was captured
under circumstances that reflect no credit on
his courage, while the other, after having
made big speech in the face of Gen. Sher
man, advising resistance to the last, escaped
ingloriously from the capital on swift horse,
and never even heard the thunders of the adj
vancing federal artillery. "Oh what az run
ming off "was there, my countrymen If
they had been true men, and not vain-glori-
Gus pretenders, they would have died with
their cause t.
Alas for Mr.. Stephens If he had seized
the occasion which was offered him to save
his country, he would have been regarded as
truly great, and millions would have
blessed him as the chief peacemaker of the
age; but we can only say now, as posterity
will say, that he is man of very superior
intellect, with good intentions, but too much
wanting in nerve to play conspicuous, and
at the same time bold and saving part in
the drama of revolutions.