Rutland weekly herald. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1859-1877, 1872-08-08
from the Boston Advertiser.l
Greeley at Niagara Falls.

The Confederate report of the peace
negotiations at Niagara Falls, in the
summer of 1864, is now given to the
public for the first time. The narrative
is an interesting one by itself but its
chief significance at this time is in the
light it throws on the motives of those
who sought the accommodation, and
upon the blind and credulOUs folly of
Mr. Greeley in trying to be of service to
them. It should be remembered that
this was in the midst of that period of
eclipse following the repulse from Cold
Harbor, the failure Of the mine eXplo-
sion before Petersburgh, the successful
rebel invasion Of Maryland, and the
rebel cavalry raids into Pennsylvania
There was unusual depression everywhere
during that mournful summer
which the enemies of the administration
and its faint-hearted friends took adyan-
tage in this attempt to bring about an
accommodation, which would have made
the war a failure, would have left slav-
erv scotched but not killed, and would
have covered the nation with everlasting
reprOach.
At this time, too, the rebellion had
been pressed to the very verge of eX-
haustiOn; Grant in the east and Sher-
man at the west were preparing their
forces for their last successful battles :;
the Confederacy, credit utterly gone
and its power of CONSUMPTION exhausted
knew well that another series of defeats
would be fatal. This was the time, most
advantageous for the COnfederates, most
unfortunate for the Union, that George
Sanders and Mr.. Greeley chose for patch
ing up compromise and sending our
armies home. To the firmness and good
sense of President Lincoln, who had no
faith in such a method of settlement,
and no confidence in the power of the
pretended commissioners" to carry out
any agreement they might enter into,
the country is indebted for the fact that
the administration was in no way COM
promised, and that nobody was made
ridiculous by the conferences, but the
individuals who took part in them. Then
as now, an important election was pend
ing in North Carolina, and Mr.. Greeley,
in his American Conflict, offers as one
apology for his part in the play that a
friendly treatment of the Niagara over
ture was calculated to strengthen the
peace party in that and other reyolted
States.
But the fatal weakness which had
taken possession of him at that critically
wrong hour was more strikingly illus
trated in the ''plan of adjustment,
which he urged upon the Presidents at
tention, as one which might be advan-
tageously offered to these commission
ers, Sanders, Holcombe and Clay of
Alabama, urged before he knew
whether they had any authority or not,
and when he had only the word of Colo
RADIO Jewett, an adventurer, who de-
ceived him, as to the nature of their
powers. This famous plan, it will be
remembered, included the wild PROPOSE
ton to pay four hundred millions of
dollars in five per cent. United States
stock to the slave States in compensation
for the losses of their loyal citizens by
the abolition of slavery, bonds to
be at the absolute disposal of the State
Legislatures. How little he understood
the temper of the times, and how utter
" incapacitated he was, even to give an
opinion on the duty of the government,
may be further judged from the fact
that the chance of a northern insurrec-
ton was given in his letter to the Presi'
dent, as one of the reasons why this or