The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-05-30
LINCoLN,s TERMS OF PEACE.

LINCOLN,s TERMS OF PEACE.
Interesting War Stories Told by the Late Mr..
Garrett:
Washington Letter in New York Sun.
When the late Mr.. Garrett, president of the
Baltimore & Ohio Railroad Company, wished
for little rest or recreation he was in the habit
of causing his private car to be attached to one
of the trains running west or south, and with
his wife and perhaps another friend or two he
made an excursion. At such times Mr.. Garrett
left his business behind him, and, though
deemed man not given to much conversation,
yet he then often narrated some of his expert
ences, especially of the time of the war and
Immediately subsequent thereto, in manner
that was absorbingly interesting.
Two years ago the writer met Mr.. Garrett
upon one of these occasions. The conversation
turned upon the South. its risks and its losses
entailed by inaugurating civil war, and as
some Of Mr.. CARROTS "reminiscences have special
interest just at this time, | have written out
from notes made soon after the conversation
what he said In speaking Of Mr. Lincoln
President Carrot said:
II never travel through the South without
thinking what a dreadful climax for the South
President Iincolns assassination was. During
the war I often met Mr.. Lincoln on business
pertaining to railroad, and in the latter part
of his administration he used sometimes to speak
to me Of what ought to follow the return of
peace, which he saw could not long be delayed
policy, and think that the man who proved
equal to that would have been equal to
all that followed, there would have been real
peace, and an early revival of prosperity in the
Southern States. 1t was frightful retribution
that followed the murder of Lincoln; but after
all, think, as look it all over, that it was in
one sense the result of the short-sightedness of
some of the leaders of the Confederacy. l mean
that all that happened after Lee surrendered
including the assassination of Lincoln, could
have been avoided had the Confederacy not
failed to make terms at the peace conference at
Fortress Monroe Every man of capacity in the
South knew at the time of that conference what
the inevitable was to be, excepting Mr.. Davis
Now, know it to be fact, that when Mr.
Lincoln was asked respecting the terms of peace
that would be demanded by the federal goeern-
ment, he just tore sheet of paper in two, and
wrote across the top of it just these words
ION the part of the United States:
"The Union preserved.
Slavery abolished.
Then pointing to the blank space beneath.
he said: There let them write their own terms
underneath that"
Mr.. Garrett said many of the Southern lead
ers felt that the federal government could prop
erly ask no less than that, and that the COnfed-
eracy would ask more for itself Peace
ought they felt to have been established then
General Lee, with whom Mr.. Garrett was on
terms Of special intimacy after the war, grieved
greatly because the peace conference was a fail
ure, for he could only look forward to useless
shedding of blood after that. I'm fact" said Mr..
Garrett, General Lee, like General Joe john
ston, realized as military man, that after the
fall of Atlanta the end of the Confederacy was
near at hand. Like Johnston and every other
great general in the South, Lee understood that
with the defeat at Gettysburg aud the sur
render Of Vicksburg, the only military policy
left for the South was that of defense
long enough to obtain terms of peace that would
not be humilating With the fall of Atlanta, it
was plain to Lee that the terms of peace would
be just what the federal government chose to
make them, and, as military man, General
Lee told me that he often, though unoficially,
protested to the civil authorities that further
prolonging of the war meant only unnecessary
loss of life and destruction of property. His
pleas, however, were wholly without avail Mr.
Davis seemed to be convinced that the Confed
eracy would succeed in establishing itself
There was much of the highest importance OF
the inner history of the last year of the Rebel
lion that has been lost by reason of
In the very last interview I had with
Lee he was a guest at my house in
Baltimore. He had been telling me some of that
inner history, showing, in his view that the war
had been unnecessarily prolonged. I told him
that he ought not to allow those facts to be lost
to history and that he ought at once to begin
the preparation of an account of the war from
his understanding of it that should be complete
and should, without hesitation, tell the whole
truth. He told me that he fully intended to
write such book, but he thought that it was
too soon then to do So He had, he said, much
valuable matter, many documents that would
throw light, taken in connection with other facts
that he personally knew, but which did not ap-
pear of record, on the last year of the war. I
urged him not to lose a moment, but to begin
the work at once, and before he left me he prom
ised to set about it as soon possible. It was
not long after that he was stricken with his last
illness.
II don't think" continued Mr.. Garrett, ''that
it was ever known how near Lee came to being
arrested as one of the conspirators in the plot to
assassinate President Lincoln and his Cabinet.
/ know that Andy johnson in some unaccount-
able way got the idea in his head that Lee was
in that conspiracy. Somebody had told johnson
netting, / have some reasons for believing,
that led him to think so. johnson wanted Lee
arrested at once and know that he proposed if
Lee was found guilty, to have him beheaded
johnson told me that Lee couldn't be hanged
shouldn't be shot, and he would order him be-
headed. A warm friend of mine and of Mr.
Johnson's, who knew what was going on, came
to me in great haste, knowing that
General Lees. and was also warm
friend of General Grant This gentleman said
that Lee was in great danger of arrest and that
in the then excited state of the country it was
graphed to General Grant to meet me, and
started for Washington. met General Grant
a few moments after my arrival there. l told
him what was in Johnson's mind. I have seen
men black with anger, but l never saw such
anger as GIANT then showed. He was not pas
sionate but he was terribly angry Said he:
This is Infamous Infamous! I will throw up
my commission if there is the slightest attempt
to do it, and if there is the shadow of circum-
stance to justify even the faintest suspicion
against Lee will throw up my commission,
too. It's as impossible for Lee as for me-
II said, Cant you see President johnson and
his Cabinet and tell them what you have told
me- He said he would, and he lost no time in
doing so. He was very stern with Johnson He
said that if Lee was insulted by threat of arrest
he would throw up his commission at moments
notice. Lee has given me his parole, SIR said
he to Johnson You can trust every West
SO earnest and angry that johnson was i'm
pressed, and he was little frightened. too, by