The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-03-20
DIR Messenger.
FAMOUS WAR CONFERENCE IN 1895

since the war-not many know any
thing Of The Hampton Roads Confer
ence" that was held on 3rd February
1855, on board a steamer near Fortress
Monroe, below Norfolk, Va. The par
Elephants on the confederate side were
Vice President Alexander H. Stephens,
OF Georgia, Robert M. T. Hunter. Of
Virginia, and John II. Campbell, OF
Louisiana. On the federal side there
were President Lincoln and Secretary
of State, w. H Seward. 1t was a
talk as to the plans of a peace, but all
came to nothing. The President de-
manded what amounted really to an
unconditional surrender. The south was
well nigh exhausted, while the feder-
ais were in great and imposing force.
The confederates of course would not
accept the terms offered. The confer
ence is interestingly and fully present
ed in a paper in the New York Forum
by Hon. John Goode, of Virginia, who
was at the time in the confederate con-
sress at Richmond. His paper is clear
AND no doubt accurate throughout.
There were some opinions by Lincoln
and Seward presented in the discussion
that partake of interest even after
thirty-five years have passed. When
asked by Vice President Stephens what
effect the Emancipation Proclamation
would nave upon the entire black pop
uIation, President Lincoln replied,
"that was a judicial question, and hat
he did not know how the courts would
decide it. His own opinion, was that,
ure and would ave effect only from
its being an exercise of the wal pow
er, as soon as the war ended it would
be imperative for the future. 1t would
be held to apply to such slaves as had
come under it's operation while it was
in active exercise. That was his in
dividuaI opinion, but the courts might
decide differently"
The following will be found inter
esting also, and it will be new to nine
tenths of readers now:
Mr.. Seward said there were only
about zoo, 600 slaves who, up to that
time, had come under the actual oper-
alton of the Proclamation, and who
were then in the enjoyment of their
freedom under it; so that if the war
should then cease, the status of much
the larger portion of the slaves would
be subject to judicial construction He
also called attention to the proposed
Constitutional Amendment providing
for the immediate abolition of slavery
throughout the United States. He said
that a been done as a war measure,
and if the war were h to cease, it
would probably not be adopted by a
sufficient number of states to make it
q part of the constitution. In answer
to an inquiry by Mr.. Stephens, wheth-
er the confederate states would be adj
united to representation in congress If
they should abandon the war, Mr.. Lin
coin said his own individual opinion
was that they ought to be, and he
thought they would be, but that he
could not enter into any stipulation on
hat subject"
In as much as Secretary Gideon
Wells of Connecticut in his book on
Lincoln and Seward" tells how Lin
coin in his discussion with Seward and
Stanton urged that the negroes should
be freed in order that they might rise
I'D and slaughter all the old white men
and women and children in the south,
and in spite of their protest wrote the
proclamation himself and for the end
indicated, the following is of some i'm
portance:
Mr.. Lincoln subsequently discussed
fully his Emancipation Proclamation.
He said that in the beginning, 1T had
not been his intention to interfere with
slavery states; that he never would
have done it if he had not been COM
PEELED by necessity to do 1t, TO MAINTAIN
the union; that h subject presented
many difficult and p~erpleX1ng Ques-
tions; that he had hesitated for some
time, and had resorted to that measure
only when driven to it by public ne
cessity, etc"
In his view according to what he Said
TO his two cabinet officers named above
the slaughtering of the old men, wo-
men and hildren of the southern
whites had become a public necessi-
ty." We know of nothing in the re-
cords of modern civilized nations so
absolutely diabolic as that
When the commissioners had re-
turned to Richmond, a public meeting
was held in which President Jefferson
Davis spoke. OF his speech Mr.. Goode
writes that il was characterized py
the boldest and most defiant tone, and
was delivered in his Hottest and most
captivating style. AS a specimen OF
real oratory it has never been surpass
ed-not ever by the fiery e~loquence of
Rienzi when he stirred the hearts or
the Romans to their inmost depths, nor
by the burning words of Demosthenes
when he moved the Athenians to cry
out against Philip. There were other
speakers on the occasion referred
to. among them Gustavus A. Henry,
the Eagle Orator of Tennessee, then a
member of the senate, and the silver
tongued Judah p. Benjamin, of Louisi-
ana, then Secretary of State