The Hattiesburg news., 1916-10-13
& THE TRUTH or HISTORY

1. Now and then it happens that the
issues of the great war between the
states are again resurrected-in new
, | form, perhaps, but still the same is
| sues-ard are treated by some pub,
| lishers in way that stirs the old vets
to protest.
In series of historical write-ups
| in the Courier-Journal Col Henry
Watterson, of Louisville, published
statements which have since been re-
4 pudiated by every Confederate organi.
cation that has read them. Col. Wat
terson makes the statement that in
the Famous HAMPTON Road Conference
just two months before General Lee
surrendered at sAppomatox, proposals
very favorable to the southern. states
We're made by President Lincoln on
the one condition that the, seeded.
states remain in the Union,
A conference of both southern and
northern commissioners at Birming-
ham last May virtually denied. that
the statements of the Courier-Journal
We're true, and drafted a resolution to
this effect Southern publishers have
since been urged to refer to the Bir-l
mingham resolutions for authentic in
| formation as TO the details of the fa-
nous Hampton Roads conference.
The story as published by Colonel
Watterson is as follows: ~
1 THE morning of February 8, 1865,
upon steamer lying. at anchor in
HAMPTON Roads, off Fortress Monroe,
Abraham Lincoln, attended by Will
liam H. Seward, met three Confed-l
crate commissioners, Alexander H.
Stephens, Robert NJ. T. Hunter, and
John A, Campbell, appointed by JEFF
'ferson Davis for the purpose as Mr.. |
Davis wrote, of ofisecuring peace to the
two eountries,' but as Mr.. Lincoln had |
written. with the view of securing |
peace to the people of our one COM
mon country
There had been many epistolary T
and verbal exchanges between the
two capitals, Washington and Rich
mond before this fateful conference
had come to pass. The parties to it
We're personally we'll known to one an
other. Mr.. Lincoln and Mr.. Stephens
were, indeed, old friends. The pro
ceedings were informal and without
AT the outset it was agreed
that no writing or memorandum
should be made Of what might be said
or done. 1t is known, however, that
at certain point, the President of
the United States and the Vice Presi-
dent of the Southern Confederacy,
sitting little apart from the rest, Mr..
Lincoln took up a. sheet of paper and
said by way of completing. the unre-
served conversation that had passed
between them: Stephens, let me
write Union" at the top Of this page,
md you may write below it whatever
Else you please He had already COM .
nitted himself, i'm the event that the ,
armies laid down their arms !,
md the Southern States returned to
he, Union, to the payment OF $780, {
100000 for the slaves. e
"That such an opportunity for the (
'outh, then on the verge of collapse,
0 end the war should have been re-
used will remain forever a mystery
ordering on the supernatural
3 Two months later Lee surrendered,
instead Of achieving an honorable !
eace on favorable terms, the Confed-
racy went down in total shipwreck,
the waves of passion and
under for ten, succeeding years
weeping over the stricken survivors
j they fioundered in the Sea of Re- t,
obstruction, the christ-man who had S
trown out q life line gone. no one p
IT having the will and theA power Ia t,
ay the fury Of the elements. y
twas it the HAND Of God2 Could it
ave been that God deemed the South
it yet sufficiently punished2 Who
lall tell us2g ),
Other Courier Journal stories to n
htch the Birmingham conference d,
.otests is a comparison Of the Con- i.
derate states and their cause dur !,
g the sixties and the German empire i,
"a her cause at the present time Ac-