Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1927-02-03
BACKGROUND OF EVENTS
BY PAUL Y. COLLINS.

lean Civil War should be suspended
while the North and South should
combine forces and reaff1rm the Mon.
roe Doctrine. Surely there has never
been more startling proposition in
the midst of any great war than that
Perhaps Gen. Shelby was not aware
that his own government had COM
mftted itself to a policy which I'M
mistakably classed aid to Macmillan
as disloyalty to the Confederacy, as
we'll as to the Government headed by
President Abraham Lincoln and Gen.
u. S. Grant.
Poor Carlottap' If she and her am
bilious Macmillan had only waited a
few years more, in their charming lit
tie retreat in the Tyrolese Mountains,
they would have inherited the throne
OF Austria-then one of the greatest in
Europe. But they chose to undertake
the subjugation of foreign people
who had never harmed them, and to
sacrifice the lives of men and women
defending their native land Finally
President Juarez in 1865 captured the
Emperor and shot him and his two of
ficers, Miramon and Mejia, and never
since that shot has royalty dared
raise Its head on this continent. Mar
shall BaZaine, whose authority as Max.
1rnilian's marshal prevented accept
ance of Gen. Shelby's filibuster, was in
command of the French fortress of
Metz when the Prussians invaded
France In 1870, where he surrendered
his army of 1906 French defenders
of their homes.
Just as was the case in the World
War, when there were premature an
nouncements of armistice before the
real end came, so there was more than
one effort to end the Civil War. There
was visit to Richmond by Francis
p. Blair, ST., with a letter of authority
from President Lincoln to confer with
President Jefferson Davis. Later,
President Lincoln wrote of that Blair
incident: THE old man (Blair) meant
well, but / gave him no authority to
make any statement or proposition to
any one and after his return / stopped
him from proceeding when he began
to tell me what he had done at Rich
mond."
Nevertheless, President Davis con-
strued the Blair mission as an author
lied indication of the United States
readiness to talk peace, and so he ap-
pointed Vice President Stephens, Sen
ator Hunter and Assistant Secretary
of War Campbell to represent the Con-
federacy in q conference with Presi-
dent Lincoln and Secretary Seward-a
conference arranged upon a steamer
anchored off Old Point, February 4,
1866.
The Confederates' commission dis
tinctly restricted their powers to a
discussion Of the issues involved in
the war existing between the two
countries"
When the commissioners approached
the Union lines, Gen. Grant refused
!, them passage until he had commune
Gated with President Lincoln, who
upon learning that the wording of
their commissions, between the two
countries" might be construed as ac-
acknowledgement of the Confederacy, at
first refused to hold any conference,
but he was persuaded by Gen. Grant
that lit would do no harm, if 1t did no
good"
Quoting from History of the United
States" by Edward S. Ellis, vol. ",
pages 1911 and 1912.
"Mr. Stephens opened the business
on hand by stating clearly and with
precision the conditions which the
Confederates were instructed to lay
before the President of the United
States These had been orally com.
municated to them by President Davis
on the day previous to their departure,
at his residence in Richmond. Judge
Campbell's journal of that date says:
Mr. BENJAMIN, Secretary of State,
came for me to go to the dwelling of
the President, where / found my col
leagues convened. and Mr.. Davis then
divulged TO us the reasons for Great