Year: 1864

Four ATTEMPTs.-Jefferson Davis, the rebel
North Carolina, says:


''We have made three distinct efforts to COM
municate with the authorities at Washington,
and have been invariably unsuccessful. Com
'missioners were sent before hostilities were be-
gun, and the Washington government refused to
receive them or hear what they had to say. A
second time sent military officer with COM
munication addressed by myself to President
Lincoln. The letter was received by General
Scott, who did not permit the officer to see Mr.
Lincoln, but promised that an answer would be
sent. No answer has ever been received. The
third time, a few months ago, gentleman was
sent, whose position, character, and reputation
were such as to insure his reception, if the enc
my were not determined to receive no proposals
whatever from the government. Vice Presi-
dent Stephens made a patriotic tender of his
services in the hope of being able to promote
the cause of humanity, and although little be-
lief was entertained of his success, l cheerfully
yielded to his suggestion that the experiment
should be tried. The enemy refused to let him
pass through their lines or to hold any confer
ence with him.


To attempt again lin the face of these re-
peated reflections of all conference with us) to
send commissioners or agents to propose peace,
is to invite insult and cOntumely and to subject
ourselves to indignity without the slightest
chance of being listened to-"


jeff. said that the terms of peace suggested,
was "demand only to be let alone" Of
course no Union man desired him to be '1et
alone' while he was fighting for a dissolution
of the Union and his Confederacy. But it ap-
pears there was lingering hope among the peo-
pie of North Carolina, that the old Union might
be restored, and the pressure of this element
caused the leaders of the rebellion to send peace
propositions fourth time. The result of the
last attempt is given in another column of our
paper. The propositions are quite different
from the former, having restoration of the
Union in view. In the letter alluded to above,
Jeff. further rmarks


II cannot conceive how the people of your
State than which none has sent nobler or more
gallant soldiers to the field of battle, Zone of
whom it is your honor to be,) can have been de-
ceived by anything to which you refer in the re-
cent faction of the Federal House of Represen-
tatives" l have seen no action of that House
that does not indicate, by very decided ma
jority, the purpose of the enemy to refuse all
terms of the South except absolute uncOndition-
al subjugation or determination. Buff it were
otherwise how are we to treat with the House of
Representatives 1t is with Lincoln alone that
we ever could confer, and his own partisans at
the North avow unequivocally that his purpose
in his message and his proclamation was to shut
out all hope that he could ever treat with us on
any terms"


Much as we despise Davis, the rampant trail
tor, we must admit that he tells simply the truth
in regard to the action of the majority in our
last Congress. Yet the subjugating extermina-
ting majority of Congress by no means reflect
the views of majority of the loyal people on
this question. The exterminators were mainly
elected by raising false issues, by means of cor
ruption, and by force and fraud. The masses
are not in favor of unconditional subjugation
or determination, but they are in favor of using
all lawful means to preserve the Constitution
and the Union. This is what the patriots of the
Republic have been fighting for from the COM
mencement of the rebellion to the present time,