Year: 1867

have gone back to the Union without a
doubt, for the dream of a separate nations
ality would soon have been dispelled. The
great error of the North, he thought, was in
adopting the policy of coercion. If South
Carolina had been permitted to go, and a
few other States with her, secession would
soon have been at an end. The South was
getting very sick of it when the call for
IS 900 troops came out. A tariff of twenty
per cent on every thing produced in the
country had been levied by the Montgomery
Congress, and it had caused rise in prices
and great discomfort One thing after an
other had occurred to persuade the people
that secession was foolish undertaking,
but when troops were called for to invade
the South the tide Immediately turned the
other way, and tine separarionists triumphed
every where. He regarded jeff Davis as a
man Of kind heart, who meant well in what
he did, but was not fitted fol the head of a
nation in a time like that of the late war


He would listen to no advice, and heed no
wa rning. Because he wanted to succeed


be thought therefore he must, and he had no
idea of giving up the contest until Lee tel
egraphed him that his lines were broken,
and that he must evaeuate Richmond. The
agreat tIur pas for the North; better a good
deal have let him go wherever he wanted to
GO | asked where Davis was going when
he was captured. Mr.. Stephens said he
didn't know-he doubted if Davis knew
himself lie seemed to him to be running
about like gad>1y in n stable, after the
boys had tnsen his eyes out-bobbing up
and down, running against everything and
hitting everything, utterly unconscious Of
what he was doing or whore he was going.
lie believed the government would release
Davis without any trial. The Supreme
Court decision in the injunction cases would
have an. important bearing on the trial. If
the injunction was not granted, he could not
see how Davis could be tried for treason
for the refusal would convey with it the as
sertion that the Southern States were not
States of the Union, and therefore their cit


zens could not have been guilty of treason
in rebell.ng. This seemed to him to be the
light in which Charles OConnor, who was
counsel in both cases, viewed it.


remained at Mr.. Stephens residence
that evening and during the following day
until train time. He expressed great won>
der when | told him of my intended depart
ure, and Legged me stay n week and see
the country" or, iu any event, to {" come
back this way and call to see him again.
spent Friday evening in conversation with
him, and found him the most delightful and
inexhaustible talker had ever listened to.
Many of the events connected with the war,
with which was already familiar, he rela-
ted to me with such an interesting and at
tractivo manner that | forgot | had ever
known anything of them, and hstened to
them as to something entirely new and
startling.


lie spoke of the Hampton Roads confer,
ence as having been consented to by jeff.
Davis only to thwart another proposition
looking to peace and reunion. The Con-
federate Congress was about to pass joint
resolution in favor of cessation of hCstili-
ties, for The purpose of calling national
convention to settls all existing differences.
Davis wanted to defeat this, by making the
Southern people believe that the North would
accept no terms but an unconditional sur
render, and this he thought the Hampton
Roads conference would accomplish Mr.
Stephens on his return from Hampton Roads
felt convinced that the Southern cause was
lost, and told JEFF, Davis so, but Davis would
not believe it. He soon after returned to
his home in Charlottesville, where he res
mained until arrested by Wilson's cavalry,
and taken to Fort Warren. He is now ems
gagged in collecting and arranging the ma
terials for a book to be styled The War,
Its Causes, Conduct and Results" 1t will
be in two volumes, the first to appear about
the close of the present year. lie told me
he would say very little about battles, or
batt!e-felds, for he has an utter loathing for
them. He holds that war degrades any
people that engage in it, and retards in
stead of advances civilization. His book
will be on the war in its relation to civil
liberty and republican government in this
country and throughout the world.


Respecting the present civil contest in the
South he desires no public expression of his
views. As one who is disfranchised and a
paroled prisoner. he feels it prudent for him
to keep quiet aud take no part in public af
fairs. | shall therefore say nothing in this
letter touchinghis position on reconstruction
under the Military Law. He converses freely
on the subject, and has no hesitation in Civ
ing his opinion when asked in hisown house.
He does so, however, with the injunction
that no public use shall be made of what Ne
says on the subject and he has a right to
demand this much. No man in the country
loves the American Union more than he does
or more sincerely desires its preservation
no one is more ardently devoted to consti-
tutional liberty than he; no one is less of a
monarchist or an arlstocrat, or more of re-
publican, He takes little interest in parties,
except as they tend to promote the cause to
which he is so warmly attached, and views
all questions as ph ilosopher rather than as