Analysis of a Robert E Lee quote about slavery seems pertinent to today's conversation

[Yupster]

37. It was a very interesting tid-bit of US history

US Grant is the hero of the story.

He and his old friend and best man at his wedding Confederate General James Longstreet kept in contact across the lines trying to organize a meeting that would lead to an end to the war. They kept coming up with reasons for a meeting, like prisoner exchanges. The Union government was adamant against a meeting without an agreement to rejoin the Union. Lincoln kept telling the other side that he would be incredibly generous. Everything was negotiable, but they must agree to rejoin the Union before any meeting could happen.

When the southern delegation of Stephens, the VP of the Confederacy who opposed secession in the first place and an old friend of Lincoln's from his Whig Party days. Confederate Senator Robert Hunter and former US Supreme Court Justice John Campbell arrived at Union lines, they were held and not let through. Lincoln was contacted and asked if they brought authority to end the war, and the answer was no, not at the expense of their country. They were then not let through.

That's when Grant pulled rank and pushed them through the lines and against all orders toward the President. They sat for a few days until Lincoln decided he would meet with them, but not on US soil, but on the steamer, "The River Queen."

In the February 3 conference Lincoln tried to assure the Confederate delegation that he couldn't make promises, but he would be good for his word that he would do everything he could to bring the country together peacefully if the Confederates would lay down their arms by April 1. The conference ended with the Confederates saying they would go back to brief President Davis and they asked if Lincoln could put his promises in writing.

Davis used the terms to rally what was left of southern war spirit noting that Lincoln would not compromise. Lincoln wanted the Confederacy crushed and Davis did not have the Constitutional authority to negotiate his own nation out of existence even if he wanted to. Lincoln was good for his word. He put his plans into writing. He offered amnesty to southern soldiers and leaders. He offered return of all property but slaves. He offered the south $ 200 million to pay for lost slaves if they laid down arms by April 1 and another $ 200 million if they ratified the Thirteenth Amendment by July 1. When Seward complained, Lincoln noted that the north was complicit in the slave trade too. Lincoln's proposal was unpopular in the cabinet and the congress and went no further.

It was a deal the south should have jumped on because as it turns out, Lee abandoned Richmond on April 2 and surrendered about a week later.

Quite the what if of history. A lot of things could have turned out differently in history if leaders were more flexible and wise.