suggested should be had, you will
proceed as you may prefer, and are clothed with all the supplemental
authority you may need in the consideration of any proposition for a
Military Convention, or the appointment of a Commissioner to enter into
such an arrangement as will cause at least temporary suspension of
hostilities.
"Very truly yours
"JEFFERSON DAVIS."

Thereupon General Lee wrote, and sent to General Grant, the following
communication:

"HEADQUARTERS C. S. ARMIES, March 2, 1865.
"Lieut. Gen. U. S. GRANT,
"Commanding United States Armies:

"GENERAL: Lieut.-Gen. Longstreet has informed me that, in a recent
conversation between himself and Maj.-Gen. Ord, as to the possibility of
arriving at a satisfactory adjustment of the present unhappy
difficulties by means of a Military Convention, General Ord stated that
if I desired to have an interview with you on the subject, you would not
decline, provided I had authority to act. Sincerely desirous to leave
nothing untried which may put an end to the calamities of War, I propose
to meet you at such convenient time and place as you may designate, with
the hope that, upon an interchange of views, it may be found practicable
to submit the subjects of controversy between the belligerents to a
Convention of the kind mentioned.

"In such event, I am authorized to do whatever the result of the
proposed interview may render necessary or advisable. Should you accede
to this proposition, I would suggest that, if agreeable to you, we meet
at the place selected by Generals Ord and Longstreet, for the interview,
at 11 A.M., on Monday next.

"Very respectfully your obedient servant,
"R. E. LEE, General."

Upon receipt of this letter, General Grant sent a telegraphic dispatch
to Secretary Stanton, informing him of Lee's proposition. It reached
the Secretary of War just before midnight of March 3rd. He, and the
other members of the Cabinet were with the President, in the latter's
room at the Capitol, whither they had gone on this, the last, night of
the last Session of the Thirty-Eighth Congress, the Cabinet to advise,
and the President to act, upon bills submitted to him for approval. The
Secretary, after reading the dispatch, handed it to Mr. Lincoln. The
latter read and thought over it briefly, and then himself wrote the
following reply:

"WASHING