ommunicated the President's invitation, and stated that the
President's purpose was to have some conversation with the delegations of
Kentucky, Missouri, Maryland, Virginia, and Delaware, in explanation of
his message of the 6th instant.

This morning these delegations, or such of them as were in town, assembled
at the White House at the appointed time, and after some little delay were
admitted to an audience. Mr. Leary and myself were the only members from
Maryland present, and, I think, were the only members of the delegation at
that time in the city. I know that Mr. Pearoe, of the Senate, and Messrs.
Webster and Calvert, of the House, were absent.

After the usual salutations, and we were seated, the President said, in
substance, that he had invited us to meet him to have some conversation
with us in explanation of his message of the 6th; that since he had sent
it in several of the gentlemen then present had visited him, but had
avoided any allusion to the message, and he therefore inferred that the
import of the message had been misunderstood, and was regarded as inimical
to the interests we represented; and he had resolved he would talk with
us, and disabuse our minds of that erroneous opinion.

The President then disclaimed any intent to injure the interests or wound
the sensibilities of the slave States. On the contrary, his purpose was to
protect the one and respect the other; that we were engaged in a terrible,
wasting, and tedious war; immense armies were in the field, and must
continue in the field as long as the war lasts; that these armies must,
of necessity, be brought into contact with slaves in the States we
represented and in other States as they advanced; that slaves would come
to the camps, and continual irritation was kept up; that he was constantly
annoyed by conflicting and antagonistic complaints: on the one side a
certain class complained if the slave was not protected by the army;
persons were frequently found who, participating in these views, acted
in a way unfriendly to the slaveholder; on the other hand, slaveholders
complained that their rights were interfered with, their slaves induced
to abscond and protected within the lines; these complaints were numerous,
loud and deep; were a serious annoyance to him and embarrassing to the
progress of the war; that it kept alive a spirit hostile to the government
in the States we represented; strengthened the hopes of the Confederates
that at some d