y a system of military
seizure. The Confederacy had no credit at home or abroad; and
there was a growing discontent with President Davis and his advisers.
There also came to be a feeling in the South that slavery, in any
event, was doomed. Lastly, the "cradle and the grave" were robbed
to fill up the army; this by a relentless draft. The Confederate
Congress passed an act authorizing the incorporation into the army
of colored men--slaves. This was not well received, though General
Lee approved of the policy, suggesting, however, that it would be
necessary to give those who became soldiers, freedom.( 1)

Notwithstanding the desperate straits into which the Confederacy
had fallen it still had in the field not less than 300,000 well-
equipped soldiers, generally well commanded, and, although forced
to act on the defensive, they were very formidable.

The officers and soldiers of the Union Army longest in the field,
though confident of final and complete success, desired very much
to see the war speedily terminated--to return to their families
and to peaceful pursuits. This desire did not show itself so much
as in discontent as in a restless disposition towards those in
authority, who, it might be supposed, could in some way secure a
peace. The credit of the United States remained good; its bonds
commanded ready sale at home and abroad, yet an enormous debt was
piling up at the rate of $4,000,000 daily, and its paper currency
was depreciated to about thirty-five per cent. of its face value.
These and many other causes led to a general desire for peace. On
both sides, those in supreme authority were unjustly charged with
a disposition to continue the war for ulterior purposes when it
had been demonstrated that it was no longer justifiable.

This retrospect seems necessary before giving a summary of the
various efforts to negotiate a peace. About the first open suggestion
to that end came from General Robert E. Lee in a letter to President
Davis written at Fredericktown, Maryland, September 8, 1862. This
was just after the Second Bull Run, during the first Confederate
invasion of Maryland and in the hey-day of the Confederacy. Davis
was requested to join Lee's army, and, from its head, propose to
the United States a recognition of the independence of the Confederate
States. Lee in this letter showed himself something of a politician.
He urged that a rejection of such a proposition would throw the
responsibility