of a continuance of the war on the Union authorities
and thus aid, at the elections, the party in the country opposed to
the war.( 2) Nothing, however, came of this suggestion of Lee.

Fernando Wood, who had kept himself in some sort of relations with
President Lincoln, though at all times suspected by the latter,
pretended in a letter to him, dated December 8, 1862, to have
"reliable and truthful authority" for saying the Southern States
would send representatives to Congress provided a general amnesty
would permit them to do so. The President was asked to give
immediate attention to the matter, and Wood suggested "that gentlemen
whose former social and political relations with the leaders of
the _Southern revolt_ may be allowed to hold unofficial correspondence
with them on this subject."

Mr. Lincoln, whose power to discern a sham, or a false pretense,
exceeded that of any other man of his time, promptly responded:
"I strongly suspect your information will prove groundless;
nevertheless, I thank you for communicating it to me." He said
further to Mr. Wood that if "the _people_ of the Southern States
would cease resistance, and would re-inaugurate, submit to, and
maintain the national authority within the limits of such States,
the war would cease on the part of the United States, and that if,
within a reasonable time, a full and general amnesty were necessary
to such an end, it would not be withheld." The President declined
to suspend military operations "to try any experiment of negotiation."
He expressed a desire for any "exact information" Mr. Wood might
have, saying it "might be more valuable before than after January
1, 1863," referring, doubtless, to the promised Emancipation
Proclamation. Wood's scheme, evidently having no substantial basis,
aborted.( 3)

Others, about the same time, pestered Mr. Lincoln with plans and
schemes for the termination of the war. One Duff Green, a Virginia
politician, wrote from Richmond in January, 1863, asking the
President for an interview "to pave the way for an early termination
of the war." He asked the same permission from Jeff. Davis. His
efforts came to nothing.

Alexander H. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederacy, conceiving,
in the early summer of 1863, that the times were auspicious for
peace negotiations, wrote Mr. Davis, asking to be sent to Washington,
ostensibly to negotiate about the exchange of prisoners, but really
to try to "turn attention to