ould not offer any other
terms of peace, but that a truce might be patched up on the basis of a
common aggression against supposed foreign enemies[1270]. Adams pictured
all British society as now convinced that the end of the war was near,
and bitter against the previous tone and policy of such leaders of
public opinion as the _Times_, adding that it was being "whispered about
that if the feud is reconciled and the Union restored, and a great army
left on our hands, the next manifestation will be one of hostility to
this country[1271]."

The basis of all this rumour was Blair's attempt to play the mediator.
He so far succeeded that on January 31, 1865, Lincoln instructed Seward
to go to Fortress Monroe to meet "commissioners" appointed by Davis. But
Lincoln made positive in his instructions three points:

(1) Complete restoration of the Union.

(2) No receding on emancipation.

(3) No cessation of hostilities "short of an end of the war,
and the disbanding of all forces hostile to the Government."

A few days later the President decided that his own presence was
desirable and joined his Secretary of State in the "Hampton Roads
Conference" of February 3. It quickly appeared that the Confederates did
indeed hope to draw the North into a foreign war for a "traditional
American object," using the argument that _after_ such a war restoration
of the Union would be easily accomplished. The enemy proposed was not
Great Britain but France, and the place of operations Mexico. There was
much discussion of this plan between Seward and Stephens, the leading
Southern Commissioner, but Lincoln merely listened, and when pressed for
comment stuck fast to his decision that no agreement whatever would be
entered into until the South had laid down its arms. The Southerners
urged that there was precedent for an agreement in advance of cessation
of hostilities in the negotiations between Charles I and the Roundheads.
Lincoln's reply was pithy: "I do not profess to be posted in history. On
all such matters I turn you over to Seward. All I distinctly recollect
about the case of Charles I is that he lost his head in the end[1272]."

When news of the holding of this conference reached England there
occurred a panic on the Stock Exchange due to the uncertainty created by
the prospect of an immediate end of the American War. "The
consternation," wrote Adams, "was extraordinary[1273]." What did the
United States intend to