lease Weed, whose infrequent calls at the
White House had not escaped notice. "I have been brought to fear
recently," the President wrote with characteristic tenderness, "that
somehow, by commission or omission, I have caused you some degree of
pain. I have never entertained an unkind feeling or a disparaging
thought towards you; and if I have said or done anything which has
been construed into such unkindness or disparagement it has been
misconstrued. I am sure if we could meet we would not part with any
unpleasant impression on either side."[935] Such a letter from such a
man stirred the heart of the iron-willed boss, who hastened to
Washington. He had much to say. Among other things he unfolded a plan
for peace. It proposed full amnesty to all persons engaged in the war
and an armistice for ninety days, during which time such citizens of
the Confederate States as embrace the offered pardon "shall, as a
State or States, or as citizens thereof, be restored in all respects
to the rights, privileges, and prerogatives which they enjoyed before
their secession from the Union." If, however, such offer is rejected,
the authority of the United States denied, and the war against the
Union continued, the President should partition all territory, whether
farms, villages, or cities, among the officers and soldiers conquering
the same.[936]

[Footnote 935: Barnes, _Life of Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2, p. 440.]

[Footnote 936: _Ibid._, p. 437.]

In presenting this plan Weed argued that if the offer was rejected it
would secure "a united North in favour of war to the knife." Besides,
the armistice, occurring when the season interrupts active army
movements, would cause little delay and give ample time for widespread
circulation of the proclamation. Respecting the division of lands
among soldiers, he said it would stop desertion, avoid the payment of
bounties, and quickly fill the army with enterprising yeomen who would
want homes after the termination of hostilities. It had long been
practised in maritime wars by all civilized nations, he said, and
being a part of international law it could not in reason be objected
to, especially as the sufferers would have rejected most liberal
offers of peace and prosperity. Weed frankly admitted that Seward did
not like the scheme, and that Senator Wilson of Massachusetts eyed it
askance; but Stanton approved it, he said, and Dean Richmond
authorised him to say that if fairly carried out the North