he had devised a plan for a peace
conference, with certain prominent Confederates, Clement C. Clay,
among others, to be held in Canada. Mr. Lincoln felt sure that
the conference would do no good, and that the Confederates were
fooling Mr. Greeley, and that they had no real power to act.

This turned out to be exactly the truth. I was with the President
just as he was sending Mr. Hay to Niagara with written instructions,
which were given to see that nothing which threatened the interests
of the Government should be done. The President was very much
annoyed, and he remarked to me: "While Mr. Greeley means right,
he makes me almost as much trouble as the whole Southern
Confederacy."

While, as I have previously observed, Greeley was intensely loyal
to the country, yet he was so nervous and unstable in his mind that
he could not resist the effort to bring about a condition of peace.
I think he would have consented to almost anything in order to
secure it. He was very anxious for the issuance of a proclamation
abolishing slavery, and on the nineteenth of August, 1862, addressed
a very arrogant open letter to President Lincoln on the subject.

Lincoln's reply was so good, so perfect, and so conclusive that I
give it, as follows:

"Executive Mansion,
"Washington, _Friday, August 22, 1863_.

"Hon. Horace Greeley:

"Dear Sir: I have just read yours of the nineteenth instant,
addressed to myself through _The New York Tribune_.

"If there be any statements or assumptions of facts which I may
know to be erroneous, I do not now and here controvert them.

"If there may be any inferences which I may to believe to be falsely
drawn, I do not now and here argue against them.

"If there be perceptible in it an impatient and dictatorial tone,
I waive it in deference to an old friend whose heart I have always
supposed to be right.

"As to the policy 'I seem to be pursuing,' as you say, I have not
meant to leave any one in doubt. I would save the Union. I would
save it in the shortest way under the Constitution.

"The sooner the National authority can be restored, the nearer the
Union will be--the Union as it was.

"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could
at the same time save slavery, I do not agree with them.

"If there be those who would not save the Union unless they could
at the same time destroy slavery, I do not agree with them.

"_My paramount object is to save the Union, and no