From the Richmond Daily Dispatch July 28, 1864:
The interview of the “peace Commissioners.”
The Washington Chronicle, noticing the failure of the late “peace negotiations,” says:
After considerable correspondence between the parties, it was concluded to refer the whole matter back to the two Governments for reconsideration. All negotiations having been terminated Mr Greeley, in company [with] Mr [H]ay, Private Secretary of Mr Lincoln, catted upon the Commissioners at the Clifton House, on the side, where a protracted and pleasant interview was held, and the various questions under consideration were discussed at length. Mr Greeley left the Falls for New York on this afternoon’s train. It is understood that the Commissioners, with Sanders and Jewett, who are both here, are to remain and carry on negotiations with the Democrats.–A letter is to be prepared for the Chicago Convention, in which the Commissioners will hold out strong assurances of a restoration of the Union under Democratic auspices. The whole movement is regarded by many as a mere scheme to entrap the Administration into a false position before the country and the world for the benefit of the disunion Democrats
You can read a lot of the correspondence involving the Confederate peace commissioners at Niagara Falls, Canada and Horace Greeley at the July 22, 1864 issue of The New-York Times
A Dispatch editorial warned that any peace with the Lincoln administration would mean freeing the slaves to live off the whites and/or compete with them for jobs. Mr. Lincoln’s peace would also encourage miscegenation.
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch July 28, 1864:
Lincoln’s peace
We suppose that those persons in North Carolina who have dreamed of the possibility of obtaining peace with Abraham Lincoln upon reasonable terms are satisfied now of what they have to expect. “To whom it may concern” is an address comprehensive enough to embrace the interests of every man who has a dollar’s worth of property in a slave. Not only the “restoration of the Union,” but “the abandonment of slavery,” is a condition precedent of all negotiation. Such a demand “concerns” not only the interests of those who own slaves, but even more vitally those who do not. Consider what the “abandonment of slavery” involves. Not alone the sacrifice to their owners of so much property, but the quartering upon the whole community of an immense population of paupers and thieves. Any North Carolinians who could be willing to purchase peace by the “abandonment of slavery” will see upon reflection that the price is a good deal higher than they can afford to pay. Are they able to support the slaves after they are freed? Do they not know that even a few free negroes are a post to any community? That they will not work, if they can help it, but beg and steal? What would be the effect, then, of emancipating multitudes? No State on earth could bear such a burthen. Lincoln does not propose to remove them. The North would not have them as a gift. After the war is over it, will kick out of its borders all that are already there. If the negroes of the South are emancipated, the Republican idea is to make them remain here, associate with the whites, and compete with white laborers for employment. In fact, all the wealth of the United States could not transport the negroes from the South, even were the United States so disposed. “Abandonment of slavery” means the reduction of the Southern States to the condition of Mexico, to the political and social equality of whites and negroes, and all the atrocities and debasement of miscegenation. The disaffected portion of the North Carolina population have before them the terms upon which Lincoln, as far as he is able, will give them peace. If war has any horrors for them in comparison with such a condition, they must be made of different materials from most white men. We cannot believe that any considerable number of people in any civilized community upon earth would be willing to purchase peace upon such terms.
Mr. Lincoln’s White House discusses the relationship between the president and the newspaperman, including the Niagara Falls negotiations: “In July 1864, Greeley pressured Lincoln to engage in some spurious peace negotiations. Lincoln deftly maneuvered Greeley to take the brunt of the responsibility for the talks, which quickly broke down.”
