Notes

Stanton ignored him. "For another, despite any troubles we may have had
there at the outset of the war, the people of Maryland stand foursquare
behind the United States. They shall not willingly submit to your rule."
Lee suspected that was true. "Maryland, My Maryland" notwithstanding,
the Army of Northern Virginia had received scant aid or comfort from that
state's inhabitants in either the Sharpsburg campaign or the more recent
invasion that had led to the capture of Washington. Despite some thousands
of slaveowners, Maryland was in essence a Northern state. He said, "Let us
set Maryland aside for the time being, merely noting now that its status has
been questioned. Perhaps it may be included in some larger agreement
solving the status of all disputed border states."
"Very well, General. I did but raise the question," Stephens said. "As
Secretary Seward so wisely stated, we should proceed to settle what we can.
There are, for example, the thirty-eight northwestern counties of Virginia
which have been illegally included among the United States under the name
West Virginia."
"Illegally?" Seward raised a tufted eyebrow. "How can a nation founded on
the principle of secession fail to acknowledge the applicability of the
principle when employed against it? Surely you would not be branded
hypocrites before the world?" "Successful hypocrites seem to bear up under
the opprobrium remarkably well," Benjamin said, his habitual smile
perhaps a hairsbreadth broader. "But let us continue to lay out the territories
whose possession remains at issue, or rather the states: we have not yet
mentioned Kentucky or Missouri."
Both sets of commissioners leaned forward. Both nations had strong claims
to both states, though Federal forces were currently in possession of them.
Ben Butler said, "Given the pleasant time your armies are having farther
south hi the valley of the Mississippi, it will be a long time before you see
Missouri, Mr. Benjamin." Now he addressed the Confederate Secretary of
State as if completely Page 167
indifferent to his religion.
He managed to be unpleasant nonetheless. Not all the Negro regiments the
Federals had raised while occupying Louisiana, Mississippi, Arkansas, and
Tennessee had gone north with their white comrades upon the armistice.
Some stayed to carry on the fight. Lincoln predicted as much. Lee
remembered; he said it would take a war to return slavery to those parts.
"Bedford Forrest has beaten the niggers at Sardis and Grenada," Stephens
said. "He is advancing on Grand Gulf now. I expect he will manage to hit
'em again, as people say." His laugh sounded like the wind ruffling dry
grass.
But he did not ruffle Butler. "He may well defeat them in the field,
orphaned as they be," the fat political general admitted. "What then? Did
you not recently call the territory north of the Rapidan 'Mosby's
Confederacy'? You shall presently face the prospect of subduing a 'Nigger
Union' down there, and may you have the same joy of putting it down as we
did with Mosby." Obnoxious as Butler was, Lee began to see why, aside
from his political connections, Lincoln had chosen him as a peace
commissioner. Born with an eye toward his own advantage, he sought
advantage for his country with a like single-mindedness. Lee said, "Thus
far, we appear to have more problems than solutions for them. Shall we
continue to set them forth, so they all lay on the table at once?"
"We may as well," Seward said, "though I hope we shan't provoke ourselves
into a new round of fighting because our difficulties appear insuperable."
"The state of Texas borders both the Indian Territory and New Mexico
Territory," Alexander Stephens said significantly.
"Good luck sending another expedition to New Mexico," Stanton replied.
"We can bring men down from Colorado faster than you can get them
across the West Texas desert. We showed you that two years ago."
"You are likely to be right there, sir," Lee said. Stanton, he noted, made no
such claim for the Indian Territory north of Texas. The war there had not
ended with the armistice, for the Indian tribes roused to battle by the Union
and Confederacy could not be checked so easily by the Great White Fathers'
commands. Only chaos ruled the Territory now.
"Are there any other territorial questions at issue between us?" Judah
Benjamin asked. Stanton said, "There had better not be, for we've gone
from the Atlantic to the Rio Grande. Wherever we touch, we disagree."
"So it would appear." The Confederate Secretary of State's smile never
wavered. "That leaves the question of the amount of indemnity owed to us
for the destruction U.S. forces wreaked upon our land. I would say"-which
meant, as everyone at the table knew, that Jefferson Davis would say-"two
hundred million dollars seems an equitable sum."
"You may say it if you like," Seward replied. "I gather that your
constitution, derived as it is from our own, guarantees freedom of speech.
Collecting what you claim is another matter altogether."
"Hell will freeze over before you rebs see two hundred million dollars,"
Stanton agreed. "A quarter of that sum would be extravagant."
Page 168
"We may not have to wait for the devil to get chilblains, nor anywhere near
so long," Benjamin said silkily. "Today is September 5, after all. In two
months, you Northerners will hold your Presidential election. Would Mr.
Lincoln not like to have a treaty of peace to present to the people before
November 8?"
The three Federal commissioners looked glumly across the table at him.
Defeat had turned Northern politics even more chaotic than they had been
in the then-United States during the four-cornered Presidential race of 1860.
Lee's seizure of Washington had delayed the Republican convention in
Baltimore, but when it finally convened, it renominated Lincoln and
Hannibal Hamlin... whereupon the radical Republicans seceded-both
Northern papers and the Richmond Dispatch used the word, with perhaps
different flavors of irony attached to it-from the party and put forward as
their candidate John C. Fremont, who as general in Missouri had tried to
emancipate that state's slaves in 1861, only to see his order overruled by
Lincoln. They chose Senator Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to run with
him; Johnson still stubbornly refused to admit that his state no longer
acknowledged the authority of Washington, D.C. The Democrats were in no
better condition. Meeting in Chicago, they had just finished choosing
Governor Horatio Seymour of New York as their Presidential candidate,
with Clement Vallandigham of Ohio for a running mate. And General
McClellan, disappointed at failing to gain the nomination, was vowing that
he, like Fremont, would mount an independent campaign. That second split
gave Lincoln a ray of hope; but only a faint one.
Judah Benjamin rubbed it in: "Perhaps we should wait to see how your
patron fares come November, gentlemen. A Democratic administration
might well prove more reasonable." Any administration with Vallandigham
in it was likely to be reasonable from a Southern point of view; he had
favored accommodation with the Confederacy even when its prospects
looked blackest. But Ben Butler said, "No matter what happens in the
election, I remind you that Abraham Lincoln shall remain President of the
United States until March 4 proximo."
"A point well taken," Lee said. Though reluctant to agree with Butler on
anything, he found a half-year's delay unconscionable. "The sooner peace
comes, the better for all, North and South alike."
"A man bolder than I would be required to presume to disagree with
General Lee," Alexander Stephens said. "Let us continue, then." Lee could
not tell what went on behind Judah Benjamin's smiling mask. But Benjamin
did not say no.
Secretary of State Seward said, "Having set forth the areas where we
disagree, I think we would be hard-pressed to do much more today. In any
case, I should like to telegraph a statement of your position to President
Lincoln, and to receive his instructions before proceeding further. May I
propose that we adjourn, to meet again on Wednesday the seventh?"
Lee found both Stephens and Benjamin looking at him. It should not have
been that way; the other two commissioners outranked him by virtue of
their places in the civil government. But they were looking at him. He
would not show annoyance in front of the men from the United States.
"That seems satisfactory to me," he said, adding, "We shall also have to
consult with our President as to our future course."
"Simple enough for you," Stanton said. "We, though, are like dogs tethered
by a wire leash." His voice had a rumble in h that made it sound like a
growl. Lee smiled at the conceit. Butler said, "Better dogs tethered by a
wire leash than a dog running loose from a wire leash, as Forrest did last
June."
Page 169
"I trust the gentlemen in this room will not permit General Butler's opinion
to go beyond it," Lee said quickly. Butler was no gentleman; he'd made that
plain by his every action during the war, and again by his slur aimed at
Judah P. Benjamin. But Nathan Bedford Forrest, by all accounts, was no
gentleman either. If he heard what Butler had called him, he would not
bother with the niceties of a formal challenge. He would simply shoot
Butler down... like a dog.
The Federal commissioners rose, bowed their way out. When they were
gone, Alexander Stephens said,
"If you will forgive me, General, Mr. Secretary, I shall leave the
consultation in your no doubt capable hands. The President and I, while
always preserving our respect for each other, have not been in agreement
often enough of late for us to find it easy to speak together without friction.
Good day to you both; I shall see you on Wednesday." Getting out of his
chair took a struggle, but he managed, and walked out of the Cabinet room.
Benjamin and Lee walked up the flight of stairs to Jefferson Davis's office.
"Ironic, is it not," the Secretary of State said, "that four years ago Benjamin
Butler did everything in his power to gain Davis the Democratic nomination
for the Presidency. I wonder where we should all be today had he
succeeded."
"Somewhere other than here, is my guess," Lee answered, admiring the
dispassionate way in which Benjamin spoke of the man who had insulted
him. He also wondered if Benjamin knew the true origins of the Rivington
men; his own thoughts, since the day when Andries Rhoodie set forth those
origins to him, had frequently dwelt on the mutability of history. Before he
could find a way to ask that would cover him if the answer was no, he and
the Secretary of State reached the President's door. Davis listened to their
report, then said, "About as I expected. Maryland would cost us another war
to win, and would make the United States our eternal enemy even if we
took it. Likewise Virginia's departed counties." He did not mention the
troubles Lee had had in what was now West Virginia early in the war. Every
Confederate general there had come to grief.
"I think we will win the Indian Territory in the end, for whatever it may
prove to be worth," Benjamin said.
"As to what, who can say? Kentucky was worth little when I was born
there." Davis frowned. "I should like to gain possession of New Mexico,
and Arizona and California with it. A railroad across the continent will
surely come soon, and I would have it come on a southern route. But again,
that will prove difficult. The Federals currently hold the land, and we
should be hard-pressed either to conquer it or, given the present unfortunate
state of the Treasury, to buy it from them even if they were willing to sell.
Perhaps we shall be able to make arrangements with the Emperor
Maximilian for a route from Texas to the Pacific coast of Mexico."
"Better that a transcontinental railroad should lie entire within our own
territory," Benjamin said.
"Not if we have to fight to make a thousand-mile stretch of that territory our
own," Lee replied. "Stanton had the right of it earlier today; our logistics are
poor, and we have as yet few repeaters in the Trans-Mississippi. Besides
which, no war with the United States would remain confined to the western
frontier."
Jefferson Davis sighed. "I fear you are probably right, sir. And even with
the repeaters, we desperately need to restore ourselves before we
contemplate further combat. Very well; if we cannot talk the Federals out of
New Mexico and Arizona, we shall have to go on without them. The same
cannot be said of Kentucky and Missouri."
Page 170
"The United States will not yield them," Lee warned. "Lincoln said as much
when I was in Washington City, and his commissioners were not only firm
but also vehement on the subject this afternoon."
"I shall not tamely yield them to the North, either," Davis said. "With them,
we should be a match for and independent of the United States in all
respects. Without them, the balance of power would tilt the other way. We
should find especially valuable the manufactories which have sprung up in
Louisville and elsewhere along the Ohio. I reluctantly infer from the war
that we may not remain a nation made up solely of agriculturalists, lest in a
future conflict the United States overwhelm us with their numbers and their
industries."
"We have the Rivington men to set against their factories," Benjamin said.
"But for the Rivington men, I gather we should have been overwhelmed."
He does know, then, Lee thought. Davis said, "The Rivington men arc with
us but not of us. Against the day when their purposes and ours might
diverge, I would have the Confederate States capable of proving a match for
and independent of them, as well as of the North."
"That seems a wise precaution," Benjamin agreed.
Davis was not really interested in the Rivington men at the moment; the
talks with the United States were his principal concern. He pulled the
conversation back toward those talks: "How did the Federals take the
demand for two hundred million?"
"Noisily," Benjamin answered, which made the President laugh. The
Secretary of State went on, "Stanton claimed a fourth of that would beextravagant
was the word he used."
"Which means the United States might pay that fourth, or more," Davis
said. "Even fifty million in specie would be more backing than our paper
now enjoys, and would greatly boost confidence in that paper's value, which
in turn would help bring prices down to a more realistic level. Gentlemen, I
rely on you to wring as large a sum from the Northern coffers as you may."
"We shall, Mr. President," Lee said.
"I have perfect faith in your abilities-and also in those of Mr. Stephens,
though we are often at odds with each other," Jefferson Davis said: almost a
mirror image of the words the Vice President had used to describe their
relationship. Davis continued, "Now I must needs return to these other
matters of state, particularly this latest note from the British minister
regarding our prospective participation in the naval patrol off the African
coast to interdict the slave trade. You have seen it, Mr. Benjamin?"
"Yes, sir," Benjamin said.
"I do not care for its tone. Having recognized us, the British ought to use us
with the politeness they grant to any other nation. Our Constitution forbids
the importation of slaves from Africa, which should suffice to satisfy them
but evidently does not. In any case, we, unlike the United States, have not
the naval force to permit us to comply with the Ashburton treaty, a fact of
which the minister cannot be unaware, but with which he chooses to bait
us." Davis's lip curled in scorn.
Judah Benjamin said, "The nations of Europe continue to abhor our policy,
try as we will to convince them we cannot do otherwise. Mr. Mason has
written from London that Her Majesty's government might well have been
willing to extend us recognition two years ago, were it not for the
continuation of slavery Page 171
among us: so Lord Russell assured him, at any rate. M. Thouvenel, the
French foreign minister, has expressed similar sentiments to Mr. Slidell in
Paris."
Slavery, Lee thought. In the end, the outside world's view of the
Confederate States of America was colored almost exclusively by its
response to the South's peculiar institution. Never mind that the U.S.
Constitution was a revocable compact between independent states, never
mind that the North had consistently used its numerical majority to force
through Congress tariffs that worked only to ruin the South. So long as
black men were bought and sold, all the high ideals of the Confederacy
would be ignored.
President Davis said, "The 'free' factory worker in Manchester or Paris-yes,
in Boston as well-is free only to starve. As Mr. Hammond of South Carolina
put it so pungently in the chambers of the U.S. Senate a few years ago,
every society rests upon a mudsill of brute labor, from which the edifice of
civilization arises. We are but more open and honest about the nature of our
mudsill than other nations, which gladly exploit a worker's labor but, when
he can no longer provide it, cast him aside like a used sheet of foolscap."
Nothing but the truth there, Lee thought-but also nothing that would
convince anyone who already opposed slavery, as did the vast majority of
countries and individual men and women outside the Confederate States.
Diffidently, he said, "Mr. President, now that we are no longer at war with
the United States, would it not be possible to fit out a single naval vessel for
duty off the African coast? The symbolic value of such a gesture would, it
seems to me, far outweigh the cost it would entail." Davis's eyes flashed.
Lee read Et tu, Brute? in them. Then calculation replaced anger. Judah
Benjamin said, "If that be feasible, Mr. President, it would go some way
toward accommodating us to the usages of the leading powers."
"And how far did those powers go toward accommodating us before we
assured our own independence?" Davis said, his voice bitter with
remembered slight. "Not a single step, as I recall: confident in their
strength, they despised us, Britain chief among them. And now they expect
us to forget? Not likely, sir, by God!"
"In no way do I advise you to forget, sir," Benjamin said. "I merely concur
with General Lee in suggesting that we demonstrate acquiescence where we
may, against a time when we are in a position to be able to give concrete
evidence of our displeasure."
Davis drummed the fingers of his right hand on his desk. "Very well, sir.
Enquire of Mr. Mallory at the Navy Department as to the practicability of
doing as General Lee suggested, then prepare a memorandum detailing for
me his response. If the thing can be done, I shall communicate to the British
our willingness to do it. There are times, I confess, when I believe our lives
would have been simpler had no Negroes ever been imported to these
shores. But then we should only have required some other mudsill upon
which to build our society."
"Futile to pretend now that the black man is no part of our Confederacy,"
Lee said. "And as he is such a part, we shall have to define his place in our
nation."
"One reason we fought the late war was to define the black man's place in
our nation, or rather to preserve our previous definition of his place,"
Benjamin said. "Do you now feel that definition to be inadequate?"
"Preserving it may yet prove more expensive than we can afford," Lee said.'
"Thanks to the Federals, the Page 172
Negroes of parts of Virginia, the Carolina coast, Tennessee, and the
Mississippi valley have had a year, two, three, to accustom themselves to
the idea of being free men and women. General Forrest mayGeneral Forrest
had better-defeat their armed bands in the field. But can he at the point of a
bayonet restore their previous habit of servility?"
For some time, none of the three men in President Davis's office spoke.
Davis scowled at Lee's words; even Benjamin's customary smile slipped.
Lee himself felt rather surprised, for what he'd said took him farther than
he'd consciously intended to go. But a smoldering slave insurrection, no
doubt aided and abetted from the United States, was every Southern man's
worst nightmare.