As soon as Lincoln landed, some blacks cried out that the president had arrived. Others, mistakenly assuming that this was an allusion to Jefferson Davis, shouted: “Hang him!” “Hang him!” “Show him no quarter!” Upon realizing that it was Lincoln, they were overjoyed.283 When some of them knelt before Lincoln, he said: “Don’t kneel to me. That is not right. You must kneel to God only, and thank him for the liberty you will hereafter enjoy.”284
When Lincoln asked directions to General Weitzel’s headquarters, a black man offered to show the way. The presidential party was led by half a dozen sailors from the barge, armed with carbines; another six brought up the rear. Sandwiched between those two lines, Lincoln walked along holding Tad’s hand. Flanking them were Porter, Adams, Penrose, Clemmens, and Coffin. Blacks surrounded the little group, frantically shouting, clapping, dancing, throwing hats into the air, waving bonnets and handkerchiefs, and applauding loudly. They stirred up great clouds of dust, which mingled with smoke from smoldering buildings set ablaze by the retreating Confederates and made the warm atmosphere quite oppressive. Lincoln, wearing a long overcoat, was perspiring freely and fanning himself to cool off.
Because of the heat, and because Tad had trouble keeping up, the little party stopped to rest. At that point, according to Coffin, “an old negro, wearing a few rags, whose white, crisp hair appeared through his crownless straw hat, lifted the hat from his head, kneeled upon the ground, clasped his hands, and said, ‘May de good Lord bress and keep you safe, Massa President Linkum.’ ” The president raised his own hat and bowed.285 Lincoln’s gesture, Coffin thought, “upset the forms, laws, customs, and ceremonies of centuries. It was a death-shock to chivalry, and a mortal wound to caste.”286 A white woman observing this scene turned away contemptuously. Lincoln nearly teared up as he listened to the grateful blessings showered on him and the thanks offered to God and Jesus. As the procession made its way slowly up the street, it paused once again, this time at Libby Prison, where Union officers had been incarcerated in especially grim conditions. When someone suggested that it be torn down, Lincoln objected, saying it should be preserved as a monument. A white man in shirtsleeves rushed from the sidewalk toward the president and shouted, “Abraham Lincoln, God bless you! You are the poor man’s friend!” Then a beautiful white teen-aged girl pushed though the crowd to hand the president a bouquet of roses with a card bearing the simple message: “From Eva to the Liberator of the slaves.”287 Eventually, word reached General Weitzel that the president had arrived, and a squad of cavalry was dispatched to escort him to headquarters, which had been established in the Confederate White House.
There Lincoln, looking pallid and fatigued, sat down in Jefferson Davis’s chair and quietly requested a glass of water. Captain Barnes, who had finally caught up with the presidential party, recalled that there “was no triumph in his gesture or attitude. He lay back in the chair like a tired man whose nerves had carried him beyond his strength.”288 He wore a “look of unutterable weariness, as if his spirit, energy and animating force were wholly exhausted,” Coffin reported.289 So tired was he that when he stepped onto the balcony to acknowledge the cheering crowd in the street, he merely bowed rather than speaking.
Soon General Weitzel arrived, along with General George F. Shepley, military governor of Virginia. After congratulating them, Lincoln met privately with some Confederate leaders who had requested an interview. Among them was former Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court John A. Campbell, who had served as the Confederate assistant secretary of war. He gave Lincoln a very low bow. The president received him in a dignified yet cordial manner. After explaining that he had no authorization to negotiate on behalf of the Confederacy or Virginia, the agitated Campbell, who was one of the negotiators Lincoln had met with at Hampton Roads two months earlier, recommended a lenient peace and stated that the war for all intents and purposes was over, that the Army of Northern Virginia could not be held together, and that leading Virginians would help restore the Union. Weitzel, whom the president invited to sit in on the discussion, recalled that Lincoln “insisted that he could not treat with any Rebels until they had laid down their arms and surrendered, and that if this were first done he would go as far as he possibly could to prevent the shedding of another drop of blood, and that he and the good people of the North were surfeited with this thing and wanted it to end as soon as possible.”290 Lincoln added that he would consider the matter, that he had originally planned to return to City Point but would remain overnight, and that he would like Campbell to meet with him the following day, along with any citizens who might prove useful.
After this conversation, Lincoln joined Weitzel and Shepley for a tour of Richmond in an ordinary two-seat buggy. As they rode along, hundreds of the city’s blacks in a frenzy of exultation shouted out expressions of gratitude and joy, sang songs of deliverance, wept, and threw their hands in the air. A black correspondent told readers of the Philadelphia Press that there was “no describing the scene along the route. The colored population was wild with enthusiasm. Old men thanked God in a very boisterous manner, and old women shouted upon the pavement as high as they had ever done at religious revival.”291 One celebrant declared: “Jeff Davis did not wait to see his master but he had come at last.”292 Others exclaimed “thank God, Jesus Christ has come at last” and “God Bless Abum Linkum, bless his heart, I give him the last thing I got in the world.”293 According to Shepley, Lincoln “looked at it all attentively, with a face expressive only of a sort of pathetic wonder. Occasionally its sadness would alternate with one of his peculiar smiles, and he would remark on the great proportion of those whose color indicated a mixed lineage from the white master and the black slave; and that reminded him of some little story of his life in Kentucky, which he would smilingly tell.”294 A white woman noted that the president “seemed tired and old.”295
At Capitol Square, Lincoln addressed a huge crowd of blacks: “My poor friends, you are free—free as air. You can cast off the name of slave and trample upon it; it will come to you no more. Liberty is your birthright. God gave it to you as he gave it to others, and it is a sin that you have been deprived of it for so many years. But you must try to deserve this priceless boon. Let the world see that you merit it, and are able to maintain it by your good works. Don’t let your joy carry you into excesses. Learn the laws and obey them; obey God’s commandments and thank him for giving you liberty, for to him you owe all things. There, now, let me pass on; I have but little time to spare. I want to see the capital, and must return at once to Washington to secure to you that liberty which you seem to prize so highly.”296 He toured the capitol building, which the legislators had precipitously abandoned two days earlier. Overturned desks, bundles of Confederate money, and random government documents were strewn about haphazardly. En route back to the landing site, the presidential entourage rolled past the notorious prisons, Libby and Castle Thunder, both overflowing with captured Rebels. At the wharf, as Lincoln boarded a cutter that would take him to the Malvern, an elderly black woman cried out: “Don’t drown, Massa Abe, for God’s sake!”297
The next morning, General Edward Hastings Ripley warned Lincoln of a plot against his life and recommended steps to guard against it. “No, General Ripley, it is impossible for me to adopt and follow your suggestions,” he replied. “I deeply appreciate the feeling which has led you to urge them on me, but I must go on as I have begun in the course marked out for me; for I cannot bring myself to believe that any human being lives who would do me any harm.”298 (Soon thereafter, while describing his experiences in Richmond, Lincoln played down the chances that he could be assassinated in Washington: “I walked alone on the street, and anyone could have shot me from a second-story window.”)299
Let ’em Up Easy: Dealing with the Defeated Rebels
The president then met again with Campbell, who brought with him an eminent Richmond attorney, Gustavus A. Myers. Lincoln began by reading a memo reiterating the three preconditions for peace
that he had presented at the Hampton Roads conference. He added that it seemed futile “to be more specific with those who will not say they are ready for the indispensable terms, even on conditions to be named by themselves. If there be any who are ready for those indispensable terms, on any conditions whatever, let them say so, and state their conditions, so that such conditions can be distinctly known, and considered.”
To encourage die-hards to surrender, Lincoln offered a practical inducement: “the remission of confiscations being within the executive power, if the war be now further persisted in, by those opposing the government, the making of confiscated property at the least to bear the additional cost, will be insisted on; but that confiscations (except in cases of third party intervening interests) will be remitted to the people of any State which shall now promptly, and in good faith, withdraw it’s troops and other support, from further resistance to the government. What is now said as to remission of confiscations has no reference to supposed property in slaves.”
According to Myers, Lincoln provided a running commentary on this document, saying that in regard “to the confiscation of property, that that was in his power, and he should be disposed to exercise that power in the spirit of true liberality.” He also “professed himself really desirous to see an end of the struggle, and said he hoped in the Providence of God that there never would be another” and “that he was thinking over a plan by which the Virginia Legislature might be brought to hold their meeting in the Capitol in Richmond,—for the purpose of seeing whether they desired to take any action on behalf of the State in view of the existing state of affairs, and informed Genl Weitzel that he would write to him from City point on that subject in a day or two. The outline of his plan being, that safe conduct should be given to the members to come hither, and that after a reasonable time were allowed them to deliberate, should they arrive at no conclusion, they would have safe conduct afforded them to leave Richmond.”
The three men then discussed loyalty oaths. Myers remarked “that the conciliatory course pursued by the Federal forces since their arrival in Richmond, had had a powerful effect in allaying the apprehension and producing kindly feelings on the part of the Citizens” and that “the opinion that the adoption of any other course on the part of the Federal authorities would be productive of irritation and conducive to no good result.” Lincoln replied “that he had never attached much importance to the oath of allegiance being required,” but would defer to Weitzel. The general said he was not disposed to require it. “Other conversation occurred,” Myers recorded, “in which the President declared his disposition to be lenient towards all persons, however prominent, who had taken part in the struggle, and certainly no exhibition was made by him of any feeling of vindictiveness or exultation.”
Campbell had a slightly different recollection: the president “with emphasis and gesture” declared “that he had said nothing in the paper as to pains and penalties. That he supposed, that it would not be proper to offer a pardon to Mr. Davis, whom we familiarly call Jeff Davis—who says he won’t have one. But that most anyone can have most anything of the kind for the asking.” Lincoln added “that he had been thinking of a plan for calling the Virginia Legislature, that had been sitting in Richmond, together, and to get them [to] vote for the restoration of Virginia to the Union. That he had not arranged the matter to his satisfaction and would not decide upon it until after his return to City Point, and he would communicate with Genl. Weitzell.” He deemed it of “the greatest importance that the same organization that has been casting the influence and support of the State to the rebels should bring the State back into the Union.”300 Campbell then read Lincoln a paper suggesting that Grant be authorized to establish an armistice which would lead to permanent peace; that no loyalty oaths be required; that no property be confiscated; and that modes be spelled out for negotiating with Confederate officials. Lincoln rejected the proposed armistice: “We will not negotiate with men as long as they are fighting against us. The last election established this as the deliberate determination of the country.”301 He asked for a copy of Campbell’s statement and said he would take it under advisement. The interview was civil, and the participants separated in good humor.
Around noon Lincoln called at Weitzel’s headquarters and told him that he would consider the issues carefully and send instructions the following day. As they discussed the best way to treat the defeated enemy, Lincoln said that he was reluctant to issue orders on the matter but did advise the general: “If I were in your place I’d let ’em up easy, let ’em up easy.”302 Then he returned to the Malvern and steamed back to City Point.
When General Shepley, an accomplished lawyer, heard of Lincoln’s decision authorizing the members of the Virginia Legislature to reconvene, he predicted that it would be wildly unpopular in the North, that the cabinet would disapprove, and that Weitzel might well be blamed unless he had a presidential order in writing. He explained his thinking: “By this shrewd move of Judge Campbell the rebel legislature, assembled under the new constitution recognizing the Confederacy, will covertly gain recognition as a legal and valid legislature, and creep into the Union with all its rebel legislation in force, thus preserving all the peculiar rebel institutions, including slavery; and they will get, as the price of defeat, all they hoped to achieve as the fruits of victory. The thing is monstrous.”303
On April 6, anticipating that Weitzel might be unfairly blamed for the president’s decision, Lincoln sent him a formal order confirming his earlier verbal instructions: “It has been intimated to me that the gentlemen who have acted as the Legislature of Virginia, in support of the rebellion, may now desire to assemble at Richmond, and take measures to withdraw the Virginia troops, and other support from resistance to the General government. If they attempt it, give them permission and protection, until, if at all, they attempt some action hostile to the United States, in which case you will notify them and give them reasonable time to leave; and at the end of which time, arrest any who may remain.” Weitzel was to regard this document as private but could show it to Campbell.304
“The drafting of that order, though so short, gave me more perplexity than any other paper I ever drew up,” Lincoln told Virginia Governor Francis H. Pierpont. He worked on it for hours that night, trying to make clear that the men who had been serving in the legislature were to reassemble for the sole purpose of withdrawing the army from the field. “But if I had known that General Lee would surrender so soon I would not have issued the proclamation,” he added. Lincoln assured Pierpont that “your government at Alexandria was fully in my mind, and I intended to recognize the restored government, of which you were head, as the rightful government of Virginia.”305
As Shepley predicted, Lincoln’s order sparked a firestorm of protest, and the cabinet disapproved of the plan. Stanton, as he later said, “vehemently opposed” the scheme and held “several very earnest conversations” with the president, advising him “that any effort to reorganize the Government should be under Federal authority solely, treating the rebel organizations and government as absolutely null and void.”306 Welles, Dennison, and Speed also objected. When Senator Wade learned of Lincoln’s plan, he reportedly said in furious tones “that there had been much talk about the assassination of Lincoln—that if he authorized the approval of that paper … by God, the sooner he was assassinated the better.”307 Fellow Radical George W. Julian said he never noticed “such force and fitness in Ben Wade’s swearing.”308
The legislators remaining in Richmond did meet and grossly overstepped the bounds Lincoln had placed on their authority. They acted as though they were the legitimate government of the commonwealth, empowered to negotiate peace terms. Lincoln was understandably indignant, and three days later revoked the order to Weitzel. When the press blamed that general for the action of the legislature and condemned him as a Rebel sympathizer, he refuted the charge by citing Lincoln’s text. To the cabinet, Lincoln explained that he thought “the members of the leg
islature, being the prominent and influential men of their respective counties, had better come together and undo their own work” of secession. The president said he “felt assured they would do this” and believed their action would prove to be “a good one. Civil government must be reestablished as soon as possible. There must be courts and law and order, or society would be broken up, the disbanded armies would turn into robber bands and guerrillas.”309
Endgame
Events were rapidly overtaking the peacemakers. On April 7, as Union cavalry pursued the Confederates fleeing westward, Lincoln remarked that “Sheridan seemed to be getting Virginia soldiers out of the war faster than this legislature could think.”310 He made a similar observation in a message to Grant describing his instructions to Weitzel. “I do not think it very probable that anything will come of this,” he said, “but I have thought best to notify you, so that if you should see signs, you may understand them. From your recent despatches it seems that you are pretty effectually withdrawing the Virginia troops from opposition to the government. Nothing I have done, or probably shall do, is to delay, hinder, or interfere with you in your work.”311
The Army of Northern Virginia was indeed dwindling as more and more troops deserted. The Confederate Congress in desperation had authorized the enlistment of blacks, and Jefferson Davis had reluctantly assented. When told that the Rebels might resort to such a measure, Lincoln remarked that “when they had reached that stage the cause of the war would cease and hostilities with it. The evil would cure itself.”312
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