The Hampton Roads Conference

Horace Greeley, who was the founder and editor of the New York Tribune newspaper, was one of the most distinguished individuals at the time of the civil war. He was excellent in appealing to the masses and therefore threatened Abraham Lincoln’s authority with his constant criticism about the status of the Confederate states. Greeley was always for the union of all states through the inclusion of the Confederate states into the US. He was weary for Lincoln’s administration at first feeling sure that Lincoln was too mild and would result in the victory for the southern states. Among his most outstanding contributions in the civil unrest and the period occurred over time with his continued propaganda articles about slavery on the New York Tribune. This was arguably the most important factor of the conference and the determination of whether a truce could be formed. Greeley kept this issue alive in the northern territory, and when he got directly involved in the crisis, his stalks even short higher. His editorial columns proposed a desire for a candidate who would restrict the act of slavery to the southern states. The Tribune could be used to communicate any information. Lincoln therefore first of all made an announcement concerning the possible cessation through exchanges between him and Greeley. No one else had the same authority as the one wielded by Horace Greeley apart from Abraham Lincoln on matters of public persuasion. Once, during the civil war, an article from the Tribune encouraged the union’s army to press forward, an action that led to the defeat.

The mock afterword’s made him for the first time to suggest to Lincoln about giving up the war. In 1864, he continued actively recalling Lincoln to stop the war and was in the same year sent to Niagara Falls as the eyes of the president. In the next few days, letters between Greeley and President Lincoln indicate an ardent effort by Horace Greeley to establish a reconciliatory meeting though finding men commissioned by Davis in the south to negotiate for war cessation and abandonment of slavery and possible unification of the two warring sides.
In Mexico, the French had just begun an occupation. An anti- European sentiment still prevailed all over the US from previous colonial experience from the British. Sections of both Davis and Lincoln’s governments, therefore, felt that a united South and North army would prove to European governments that Americans were not going to let the Europeans rule over them again. It would also free Mexicans who were a subject of direct interests to the US as economic partners based on their proximity to each other.
Blair suggested therefore that the two armies unite to fight against the French government in Mexico. According to him, the civil was in the US could be stopped by one party stepping down from the war. This would, however, retain hostilities. He then saw the common enemy in Mexico as an opportunity to unite the ‘two countries’ once again.
This conference was on board a motorboat that had been anchored in the Queen River in Hampton road. There were five participants of which three were from the southern confederate states and two from the Union. From the union, there was President Abraham Lincoln accompanied by the secretary of state William H. Seward. On the other side, Jefferson Davis from the South sent the vice president Mr. Alexander H. Stephens. He was accompanied by the Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell and the Senator Robert M. T. Hunter.
During the meeting, an attempt to solve the controversial issues that kept the ‘two state’ at war was discussed. The top amongst these matters were the sovereignty of the Confederate States. Davis hoped at all costs that the north would cede to these or otherwise grant some form of independence to the south. On the other hand, Lincoln’s primary objective was to have the southern Confederate states agreed to ratify the federal government and join the ‘two countries’ into one. The second issue was slavery. The southern states consider the issue with utmost seriousness because of the immense economic potential it bore. These states were still dependent on large-scale agricultural production whose profitability was richly enhanced through the slave trade. On the other hand, the Republican party and much of the north has ceded to the abolition of slave trade, and in fact, much of the escaped slaves from the south were fighting for the government in the north. However, Lincoln was more fluid on the issue of slave trade declaring that the North would be flexible as pertains to the way in which the practice would be regulated in the south. Ultimately, the most important topic for both parties was the cessation of war. Deliberations such as the unification of militia to fight against the French rule were tabled with the aim of ending the civil war by directing the military attention elsewhere.
The only definitive agreement reached during this conference was an act of prisoner exchange between a high profile prisoner from the north in Richmond and a prisoner in the from the south. The end of the meeting this resulted in a stalemate that emphasized to each party the other party’s unwillingness to yield. Jefferson Davis responded to the results of the conference with harsh criticism. He insisted that the war must continue since the North had presented an unacceptable set of terms and conditions. He said that the North had demanded the absolute surrender of the South which increased hostility towards the North and thus aggravated the war. The North also reacted with hostility towards the conference results. Lincoln suggested that Davis gave no indications that he would yield to the unity of all states and they north would not be willing to cede it willingly. He thus suggested that the war would continue until such a point that the South wielded by laying down arms. Much of the cabinet in the north were suspicious of the Lincolns decision at the conference. However, they were pleased by the conclusions that Lincoln tabled to them apart from one. Lincoln had promised a compensation of $400,000,000 to the southern states if they stopped all military resistance and agreed to the ratification of the 13th amendment.
This conference acknowledged the existence of the confederation of southern states. In fact, the North gave it enough credit to cede a meeting that was attended by Abraham Lincoln himself. In the letters exchanged between Lincoln and Horace Greeley when arranging for the conference, Lincoln emphasized on the need to meet with a delegation that was commission by Jefferson Davis to conduct business on behalf of the Confederacy. This indicates an acknowledgment not only of the confederacy’s existence but also the fact that it had organized power that had to be accorded due respect.