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Chapter 19:
Intensified hostility.
- Mediation attempted -- foreign affairs -- peace spirit -- prisoners of war -- amnesty on conditions -- reconstruction on a war basis -- close of 1863.
France had proposed in 1862 to England and Germany that the three nations whose commerce was being injured most by the Confederate war join in suggesting an armistice between the Federal and Confederate governments with a view of settling their difficulties, and the friendly proposition was declined.
But in November, 1862, after the elections had gone against the Washington administration, the letter from Lord Lyons, British minister, to Earl Russell, disclosed a reopening of the question of foreign mediation. This interesting letter, describing very fully the effect of the victory of the peace party and referring to the dismissal of McClellan by Mr. Lincoln in the midst of these Democratic exultations as a sign that the President had thrown himself entirely into the arms of the extreme radical party, proceeded to discuss the prevailing views of mediation. Many of the conservative leaders who were seeking for means to secure peace feared ‘that a premature proposal of foreign intervention would afford the radical party a means of reviving the violent war spirit,’ and that the present moment was peculiarly unfavorable for such an offer. The conservative policy was—an armistice to be proposed by the United States;--a convention of States, also to be proposed by the United States, to reconstruct the Union and to offer amendments
