gh Mr. Lincoln had no faith in Jewett's story, and doubted whether
the embassy had any existence, he determined to take immediate action on
this proposition. He felt the unreasonableness and injustice of Mr.
Greeley's letter, which in effect charged his administration with a
cruel disinclination to treat with the rebels, and resolved to convince
him at least, and perhaps others, that there was no foundation for these
reproaches. So he arranged that the witness of his willingness to listen
to any overtures that might come from the South should be Mr. Greeley
himself, and answering his letter at once on July 9, said:

"If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any
proposition of Jefferson Davis in writing, for peace, embracing the
restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it
embraces, say to him he may come to me with you, and that if he really
brings such proposition he shall at the least have safe conduct with the
paper (and without publicity, if he chooses) to the point where you
shall have met him. The same if there be two or more persons."

This ready acquiescence evidently surprised and somewhat embarrassed Mr.
Greeley, who replied by several letters of different dates, but made no
motion to produce his commissioners. At last, on the fifteenth, to end a
correspondence which promised to be indefinitely prolonged, the
President telegraphed him: "I was not expecting you to send me a letter,
but to bring me a man or men." Mr. Greeley then went to Niagara, and
wrote from there to the alleged commissioners, Clement C. Clay and James
P. Holcombe, offering to conduct them to Washington, but neglecting to
mention the two conditions--restoration of the Union and abandonment of
slavery--laid down in Mr. Lincoln's note of the ninth and repeated by
him on the fifteenth. Even with this great advantage, Clay and Holcombe
felt themselves too devoid of credentials to accept Mr. Greeley's offer,
but replied that they could easily get credentials, or that other agents
could be accredited, if they could be sent to Richmond armed with "the
circumstances disclosed in this correspondence."

This, of course, meant that Mr. Lincoln should take the initiative in
suing the Richmond authorities for peace on terms proposed by them. The
essential impossibility of these terms was not, however, apparent to Mr.
Greeley, who sent them on to Washington, soliciting fresh instructions.
With unwearied patience, M