the thunder of Lee's guns at Chancellorsville.
Their roar seemed to have awakened throughout the entire North the
great party hitherto lulled to slumber by the plea of "military
necessity," or paralyzed by the very extent of the Executive
usurpation which they saw, but had not had heart to oppose. On all
sides the advocates of peace on the basis of separation were heard
raising their importunate voices; and in the North the hearts of the
people began to thrill with the anticipation of a speedy termination
of the bloody and exhausting struggle. The occasion was embraced by
Mr. Stephens, Vice-President of the Confederate States, to propose
negotiations. This able gentleman wrote from Georgia on the 12th of
June to President Davis, offering to go to Washington and sound the
authorities there on the subject of peace. He believed that the moment
was propitious, and wished to act before further military movements
were undertaken--especially before any further projects of invasion by
Lee--which would tend, he thought, to silence the peace party at the
North, and again arouse the war spirit. The letter of Mr. Stephens
was written on the 12th of June, and President Davis responded by
telegraph a few days afterward, requesting Mr. Stephens to come to
Richmond. He reached that city on the 22d or 23d of June, but by that
time Lee's vanguard was entering Maryland, and Gettysburg speedily
followed, which terminated all hopes of peace.

The plan of moving the Southern army northward, with the view of
invading the Federal territory, seems to have been the result of many
circumstances. The country was elated with the two great victories of
Fredericksburg and Chancellorsville, and the people were clamorous for
active operations against an enemy who seemed powerless to stand the
pressure of Southern steel. The army, which had been largely augmented
by the return of absentees to its ranks, new levies, and the recall
of Longstreet's two divisions from Suffolk, shared the general
enthusiasm; and thus a very heavy pressure was brought to bear upon
the authorities and on General Lee, in favor of a forward movement,
which, it was supposed, would terminate in a signal victory and a
treaty of peace.

Lee yielded to this view of things rather than urged it. He was not
opposed to an offensive policy, and seems, indeed, to have shared the
opinion of Jackson that "the Scipio Africanus policy" was the best for
the South. His theory from the beginnin