subject of their mission. It was something I had nothing to do with,
and I therefore did not wish to express any views on the subject. For
my own part I never had admitted, and never was ready to admit, that
they were the representatives of a GOVERNMENT. There had been too great
a waste of blood and treasure to concede anything of the kind. As long
as they remained there, however, our relations were pleasant and I found
them all very agreeable gentlemen. I directed the captain to furnish
them with the best the boat afforded, and to administer to their comfort
in every way possible. No guard was placed over them and no restriction
was put upon their movements; nor was there any pledge asked that they
would not abuse the privileges extended to them. They were permitted to
leave the boat when they felt like it, and did so, coming up on the bank
and visiting me at my headquarters.

I had never met either of these gentlemen before the war, but knew them
well by reputation and through their public services, and I had been a
particular admirer of Mr. Stephens. I had always supposed that he was a
very small man, but when I saw him in the dusk of the evening I was very
much surprised to find so large a man as he seemed to be. When he got
down on to the boat I found that he was wearing a coarse gray woollen
overcoat, a manufacture that had been introduced into the South during
the rebellion. The cloth was thicker than anything of the kind I had
ever seen, even in Canada. The overcoat extended nearly to his feet,
and was so large that it gave him the appearance of being an
average-sized man. He took this off when he reached the cabin of the
boat, and I was struck with the apparent change in size, in the coat and
out of it.

After a few days, about the 2d of February, I received a dispatch from
Washington, directing me to send the commissioners to Hampton Roads to
meet the President and a member of the cabinet. Mr. Lincoln met them
there and had an interview of short duration. It was not a great while
after they met that the President visited me at City Point. He spoke of
his having met the commissioners, and said he had told them that there
would be no use in entering into any negotiations unless they would
recognize, first: that the Union as a whole must be forever preserved,
and second: that slavery must be abolished. If they were willing to
concede these two points, then he was ready to enter into negotiations