In December, 1863, Mr. Graham was elected to the Confederate Senate by a majority of two-thirds of the Legislature. He took his seat in May, 1864. There was then need of the best counsel. The brilliant successes which had crowned our arms in the early years of the war, had been replaced by a succession of disasters. The battle of Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg had brought us apparently to the brink of ruin. As the year 1864 rolled on, the prospect became darker and darker, and at the end of the year the situation was to the last degree critical. Our territory had been cut in twain, and we were beleaguered by land and by sea. Within the area which acknowledged the Confederate Government, there was great exhaustion of all kinds of military supplies, and a like exhaustion of all the elements for the support of human life. General Lee was only able to oppose the front of General Grant by extending his line until it was ready to snap from excessive tension. To strengthen his force from the white race was impossible; conscription there had reached its limit. General Sherman had swept through Georgia, and the broad track of desolation which he left behind him too truly told the story of our helplessness. It was known that each Confederate soldier was opposed by as many as five Federal soldiers; the former scantily fed, clothed and shod; the latter supplied with every comfort and many luxuries. (The odds were seven to one, says _Stephens' History of the United States_.) It was plain there was no longer any hope of a successful prosecution of the war. In the midst of a dense gloom which shrouded the country on every side, a ray of light dawned in the proposed peace conference at Hampton Roads. Mr. Graham had endeavored to reach this form of intercourse from the commencement of the session. He was not without hope of a peaceful termination of hostilities; not so much from his estimate of the statesmanship of President Davis and his Cabinet, as from the extremity of the case which left no other alternative. The conference took place on the 3rd of February, 1865. The terms offered by Mr. Lincoln were, that the seceded States should return to the Union under the Constitution, in the existing state of affairs, with slavery as it was, but liable to be abolished by an amendment to the Constitution. He pledged himself to the utmost exercise of the executive powers in behalf of the South. The demand of the Commissioners was for independence. There could be no middle ground, and the conference ended. Upon the return of the Commissioners, Mr. Davis and Mr. Benjamin made public speeches in Richmond, to fire the Southern heart anew; but the event proved how little sagacity they brought to the direction of affairs at that supreme hour. The speeches fell still-born. [French intervention in Mexico was the South's opportunity; Seward's object in the Hampton Roads Conference was to ascertain if Southern statesmanship knew how to play its advantage.--_Ed._]