In fact, at the close of the Conference of four hours, Mr. R. M. T. Hunter, one of the Confederate Commissioners, feelingly complained of the harshness and humiliation involved in the “unconditional surrender” demanded of the seceding states. Mr. Lincoln declined to commit himself, _officially_, to the proposition that the South, by laying down her arms and submitting to the restoration of the national authority throughout her limits, could resume her former relations to the Government. _Personally_, he thought she could. He refused _officially_ to commit himself on the subject of paying the slave-owners for their slaves. _Personally_, he was willing to be taxed for that purpose, and he _believed_ that the Northern people held the same views. He knew of some who favored a Congressional appropriation of $400,000,000 for that purpose. But give any pledges? Oh, no. The Confederacy must first abolish itself,—_then_ there would be a discussion of terms! Fort Fisher, North Carolina, had recently fallen; the Confederacy was reeling under the shock of repeated disaster, the thin battle lines of the Gray were almost exhausted,—and Mr. Lincoln was now certain that secession was doomed. In the “Recollections” of J. R. Gilmore, there is a curious account of an informal mission undertaken by himself and Col. J. F. Jaquess for the purpose of ending the war. According to Gilmore, he went to Washington, had an interview with Mr. Lincoln, and drew from him a statement of the terms which he was willing to offer the Confederate Government. The gist of his several propositions was that the Confederacy should dissolve, the armies disband, the seceding states acknowledge national authority and come back into Congress with their representatives, that slavery should be abolished and that $500,000,000 be paid the South for the slaves. This was in June 1864. Gilmore and Colonel Jaquess were given passage through the lines, went to Richmond and saw Mr. Davis. After listening to the unofficial proposals of the self-appointed envoys, Mr. Davis declared that the South was not struggling to maintain slavery, but to make good “_our right to govern ourselves_.” As the terms offered took away this fundamental right from the South, Mr. Davis declined to treat. How hopeless, at that time, must have seemed the cause for which Jefferson Davis stood! How eternally assured that of Mr. Lincoln! Yet, see how old Father Time works his miracles,—the Jefferson Davis principle has risen from the ashes, a very Phoenix of life immortal. The Lincoln position has been abandoned by the Party which made him its first President. The cause of Home Rule is stronger throughout the world than when the fugitive President of the broken Confederacy faced his official family, at its last Cabinet meeting, in the village of Washington, Georgia, and asked, despairingly, “_Is it all over?_”