January 8, 1864
---Gov. Zebulon Vance of North Carolina admits in a letter
to Pres. Davis that he initiated contact with the U.S. government mostly to
assuage the fears of his people, the feeling for making a peace negotiations is
so strong in the state. Davis answers
with passion: “Have we not just been
apprised by that despot [Lincoln] that we can only expect his gracious pardon
by emancipating all our slaves, swearing allegiance and obedience to him and
his proclamation, and becoming in point of fact the slaves of our own negroes?” Davis further challenges Vance: “Can there be
in North Carolina one citizen so fallen beneath the dignity of his ancestors as
to accept, or to enter into conference on the basis of these terms?” He argues that the Confederacy did not need
to win the war: it only had to outwait the North until the Yankees got sick of
war and quit.
(Source: Civil War Daily Gazette www.civilwardailygazette.com )
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