His answer to Senator Barton's committee was explicit.
"I have absolute confidence in General Lee's patriotism and military
genius. I will gladly cooeperate with Congress in any plan to place him
in supreme command."
Lee refused to accept the responsibility except with the advice and
direction of the President, and the conspiracy ended in a fiasco.
From the moment Sherman's army pierced the heart of the South the
Confederate President saw with clear vision that the cause of Southern
independence was lost. Lee's army must slowly starve. His one supreme
purpose now was to fight to the last ditch for better terms than
unconditional surrender which would mean the loss of billions in
property and the possible enfranchisement of a million slaves.
That Lincoln was intensely anxious to stop the shedding of blood he knew
from more than one authentic source. It was rumored that the Northern
President was willing to consider compensation for the slaves. An army
of a hundred thousand determined Southern soldiers led by an indomitable
general could fight indefinitely. That it was of the utmost importance
to the life of the South to secure a surrender which would forbid the
enfranchisement of the slaves and the degradation of an electorate to
their level, Davis saw with clear vision.
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