Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/360

290 LIVES OF THE PRESIDENTS scheme, and repeated again the only conditions to which he could listen: The restoration of the na tional authority throughout all the states, the maintenance and execution of all the acts of the general government in regard to slavery, the cessa tion of hostilities, and the disbanding of the insur gent forces as a necessary prerequisite to the ending of the war. The Confederate agents reported at Richmond the failure of their embassy, and Mr. Davis de nounced the conduct of President Lincoln in a public address full of desperate defiance. Never theless, it was evident even to the most prejudiced observers that the war could not continue much longer. Sherman s march had demonstrated the essential weakness of the Confederate cause; the soldiers of the Confederacy who for four years, with the most stubborn gallantry, had maintained a losing fight began to show signs of dangerous discouragement and insubordination; recruiting had ceased some time before, and desertion was going on rapidly. The army of Gen. Lee, which was the last bulwark of the Confederacy, still held its lines stoutly against the gradually enveloping lines of Grant; but their valiant commander knew it was only a question of how many days he could hold his works, and repeatedly counselled the gov ernment at Richmond to evacuate that city, and allow the army to take up a more tenable position