Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 35, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 April 1895 — A Shrewd Rejoinder by Lincoln. [ARTICLE]

A Shrewd Rejoinder by Lincoln.

Century for April. But among the various incidents of the conference the world will probably longest remember that recorded by Alexander H. Stephens, one of the three commissioners, who, afterward writing of the event, said that Mr. Hunter made a long reply to the President’s refusal to recognize another government inside of that of‘which he alone was President by receiving ambassadors to treat for peace. “Mr. Hunter,” says Stephens, “referred to the correspondence between King Charles I. and his parliament as a trustworthy precedent of a constitutional ruler treating with rebels. Mr. Lincoln’s face then wore that indescribable expression which generally preceded his hardest hits, and he remarked: ‘Upon questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is posted in such things, and Ido not pretend to be bright. My only distinct recollection of the matter is that Charles lost his head.’ That settled Mr. Hunter for a while.”