September 18, 1864---Brethren . . . destroyed

SEPTEMBER 18, 1864:     

William H. Seward, Secretary of State of the United States, had, after challenging President Lincoln’s authority early in the war, generally fallen in line with the President’s policies and was Lincoln’s staunchest ally. Nevertheless, on this day, Seward publicly  announced that if the Confederate States would only relent on the question of independence, the question of slavery would fall "to the arbitrament of courts of law, and to the councils of legislation." Seward did not mention the pending Thirteenth Amendment in his remarks when he invited the South to return to the "common ark of our national security and happiness" as "brethren who have come back from their wanderings."

Not that there was much chance of the prodigal States returning on their own volition, at least for the present. C.S. President Jefferson Davis’ correspondence for the day included his opinion that Atlanta could be retaken and “Sherman’s army can be driven out of Georgia, perhaps be utterly destroyed.”