Bedford Inquirer

The Rival Accounts of the Peace Conference.

Mr. Jefferson Davis in his Message transmitting to the Confederate Congress the report of his Peace Conference makes no charge whatever of double-dealing or any want of good faith in the action of our Government. He does not even say that he had been led to cherish hopes that his overtures would have been more cordially received or his envoys more successful. His Message is more remarkable for what it withholds than for what it reveals: but it is neither violent nor remarkably bitter, and we cannot regard it as intended to close the door of Peace.

His speech at the mass meeting in the African Church is harsher in spirit, and commits himself fully against any and every form of reunion; yet, while he talks of the 'insolence' of Mr. Lincoln's requirements, and pledges himself to stand or fall with the Confederacy, he vindicates Mr. Lincoln's honesty and frankness by stating that 'In the notes which passed between Mr. Lincoln and himself in the matter there was one marked difference. He (President Davis) spoke always of two countries. Mr. Lincoln spoke of a common country with the Yankees. His life was bound up with the Confederacy; and if any man supposed that under any circumstance he could be an agent of the reconstruction of the Union, he mistook every element of his nature. With the Confederacy he would live or die.'

This is fair to Mr. Lincoln and frank as to his own determination. It settles that any Peace which shall be made in the interest of the Union must be made with some one else than Davis.

The Confederate conferees in their report exhibit a corresponding mixture of candor and reserve. They state that the conference 'continued for several hours, and was both full and explicit;' yet they strongly conceal any and every proposition made therein by themselves. Is not this astonishing? These gentlemen sought the interview. They spent two days in efforts to penetrate our lines. They eagerly sought permission to visit Washington. When met by Gov. Seward at Fortress Monroe, they insisted on being brought face to face with the President, who thereupon went down to meet them. They promptly came together, and had four or five hours' free, earnest, familiar conversation. The Richmond Examiner says: 'Both Lincoln and Seward are described as having been personally very pleasant in their conversation with the commissioners. * * * * In parting, Seward shook hands with Mr. Hunter with effusion.' He said 'God bless you Hunter, and asked to be remembered to all his 'old friends in the South.'

So much for the pretense that there was aught of hauteur, or assumption, or insult, in the bearing or language of Mr. Lincoln or Gov. Seward. They stand acquitted of duplicity on the testimony of Jefferson Davis: they are vindicated from all imputation of discourtesy by the evidence of Stephens, Hunter and Campbell.

What excuse is there, then, for the frantic ferocious, screechy invectives, the Berserker rage and fury, of the Richmond journals? Compare and sift the rival (but not conflicting) reports of this memorable conference, and say whether the frothing at the mouth of the Confederate oracles if not plainly a 'fetch'—mere sheet-iron thunder, designed to sour the milk of human kindness in breasts of the Southern Whites, confessedly discouraged, weary of slaughter, and yearning for peace?

To suppose that the Southern masses will not see through these simulated heroics, this 'stagey' performance, is to rate their discernment very low indeed.

Messrs. Stephens & Co. come to hold near Fortress Monroe an interview which they had formally solicited. They come avowedly in the interest of Peace. Of course, they tacitly but clearly promised to submit propositions which they honestly thought conductive to the end in question.—Where are those propositions? Why do they not set forth at least their substance? The world has a right to know that they acted in good faith, not crossing the lines as Rebel intriguers or spies, but truly intent on peace, and submitting propositions which they thought should be acceded to.

Mr. Lincoln's Message contrasts favorably in many respects to the counter-revelations; yet we think he has been more reticent than was politic. Better have told all: he could well afford it. We are forced to conclude that the Confederate conferees asked that all that had passed, pro and con, in the way of propositions and counter-propositions should be rubbed out and treated as if it had never been.

It is settled, we presume, that we can have no peace with the Confederacy; but it does not follow that none can be made with the States composing it. On the contrary, we believe that a majority of the people of those States are to-day ready for a pacification whereof the Union shall be the corner-stone, with Liberty for All inscribed proudly and truly over its porch. And so, avoiding the ferocity, the frenzy and the bad taste, of our Richmond contemporaries, we shall work on for such a Peace, even though it be attainable only through further War, trusting that its blessed advent cannot be far off.—N. Y. Tribune.