MAJOR:  In reply to your verbal statement that your instructions did not allow you to alter the conditions upon which a passport could be given to us, we say that we are willing to proceed to Fortress Monroe and there to have an informal conference with any person or persons that President Lincoln may appoint on the basis of his letter to Francis P. Blair of the 18th of January ultimo, or upon any other terms or conditions that he may hereafter propose not inconsistent with the essential principles of self-government and popular rights, upon which our institutions are founded.

It is our earnest wish to ascertain, after a free interchange of ideas and information, upon what principles and terms, if any, a just and honorable peace can be established without the further effusion of blood, and to contribute our utmost efforts to accomplish such a result.

  We think it better to add that in accepting your passport we are not to
  be understood as committing ourselves to anything but to carry to this
  informal conference the views and feelings above expressed.

  Very respectfully, yours, etc.,

  ALEXANDER H. STEPHENS. 
  J.A.  CAMPBELL. 
  R.M.T.  HUNTER.

Note.—­The above communication was delivered to me at Fort Monroe at 4.30 p.m.  February 2 by Lieutenant-Colonel Babcock, of General Grant’s staff.

THOMAS T. ECKERT,

Major and Aid-de-Camp.

On the morning of the 3d the three gentlemen, Messrs. Stephens, Hunter, and Campbell, came aboard of our steamer and had an interview with the Secretary of State and myself of several hours’ duration.  No question of preliminaries to the meeting was then and there made or mentioned; no other person was present; no papers were exchanged or produced; and it was in advance agreed that the conversation was to be informal and verbal merely.  On our part the whole substance of the instructions to the Secretary of State hereinbefore recited was stated and insisted upon, and nothing was said inconsistent therewith; while by the other party it was not said that in any event or on any condition they ever would consent to reunion, and yet they equally omitted to declare that they never would so consent.  They seemed to desire a postponement of that question and the adoption of some other course first, which, as some of them seemed to argue, might or might not lead to reunion, but which course we thought would amount to an indefinite postponement.  The conference ended without result.

The foregoing, containing, as is believed, all the information sought, is respectfully submitted.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

WASHINGTON, February 13, 1865.

To the Senate and House of Representatives: 

I transmit to Congress a copy of a dispatch of the 12th ultimo, addressed to the Secretary of State by the minister resident of the United States at Stockholm, relating to an international exhibition to be held at Bergen, in Norway, during the coming summer.  The expediency of any legislation upon the subject is submitted for your consideration.