Mr. Seward started on the morning of February 1, and simultaneously with his departure the President repeated to General Grant the monition already sent him two days before:  “Let nothing which is transpiring change, hinder, or delay your military movements or plans.”  Major Eckert had arrived while Mr. Seward was yet on the way, and on seeing Jefferson Davis’s instructions, promptly notified the commissioners that they could not proceed further without complying strictly with President Lincoln’s terms.  Thus, at half-past nine on the night of February 1, their mission was practically at an end, though next day they again recanted and accepted the President’s conditions in writing.  Mr. Lincoln, on reading Major Eckert’s report on the morning of February 2, was about to recall Secretary Seward by telegraph, when he was shown a confidential despatch from General Grant to the Secretary of War, stating his belief that the intention of the commissioners was good, and their desire for peace sincere, and regretting that Mr. Lincoln could not have an interview with them.  This communication served to change his purpose.  Resolving not to neglect the indications of sincerity here described, he telegraphed at once, “Say to the gentlemen I will meet them personally at Fortress Monroe as soon as I can get there,” and joined Secretary Seward that same night.

On the morning of February 3, 1865, the rebel commissioners were conducted on board the River Queen, lying at anchor near Fort Monroe, where President Lincoln and Secretary Seward awaited them.  It was agreed beforehand that no writing or memorandum should be made at the time, so the record of the interview remains only in the separate accounts which the rebel commissioners wrote out afterward from memory, neither Mr. Seward nor President Lincoln ever having made any report in detail.  In a careful analysis of these reports, the first striking feature is the difference of intention between the parties.  It is apparent that Mr. Lincoln went honestly and frankly to offer them the best terms he could to, secure peace and reunion, but to abate no jot of official duty or personal dignity; while the main thought of the commissioners was to evade the express condition on which they had been admitted to conference, to seek to postpone the vital issue, and to propose an armistice by debating a mere juggling expedient against which they had in a private agreement with one another already committed themselves.

At the first hint of Blair’s Mexican project, however, Mr. Lincoln firmly disclaimed any responsibility for the suggestion, or any intention of adopting it, and during the four hours’ talk led the conversation continually back to the original object of the conference.  But though he patiently answered the many questions addressed him by the commissioners, as to what would probably be done on various important subjects that must arise at once if the Confederate States consented,