How Did Lincoln End The Civil War?

On February 3, 1865 a peace conference was held on a steamboat called river queen in Hampton roads Virginia. The U.S. and confederate states held this conference to discuss how to end the American civil war. Abraham Lincoln meets with confederate officials to possibly come up with a peace agreement but refuses to grant any positions and ends the meeting within hours. The topics talked about during the conference are the following: be alliances with France in Mexico, slavery involved with war, surrendering, and about the south and property. Both Lincoln and seaward agreed on the issue of slavery. The only propositions that was discussed and agreed on is the issue of prisoner’s exchange. An abolitionist and an editor Horace Greely attended the conference with Francis Blair a
presidential adviser and aristocrat in Maryland because Greely thought Blair was the right man to speak with the confederates about ending the war.
Lincoln allowed Blair to meet with confederate president Jefferson Blair in January 1865 to suggest ideas that he had. Blair proposed that an armistice be forged to remove the regime of Maximillian in Mexico. He believed that this plan would solve the problem between the north and south by having the same enemy. The men who participated in the Hamptons road conference were president Abraham Lincoln, from the south secretary of state William H. Seaward, and 3 spokesmen with him representing the union from the confederacy vice president Alexander H. Stephens, senator Robert M.T. Hunter, and assistant secretary of war John A. Campbell. Also Francis Preston Blair spoke for Horace Greely and Jefferson Davis. The conference was held to discuss about a possible peace agreement. Vice president Stephens discussed the topic about military alliance against France in Mexico but Lincoln didn’t agree and cut him off from talking to ask about sovereignty. Lincoln said the south would
have to break up its army and submit to federal authority. Campbell indicated that the union was the condition of peace. The second topic discussed was about slavery, Lincoln told the confederates that the opinion of the north had to do with new laws being enforced. He also said that slavery was a war measure that would affect those who came under the army’s protection during the war. The third topic discussed was about the thirteenth amendment. Seward showed the confederates the new thirteenth amendment document that was also a war measure and stated that if they rejoin the union it might prevent its ratification. Lincoln said that the southern states might avoid the evils of emancipation by ratifying the amendment. Seward stated that by rejoining the union under the constitution it would not “properly be considered as unconstitutional submission to conquerors, or as having anything humiliating in it.” Lincoln offered compensation for emancipation of $400,000,000 which he proposed to congress. But Seward disagreed with him and Lincoln said the north had been involved in slave trade. The conference ended with the agreement of prison-of-war exchange and Lincoln would let Stephens nephew in exchange for a northern official of Richmond. Jefferson Davis had a harsh reaction the Hamptons Road Conference. His opinion was that Lincoln demanded unconditional surrender and the confederacy should still fight. Some say Davis entered the conference feeling betrayal of trust to generate publicity and hostile behavior in the north. Charles Sanders says Davis did not have enough control over the negotiations to make sure they served his purpose. He also said if Davis intended to sabotage the conference he would have not considered representatives like lee or Stephens. Stephen left Richmond on February 9th and went back home to Georgia.