restoration," or to discourage loyal citizens by setting aside the governments
already established in Louisiana and Arkansas, or to recognize the authority
of Congress to abolish slavery. He was ready, however, to cooperate with the
people of any State who wished to accept the plan prepared by Congress and he
hoped that a constitutional amendment abolishing slavery would be adopted.

Lincoln early came to the conclusion that slavery must be destroyed, and he
had urgently advocated deportation of the freedmen, for he believed that the
two races could not live in harmony after emancipation. The nearest he came to
recommending the vote for the Negro was in a communication to Governor Hahn of
Louisiana in March 1864: "I barely suggest, for your private consideration,
whether some of the colored people may not be let in, as for instance, the
very intelligent, and especially those who have fought gallantly in our ranks.
They would probably help, in some trying time to come, to keep the jewel of
liberty within the family of freedom. But this is only a suggestion, not to
the public, but to you alone."

Throughout the war President Lincoln assumed that the state organizations in
the South were illegal because disloyal and that new governments must be
established. But just at the close of the war, probably carried away by
feeling, he all but recognized the Virginia Confederate Government as
competent to bring the state back into the Union. While in Richmond on April
5, 1865, he gave to Judge Campbell a statement of terms: the national
authority to be restored; no recession on slavery by the executive; hostile
forces to disband. The next day he notified General Weitzel, in command at
Richmond, that he might permit the Virginia Legislature to meet and withdraw
military and other support from the Confederacy. But these measures met strong
opposition in Washington, especially from Secretary Stanton and Senator Wade
and other congressional leaders, and on the 11th of April, Lincoln withdrew
his permission for the legislature to meet. "I cannot go forward," he said,