one another. Next to the organization of a Cabinet, that of
such a commission was accordingly one of the very first objects
of attention. Three discreet, well-informed, and distinguished
citizens were selected as said Commissioners, and accredited to
the President of the Northern States, Mr. Lincoln, to the end
that by negotiation all questions between the two Governments
might be so adjusted as to avoid war, and perpetuate the kind
relations which had been cemented by the common trials, sacri-
fices, and glories of the people of all the States. If sectional
hostility had been engendered by dissimilarity of institutions,
and by a mistaken idea of moral responsibilities, and by irrec-
oncilable creeds--if the family could no longer live and grow
harmoniously together--by patriarchal teaching older than Chris-
tianity, it might have been learned that it was better to part,
to part peaceably, and to continue, from one to another, the
good offices of neighbors who by sacred memories were forbid-
den ever to be foes. The nomination of the members of the
commission was made on the 25th of February--within a week
after my inauguration--and confirmed by Congress on the same
day. The Commissioners appointed were Messrs. A. B. Roman,
of Louisiana; Martin J. Crawford, of Georgia; and John For-
syth, of Alabama. Mr. Roman was an honored citizen, and
had been Governor of his native State. Mr. Crawford had
served with distinction in Congress for several years. Mr. For-
syth was an influential journalist, and had been Minister to
Mexico under appointment of Mr. Pierce near the close of his
term, and continued so under that of Mr. Buchanan. These gen-
tlemen, moreover, represented the three great parties which had
ineffectually opposed the sectionalism of the so-called "Repub-
licans." Ex-Governor Roman had been a Whig in former
years, and one of the "Constitutional Union," or Bell-and-
Everett, party in the canvass of 1860. Mr. Crawford, as a
State-rights Democrat, had supported Mr. Breckinridge; and
Mr. Forsyth had been a zealous advocate of the claims of Mr.
Douglas. The composition of the commission was therefore
such as should have conciliated the sympathy and coöperation
of every element of conservatism with which they might have
occasion to deal. Their commissions authorized and empow-

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