months of this trivial by-play, during which the Confederate authorities constantly sought to place the struggle fully within the control of the usages in public war, negotiations concerning prisoners were allowed, which resulted in an arrangement for general exchange, by which large numbers of soldiers were released and returned to the field. The wise arrangement, however, was disturbed by various insufficient causes, and even broken off entirely by the United States authorities until the unpopularity of the suspension brought about the formal cartel of July 22, 1862, through which exchanges were once again for a time resumed. Certain orders of General Pope, then commanding in Virginia, in which citizens were threatened with arrest as spies and held as hostages against "bush-whackers" and the case of Mumford at New Orleans, executed by order of General Butler, provoked retaliatory orders by President Davis, to which President Lincoln responded with orders of a similar nature, all of which, with other difficulties in the execution of the cartel, induced President Davis to send the Vice-President of the Confederacy, Mr. Stephens, to seek an adjustment of these difficulties by a personal interview with the President of the United States.
The letter of instructions given to Mr. Stephens by President Davis stated: "You will perceive from the terms of the letter that it is so worded as to avoid any political difficulties in its reception. Intended as one of those communications between belligerents which public law recognizes as necessary and proper between hostile forces, care has been taken to afford no pretext for refusing to receive it on the ground that it would involve a tacit recognition of the independence of the Confederacy. Your mission is simply one of humanity and has no political aspect. The distinguished commissioner was authorized to negotiate fully in settlement of all the difficulties of exchange of prisoners and to make any arrangements that would place the mode of warfare on a humane
