The Hampton Roads Conference was an unsuccessful attempt to negotiate an end to the American Civil War. On February 3, 1865, near Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, aboard a ship, the River Queen, President Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of State William H. Seward, representing the United States government, met with Vice President Alexander H. Stephens, Senator Robert M. T. Hunter, and Assistant Secretary of War John A. Campbell, representing the Confederate States of America (CSA).
Francis P. Blair had speculated that the war might be brought to a close and the two embattled areas of the nation reunited by directing the armies of both areas to attack Emperor Maximilian in Mexico, but that topic did not come up.
The conference lasted for four hours, but no agreements were produced. President Lincoln dominated the proceedings. The three Confederates insisted on independence and Lincoln rejected it. The Confederate commissioners immediately returned to Richmond at the conclusion of the conference. The war was to continue.
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