The Pittsburgh Press (May 2, 1945)
Background of news –
Surrender, new style
By Bertram Benedict
The impending surrender of Germany will be unlike any other after a war of modern times. “Unconditional surrender” was the demand on Lee by Grant but, as is noted below, the peace of the Civil War came after negotiations. Moreover, the war had been fought on the right of the secession; when the South was defeated, that issue was automatically settled.
Napoleon twice was offered peace before French soil was invaded, peace which would have left him in power. The peace with Germany in 1918 was a negotiated one.
The Italian war against Ethiopia ended without negotiation after the capture of Addis Ababa, and in the Spanish Civil War, there was no negotiation after the capture of Madrid in 1939. But in the first case, the war was fought solely for complete annexation, about which there could obviously be no negotiation, and in the second case, the rebels fought to capture the government, and their victory obviously precluded the need of negotiating.
How wars end
The methods by which great modern wars, beginning with the American Revolution, came to an end might be thus summarized:
1783, American Revolution: The peace negotiations covered almost two years. The American negotiators, at first instructed not to consider a separate peace (that is, one without the participation of America’s ally, France), disregarded the instructions. England was making peace so as to concentrate on her war against France and Spain.
1814, the War of 1812: The peace was negotiated.
1814-1815, the Napoleonic Wars: Late in 1813, the Allies had offered Napoleon peace which did not involve his abdication and which gave France the Rhine as a boundary. Early in 1814, before Paris was taken, the Allies again negotiated with the French dictator, offering to let France have the boundaries of 1792. Each time Napoleon was obdurate.
1847, the Mexican War: The peace was negotiated, although for a time after the capture of Mexico City it seemed that no Mexican government would exist with which to treat, and a strong movement developed in the United States for annexing all of Mexico.
End of the Civil War
1865, the American Civil War: In 1864, President Lincoln had empowered Horace Greeley, at the latter’s insistence, to meet with Confederate envoys at Niagara Falls, to see if they would agree to restoration of the Union and the abolition of slavery. In February 1865, two months prior to Appomattox, Lincoln and Secretary of State Seward met three Confederate envoys on a ship in Hampton Roads to explore peace possibilities. After Lee surrendered, Johnston surrendered his force only after 14 days of negotiation.
1871, the Franco-German War: After the capture of Napoleon III and the capitulation of Paris, the peace was negotiated with the new French Republic.
1898, the Spanish-American War: The peace was negotiated.
1905, the Russo-Japanese War: The peace was negotiated in the United States, under the mediation of President Theodore Roosevelt.
1918, World War I: Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria and Turkey surrendered unconditionally, but Germany only after almost two months of negotiations. It was agreed that the peace terms would follow President Wilson’s peace principles, with two exceptions. The separate German-Russian peace of March 1918 had also been negotiated.