Bringing on the War, Enemies of the Republic, Lincoln Revealed, Myth of Saving the Union, No Compromise, Pleading for Peace, Recurring Southern Conservatism, Republican Party Jacobins, Southern Statesmen, Southern Unionists 
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The Washington Peace Conference was urged on by Southern States as a last-ditch effort to salvage political union with the north through compromise – and they could rightly be referred to as the true “Unionists.” Working against Southern efforts for peace was Lincoln, who feared any compromise would weaken his minority party and limit his power.
Party Above Union
Early in the session (February 7th) the Washington Peace Conference paid its respects to the outgoing President James Buchanan as a body. The members were received in the East Room of the White House and presented to the Buchanan by former-President John Tyler.
A similar courtesy was extended to Lincoln when he arrived in Washington on February 23rd. As Tyler presented several distinguished delegates to him, Lincoln made brief comments, some of which were of a jocular character. His humor, however, was not particularly happy and hardly in keeping with the occasion. It may be said that Lincoln was using this method to ward off any embarrassing questions that might be asked. If this were his object, he was successful, as no commitments were made.
The strained amenities and the simulated courtesies exchanged between the ex-President and the President-elect were in the nature of a little drama typifying the end of one era and the beginning of another. Or, it might be regarded as a pleasing, trivial curtain raiser to that awful tragedy that marked the transition from the Second to the Third Republic. For the Second Republic was soon to undergo the pangs of death and the Third Republic to experience the painful throes of birth.
There was also the striking contrast in the personalities of the two men. In the case of Lincoln, tradition has so exaggerated his virtues and covered up his faults that one of the most human characters in history has been idealized into a demigod. With Tyler, on the other hand, his virtues have been so minimized and defects so magnified that the reputation of a refined and well-meaning gentleman has been handed down to us as that of a wicked renegade.”
(John Tyler: Champion of the Old South. Oliver Perry Chitwood. American Political Biography Press. 1939, pp. 448-449)