In early 1863, Confederate Vice President Alexander Stephens proposed that a delegation be sent to the North to seek terms for an end to hostilities and a recognition of the Confederacy. After the initial opposition of President Jefferson Davis, the ideas of a conference with these aims was approved, and channels were set up between the opposing sides to put it together. But the events of July- the South's defeat at Gettysburg and the fall of Vicksburg- ended any chance for the success of the conference, and the idea was quickly rejected out of hand by northern leaders. Years later, Stephen's wrote a selection in his book "A Constitutional View of the War Between the States" pondering this conference and its failure: