Part 11 (2/2)

CHAPTER XX

FOUR LONG MONTHS

Fourperiod of ti of a vast a one's self to be the chief victi Such was the fate of Lincoln

The election was not the end of a life of toil and struggle, it was the beginning of a new career of sorrow The period of four uration could not be devoted to rest or to the pleasant plans for a prosperous term of service There developed a plan for the disruption of the government The excuse was Lincoln's election But he was for four months only a private citizen He had no power He could only watch the growing mischief and realize that he was the ultienius for doing theHe was a northern man with southern principles, and this s in their true relations He certainly was putty in the hands of those ished to destroy the Union, and his vacillation precisely accomplished what they wished Had he possessed the firmness and spirit of John A Dix, who ordered,--”If any , shoot him on the spot;” had he had a modicum of the patriotism of Andrew Jackson; had he had a tithe of the wisdom and manliness of Lincoln; secession would have been nipped in the bud and vast treasures of money and irreparable waste of human blood would have been spared Whatever the reason may have been,--incapacity, obliquity of moral and political vision, or absolute championshi+p of the cause of disruption,--certain it is that the southern fire-eaters could not have found a tool more perfectly suited to their purpose than James Buchanan He was the center of one of thepolitical cabals of all history

Lincoln did not pass indiscriminate condemnation upon all men of southern sy, and consistently up to the end of his life, he made a marked distinction between the rank and file of the Confederates on the one hand, and those leaders who, on the other hand, had, while in the service of the United States governht to accomplish its destruction The first were revolutionists; they were so regarded generally in Europe, and he believed they were sincere; he regarded the the spirit of revolutionists For the second, who held office under, drew pay frooverne of their official position to violate the Constitution and disrupt that govern one,--traitors This was Lincoln's judgment of the men

Let us now briefly describe the situation Jefferson Davis, though not a member of Buchanan's cabinet, was probably the ton He had been Secretary of War under Pierce, and it was he who inaugurated the policy of stripping the North for the purpose of strengthening the orously pursued under his successor

The only person to call a halt to the treasonable proceedings was General Winfield Scott He was residing in New York City, and on October 29th addressed a letter to President Buchanan containing his views upon the situation A day or two later he added supplementary considerations addressed to the Secretary of War He set forth, withthe southern forts before they should be lost; His letter had its faults, but it accoh official as in earnest in the discharge of his duties, and hom it was not safe to trifle

President Buchanan sent in his annual ress December 3, 1860 In his discussion of the subject of slavery, he recom that the people had just voted should not be done Concerning secession, he said for substance that the government had the power to suppress revolt, but that it could not use that power in reference to South Carolina, the state then under consideration The secessionists had apparently tied the hands of the executive effectually

Now observe as going on in the cabinet Lewis Cass had been Secretary of State, but resigned in indignation over the inaction of the President when he failed to succor the forts in Charleston Harbor

He was succeeded by Jereiven to Buchanan an opinion that the Federal govern state

Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury, having wasted the funds and destroyed the credit of the governned and left an empty treasury

John B Floyd, Secretary of War, was not the least active He carried out fully the plan which Jefferson Davis had begun to operate several years before The northern arsenals were stripped of the are or use The nuular troops was small, but the few soldiers there were, he scattered in distant places, so that they should be out of reach They were not to be available for the use of the government until the conspirators should have tiinian later eulogized With quite as much truth as poetry he declared that the Secretary of War ”thwarted, objected, resisted, and forbade” the efforts of General Scott This same admirer of Floyd further declared that, if Scott's plans had been adopted and his measures executed, the conspiracy would have been defeated and it would have been impossible to form the Southern Confederacy

Not worse, perhaps, but rant, was the action of the Secretary of the Interior, Thompson of Mississippi With the advice and consent of Buchanan, he left his post at Washi+ngton to visit North Carolina and help on the work of secession, and then returned and resuovernrave a man is here inserted, quoted by Nicolay and Hay: ”About the middle of December (1860) I had occasion to see the Secretary of the Interior on so the roolad you have called, for I intended presently to go up to the senate to see you I have been appointed a coo down to North Carolina to get your state to secede'I said to hined' He answered, 'Oh, no! I have not resigned' 'Then,' I replied, 'I suppose you resign in the n, for Mr Buchanan wished us all to hold on, and go out with him on the 4th of March' 'But,' said I, 'does Mr Buchanan know for what purpose you are going to North Carolina?' 'Certainly,' he said, 'he knows my object'” In the meanwhile, Isaac Toucey, the Secretary of the Navy, had been prevailed on to put the navy out of reach The armed vessels were sent to the ends of the earth At the critical period, only tere available to the governress? That body was very busy doing nothing Both senate and house raised co means of compromise But every measure of concession was promptly voted down by the body that had appointed the committees In the senate the slave poas in full control In the house the slave poas not in e that they were able to work together, while the constituency of the free states were usually divided a themselves

And in joint session the extre fro accomplished This was all they wished

They had sufficient pledges fro would be done before the 4th of March, and it was their belief that by that tiood a start that it could treat with the United States on equal terms On January 7, 1861, Senator Yulee, of Florida, wrote: ”By reht we can keep the hands of Mr Buchanan tied, and disable the republicans frothen the hands of the inco administration”

On December 14, thirty of the southern senators and representatives had issued a circular to their constituents They said that the arguuished, that the republicans would grant nothing satisfactory, and that the honor, safety, and independence of the Southern people required the organization of a Southern Confederacy

South Carolina was the first to act Six days later that state passed the ordinance of secession

Upon this, one of the extreme traitors was forced out of the cabinet

Floyd, the mischievous Secretary of War, was displaced by Holt, a loyal man Floyd, however, had done nearly, if not quite, all the mischief he could have done Stanton had already replaced Black as Attorney-General

The conspirators then held a caucus It is supposed that this caucus was held in one of the rooms of the Capitol At all events it was held in the city of Washi+ngton It was coressmen It decided to recommend immediate secession, the formation of the Southern Confederacy, and, not least, that the congressmen should remain in their seats to keep the President's hands tied The committee to carry out these plans consisted of Jefferson Davis, Slidell, and Mallory By the first day of February, seven states had passed ordinances of secession

This is about as going on during the fourfor the appointed time when he should enter upon his duties It was not unlike looking upon a house he was shortly to occupy, and seeing vandals applying the torch and ax of destruction, while he was not per that he would be held accountable for the preservation of the structure So Lincoln saw this work of destruction going on at Washi+ngton It was plain that the ht to be, and could be, stopped But Buchanan would not stop it, and Lincoln was, until March 4th, a private citizen and could do nothing The bitterest part of it was that all the burden would fall on him As soon as he should becoovern

Miss Tarbell has recorded a conversation between Lincoln and his friend Judge Gillespie, which took place in Springfield early in January, in which the fors upon the situation

”Gillespie,” said he, ”I would willingly take out of my life a period in years equal to the two uration, to take the oath of office now”