CHAPTER XI.

LINCOLN REACHES WASHINGTON.

BUCHANAN'S WEAKNESS.-TRAITORS IN HIS CABINET.-Efforts to COMPROMISE.-Seven States Secede and Organize PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT.-COUNTING THE ELECTORAL VOTE.-LINCOLN STARTS FOR WASHINGTON.-HIS JOURNEY.-ASSASSINATION PLOT. -ARRIVAL AT THE CAPITAL.

On the 7th of November, 1860, it was known throughout the republic, that Lincoln had been elected. Not until the 4th of March could he be inaugurated. Meanwhile the clouds, black and threatening, were gathering at the South. It was evident that mischief was brewing. South Carolina rejoiced over the election of Lincoln, with bonfires and processions. His election furnished a pretext for rebellion. A conspiracy had existed since the days of nullification, to seize upon the first favorable opportunity to break up the Union.'

For the four eventful months between Lincoln's election and inauguration, conspirators against the Union would still have control of the government. Buchanan, a weak, old man, was influenced to a great extent by traitors in his cabinet, and conspirators in Congress. A majority of his

1. In October, 1856, a meeting of the governors of slave states was held at Raleigh, North Carolina, convened at the instance of Governor Wise, who afterward proclaimed that if Fremont had been elected, he would have marched to Washington at the head of twenty thousand men, and prevented his inauguration.

Mr. Keitt, member of Congress from South Carolina, said in the convention of his state, which adopted the ordinance of secession: "I have been engaged in this movement ever since I entered political life."

Mr. Rhett said: "The secession of South Carolina is not the event of a day. It is not anything produced by Mr. Lincoln's election, or the non-enforcement of the fugitive slave law. It is a matter that has been gathering head for thirty years."

Cabinet were open disunionists-secessionists, who retained their places, and used their power to disarm and dismantle the ship of state, that it might be surrendered an easy conquest to those preparing to seize it. Mr. Memminger, of South Carolina, who became the rebel Secretary of the Treasury, boasted that Buchanan being President, the Federal Government would be taken at great disadvantage, and it was necessary to prepare things, so that Lincoln would be for a while powerless.

On the 12th of December, Lewis Cass, Secretary of State, resigned, because the President refused to reinforce the forts in Charleston harbor. Jeremiah S. Black, who, as Attorney General of Buchanan, had given an opinion that the Federal Government had no power to coerce a seceding state, was his successor. Howell Cobb, of Georgia, the Secretary of the Treasury, and afterwards a general in the rebel army, managed to destroy the credit of the govern. ment, and when, December 10, he resigned, because his "duty to Georgia required it," he left the treasury empty.

John B. Floyd, soon to hold the rank of general in the rebel army, was Secretary of War. Before he resigned, he partly disarmed the free states, by transferring the arms in the northern arsenals to the slave states, and he sent the few soldiers belonging to the United States regular army so far away as not to be available, until the conspirators should have time to consummate the revolution. Isaac Tancy, of Connecticut, Secretary of the Navy, scattered the navy beyond seas, so that the naval force should be beyond the reach of the government. Such were the bold, unscrupulous acts of the conspirators. Some of them intended to prevent the inauguration of Lincoln, and to surrender the Capitol and the public archives to the insurgents, and it is probable that they would have carried out this design, but for the fact that General Winfield Scott was at the head of the army, and that with him was a small but reliable force, so that an overt act of treason might have been dangerous.

But the leaders of the conspiracy went forward in their

guilty preparations with impunity. If Buchanan had dismissed the traitors in his Cabinet, arrested the conspirators at the capital, called to his aid strong and loyal men, and declared like General Jackson: "The Union must be preserved," it is possible that the conspiracy might have been crushed in its inception. But he was weak, vacillating, and like clay in the hands of Jefferson Davis, Cobb, Toombs, and their associates. The strange spectacle was presented of a government in the hands of conspirators plotting to overthrow it. From the official desks and portfolios of its officers were sent forth their messages of treason. While in Congress, and in the Cabinet, the conspirators were boldly carrying on their schemes for the overthrow of the government, no attempt was made to interfere with, much less to arrest, open and avowed traitors.

true.

I have said that nothing was done; yet this is not strictly The feeble old man in the executive chair did appoint a day of fasting, humiliation, and prayer; declaring that, though secession was wrong, he had no power to prevent it. Meanwhile the conspirators were laboring industriously to make the revolution an accomplished fact before the inauguration of Lincoln, or, if they could not accomplish this, then by plundering the government, securing the forts, ships, and munitions of war, they meant to leave Lincoln with no means at his command wherewith to protect and maintain the government, and put down the rebellion.

Some of the democratic party were indignant at the conduct of the Executive. General Cass, as has been stated, resigned because the President refused to reinforce Fort Moultrie, held by the gallant and faithful Major Anderson. Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, succeeded Floyd as Secretary of War. Edwin M. Stanton, bold, staunch, and true, succeeded Black as Attorney General, and General John A. Dix was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. Stanton, Dix, and Holt were unflinching Union men, and did all in their power to prevent the surrender of the government to the

conspirators.

They most efficiently aided General Scott in securing the peaceful inauguration of Lincoln.

The absence of any real grievance or excuse for rebellion was strongly expressed by Alexander H. Stephens, afterward Vice-President of the Confederate States, in a speech to the Legislature of Georgia, on the 14th of November, 1860. He said: "Mr. Lincoln can do nothing unless he is backed by the power of Congress. The House of Representatives is largely in majority against him. In the Senate he is powerless. There will be a majority of four against him." * "Many of us," said he, "have sworn to support the Constitution. Can we, for the mere election of a man to the Presidency, and that, too, in accordance with the forms of the Constitution, make a point of resistance without becoming the breakers of that same instrument?"1

Lincoln remained at his home, a deeply anxious yet hopeful spectator. The whole country was eager to learn his views, and ascertain his intentions. He was reticent as to his policy, but expressed strong hopes of being able to quiet the storm and restore tranquillity. To an inquiry as to what kind of a man Lincoln was, an intimate friend replied: "He has the firmness and determination, without the temper, of Jackson." Those long days, from November, 1860, to March, 1861, were perhaps more gloomy than any during the war. Patriots saw conspirators plotting, and traitors plundering the treasury, dispersing the United States soldiers, sending armed ships abroad, stripping arsenals of arms, and with them arming the insurgents. They saw rebels preparing to scuttle the ship of state, and the very conspirators were the chief officers, and the people but passengers, with no power to interfere. The people watched, and earnestly prayed that the "ides of March" would come speedily, and bring Lincoln to the helm.

In the meanwhile, efforts at pacification and conciliation were made. Committees of the Senate and of the House

1. See McPherson's History of the Rebellion, pp. 20-25, for Stephens' speech in full.

were raised to consider measures of compromise. But all measures of this character were voted down by the conspirators themselves. They wished neither compromise nor guarantees, but separation. A so-called "Peace Convention" met at Washington, to see whether any terms could induce the disaffected to abandon their purposes. There were many who believed that the secession movement was all threat and bluster, made to secure additional guarantees for slavery. But when the most liberal concessions were made in the interests of peace, and were voted down by the most extreme slaveholders and disunionists, it became evident that those who controlled the slave power had deliberately resolved to force an issue, and go out of the Union.

Charles Francis Adams, from the House committee of thirty-three, reported "that no form of adjustment will be satisfactory to the recusant states, which does not incorporate into the Constitution of the United States, an obligation to protect and extend slavery. On this condition, and on this alone, will they consent to withdraw their opposition to the recognition of the constitutional election of the Chief Magistrate. Viewing the matter in this light, it seems unadvisable to attempt to proceed a step further in the way of offering unacceptable propositions." It was clear the conspirators had resolved on revolution.

During these gloomy days, Lincoln was firm and determined. On the question of slavery extension, he was as unyielding as adamant. On the 13th day of December, 1860, he wrote to his friend Washburne, member of Congress from Illinois, as follows:

SPRINGFIELD, ILL., Dec. 13, 1860. "HON. E. B. WASHBURNE-My Dear Sir: Your long letter received. Prevent as far as possible, any of our friends from demoralizing themselves and our cause, by entertaining propositions for compromise of any sort on the slavery extension. There is no possible compromise upon it, but which puts us under again, and leaves us all our work to do over again. Whether it be a Missouri line, or Eli Thayer's