supplies for the starving garrison in Fort Sumter. Mr. Thompson, cognizant of the fact, immediately telegraphed the armed conspirators in Charleston, and the unarmed steamer was driven back by their batteries. In a speech which he subsequently made to the rebels in Oxford, Miss., he boasted of this abominable act of treachery, in the following words:

"I sent a dispatch to Judge Longstreet, that the Star of the West was coming with reënforcements. The troops were then put on their guard, and when the Star of the West arrived, she received a warm welcome from booming cannon, and soon beat a retreat."

We have here the unblushing avowal of a member of the Cabinet, that he betrayed, to those who under arms were seeking to destroy his country, information derived from his official position. In consequence, that frail vessel was met by hostile batteries, the lives of two hundred and fifty men, in the service of the Government, were imperiled, and the heroic little garrison of seventy-five men in Fort Sumter were abandoned to their fate. Secretary Thompson, having accomplished this feat, resigned his office, and joined the rebels, where he was received with open arms.

The subsequently notorious John B. Floyd, a slave master of Virginia, was Secretary of War. It was the well matured plan of some of the conspirators, to assassinate President Lincoln on his journey to Washington to be inaugurated. They designed, in the panic which would ensue, to pour in troops from the adjacent Slave States of Maryland and Virginia, and seize upon Washington, with all its treasures, that it might become the capital of their new Confederacy. In the accomplishment of this plan, it was important that the army of the United States, but a few thousand in number, should be so dispersed, that they could not be rallied for the defense of the Government; and that the arsenals at the North should be so despoiled, that the free citizens could find no weapons to grasp, by which they might rush to the rescue. John B. Floyd, Secretary of War, did this work effectually. The army was so scattered in remote fortresses in the far West, as to leave all the forts in the slaveholding States defenseless. Thus fortifications containing twelve hundred cannon, and which cost over six millions of dollars, were seized and garrisoned by the rebels.

At the same time Secretary Floyd, by virtue of that power which his office gave him, and in infamous violation of his oath, disarmed as far as possible the Free States, by emptying their arsenals, and sending their guns to the Slave States, where bands of rebels were already organized and drilling, prepared to receive them. One hundred and fifteen thousand arms, of the most approved pattern, were transferred from Springfield, Mass., and from Watervliet, N. Y., to arsenals throughout the Slave States. In addition to this, he sold to different Slave States, United States muskets, worth $12 each, for $2.50. A vast amount of cannon, mortar, balls, powder, and shells were also forwarded to the rebels. Having accomplished all this, Floyd sent in his resignation as Secretary of War, and, joining the rebels, received the appointment of general in their army. Thus General Scott, when the hour of trial came, and Washington was threatened with assault by a sudden rush from the slaveholding States, found it difficult to concentrate even a thousand troops for the defense of the

Capital. Washington was saved from capture only by the almost miraculous interposition of God.

Isaac Toucey, of Connecticut, a Northern man with Southern principles, was Secretary of the Navy. Our fleet then consisted of ninety vessels of all classes, carrying about 2,415 guns; and was manned by a complement of about 7,600 men, exclusive of officers and marines.. It was a matter of the utmost moment, at this critical hour, that this fleet should be in our own waters to aid the Government. It was a matter of the utmost moment to the traitors, that this fleet should be dispersed, where it could do them no harm. It was accordingly dispersed. Five of these vessels were sent to the East Indies, three to Brazil, seven to the Pacific Ocean, three to the Mediterranean, seven to the coast of Africa, and so on, leaving, of our whole squadron, but two vessels, carrying twenty-seven guns and two hundred and eighty men, in Northern ports.*

On the 21st of February, 1861, a select committee of five, appointed by the House of Representatives, in a report upon the conduct of the Secretary of the Navy, spoke as follows:

"From this statement it will appear, that the entire naval force available for the defense of the whole Atlantic coast, at the time of the appointment of this committee, consisted of the steamer Brooklyn, 25 guns, and the store ship Relief, 2 guns; while the former was of too great draft to permit her to enter Charleston harbor with safety, except at spring tides, and the latter was under orders to the coast of Africa, with stores for the African squadron. Thus the whole Atlantic sea board has been, to all intents and purposes, without defense, during all the period of civil commotion and lawless violence, to which the President (Buchanan) has called Dur attention, as of such vast and alarming proportions, as to be beyond his power to check or control.

"The Committee can not fail to call attention to this extraordinary disposition of the entire naval force of the country, and especially in connection with the present no less extraordinary and critical juncture of political affairs. They can not call to mind any period in the past history of the country, of such profound peace and internal repose, as would justify so entire an abandonment of the coast of the country to the chance of fortune. Certainly since the nation possessed a navy, it has never before sent its entire available force into distant seas, and exposed the immense interests at home, of which it is the special guardian, to the dangers from which, even in times of the utmost quiet, prudence and forecast do always shelter them.

"To the Committee this disposition of the naval force, at this most critical period, seems extraordinary. The permitting of vessels to depart for distant seas, after these unhappy difficulties had broken out at home; the omission to put in repair and commission, ready for orders, a single one of the twenty-eight ships dismantled and unfit for service, in our own ports, and that, too, while $646,639.79 of the appropriation for repairs in the navy, the present year, remained unexpended, were in the opinion of your Committee, grave errors-without justification or excuse."

* Report of Secretary of the Navy, July 4, 1861.

Thus the Government was despoiled by its own imbecile or traitorous officials. Enemies within, opened the door of the fortress for the entrance of the beleaguering foe. The President, overawed and nerveless, was a silent observer of the march of the conspirators. At last, however, he summoned courage to say to Congress, in tones alike of weakness and despair, that the rebellion had attained such "vast and alarming proportions, as to place the subject entirely above and beyond Executive control." Nay more, instead of hurling the thunderbolts he might have wielded, into the ranks of the rebels, he acquiesced in their movements, and could hardly be forced to adopt any measure which did not meet with their approval.

It is difficult to find in all the annals of the past, an example of executive power bowing the neck so meekly beneath the heel of traitorous arrogance. His Cabinet was mostly filled with slaveholding conspirators, who first endeavored to betray their country by the most insane measures, and then disclosed to their confederate traitors all that transpired in the Executive counsels. President Buchanan was anxious for peace. His political sympathies were, however, with the conspirators, and bitterly hostile to those who were the foes of human bondage. As the storm of passion increased in violence, the only measure he could suggest was unconditional surrender of the Government to the wishes of the slaveholders. This was called a compromise. The North, on its part, was to surrender everything. The South, on its part, would consent to accept the surrender.

A so-called Peace Congress was convened in Washington, to try to placate the slaveholders. John Tyler, formerly President of the United States, a slaveholder from Virginia, took the chair; the doors were closed; weeks were passed in discussing the concessions which the North might be induced to yield to slavery. The results, finally arrived at, were ex pressed in terms studiously ambiguous, that they might mean one thing in the free North, and another thing in the slaveholding South. The Convention was in session twenty-one days. Twenty States only were represented, seven of which only were slaveholding States. The extreme South were resolved upon breaking up the Government entirely, and establishing, in its stead, a thorough slaveholding oligarchy, and they refused to take any part in the Peace Convention, regarding with scorn any terms of compromise which should interfere with this plan. Most at the North were fully conscious of this determined spirit of the slaveholders, and therefore had no heart in this peace movement. The result, to which the conference finally came, was:

1. That Congress should never interfere with slavery in the District of Columbia, over which, by the Constitution, Congress held exclusive jurisdiction, without the consent of the slaveholding State of Maryland, and the consent of the slaveholders in the District.

2. That Congress should not forbid slaveholders from bringing their slaves to Washington, nor abolish slavery in any of the dockyards, fortresses, or territories under the jurisdiction of the United States, where slavery then existed.

3. That Congress should not prohibit, and should so amend the Constitution, that the States should not prohibit, the transportation of slaves, from and through any of the States and Territories, where slavery then existed either by law or usage.

The "Concession" to be exacted from the South was, that they should consent to the suppression of the slave trade, which already for years had been prohibited as piracy; and that the District of Columbia should not be used as a slave market, for the sale of Southern bondmen, which also had been forbidden on a previous compromise; and that slavery should be prohibited in all the territory north of the parallel of 36° 30' north latitude. Eleven States voted for these peace propositions languidly. Seven States voted against them emphatically. Two States were divided in their votes. The Convention adjourned the 27th of February, 1861, and the Compromise soon died, and was never heard of more. It was, indeed, adopted by Congress, to be recommended to the people, after a stormy debate, by a vote of 133 yeas and 65 nays. But that was the end of it.

About the same time, on the 18th of December, the Hon. John J. Crittenden, a slaveholder from Kentucky, universally respected for his patriotism, his ability, and his high moral worth, presented a series of "Compromise Resolutions" in the Senate, which were long debated, and which attracted the attention of the nation.

His bill proposed to prohibit slavery in the territory north of 36° 30', and to protect it south of that latitude; to admit new States, with or without slavery, as their Constitutions should provide; to prohibit the abolition, by Congress, of slavery in the States and in the District of Columbia, without the consent of Virginia and Maryland; to permit the transportation of slaves in any of the States by land or water; to provide for fugitive slaves when rescued; and to repeal all the Personal Liberty Bills in the Northern States. In consideration of these concessions, the South would so amend an obnoxious feature in the Fugitive Slave Law, that the sheriffs should receive the same fee, whether the man arrested as a slave should prove a slave or a freeman. By the law as it stood, the sheriff seemed to be offered a bribe, though indeed a trivial one, to return the man as a slave; for in that case he received ten dollars; but if he pronounced him a freeman he received only five.

Mr. Crittenden was accustomed to slavery from his childhood, and regarded the institution as merely one of the necessary infelicities of fallen humanity. But his ability, his manifest conscientiousness, his pure and lofty character, had secured for him universal respect. No Southern man had so much influence throughout the North. These propositions were long and earnestly discussed, and were finally rejected by the Senate, by a vote of 19 yeas to 20 nays. The difference between the two parties, whom Mr. Crittenden attempted to reconcile, was radical, and could, by no possibility, be harmonized. One party claimed the recognition of slavery by the Constitution of the United States, the support of an aristocratic and privileged class, and the entire renunciation of the doctrine of democratic equality of rights. The other party declared such doctrines to be unjust, inhuman, and repugnant to all the principles of republican liberty.

Many petitions were sent in from the North, urging the Senate to adopt, and recommend to the people, the Crittenden Compromise. In reply to such a petition, from some citizens of Massachusetts, Henry Wilson, Senator from Massachusetts, gave utterance to the following strain of indignant eloquence, undoubtedly expressing the sentiments of the majority of the people in the Free States:

"These men pray for the adoption of the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Senator from Kentucky, to wit: The recognition of slavery and its protection south of latitude 36° 30', not only in the existing territory, but in territory not yet conquered, purchased, or stolen; the denial of any power in Congress to abolish slavery in the District of Columbia while it existed in Virginia, or to prohibit the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or to Territories recognizing slavery; to pay the owner the full value of a fugitive slave when the Marshal was prevented from arresting him by intimidation, and to take from persons of African race the right of suffrage, which they have possessed in Massachusetts since the Constitution, passed by the Revolutionary fathers, was adopted in 1780, and to acquire territory in Africa or South America, and send, at the expense of the Federal Treasury, such free Negroes as the States may wish to have removed from their limits. For the adoption of these honorable and humane provisions in the Constitution, beyond the power of the people ever to change, the people of the Free States would secure the immense concession of making the fee of the Commissioner no greater for remanding a man to slavery than for discharging him as a freeman. Surely the prayer of men of Massachusetts for such objects ought to be heeded by the Senate of the United States." Upon the same subject, Charles Sumner, Senator from Massachusetts, expresses himself with equal explicitness. His words are historically important, as Mr. Sumner is a representative man, and expresses the views of a large party. In an Address before the Young Men's Republican Association of New York, November 27, 1861, he said:

"But looking at the concessions proposed, I have always found them utterly unreasonable and indefensible. I should not expose them now, if they did not constantly testify to the origin and mainspring of this rebellion. Slavery was always the single subject-matter, and nothing else. Slavery was not only an integral part of every concession, but the single integer. The single idea was to give some new security-in some formto slavery. That brilliant statesman, Mr. Canning, in one of those eloquent speeches which charm so much by the style, said, that he was 'tired of being a security-grinder,' but his experience was not comparable to ours. Security-grinding,' in the name of slavery, has been for years the way in which we have encountered this conspiracy.

"The propositions at the last Congress began with the President's Message, which in itself was one long concession. You do not forget his sympathetic portraiture of the disaffection throughout the Slave States, or his testimony to the cause. Notoriously and shamefully his heart was with the conspirators, and he knew intimately the main-spring of their conduct. He proposed nothing short of a general surrender to slavery, and thus