124 MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY 



ger was ahead. In November, he was in England 

 whence he had gone to arrange for the copyrighting of a 

 new edition of his "Physical Geography of the Sea". 



During that month momentous happenings occurred 

 in the United States. On November 6, Lincoln was 

 elected President, and the day following the legislature 

 of South Carolina took steps which resulted in the call- 

 ing of a secession convention. This convention unan- 

 imously passed, on December 20, an ordinance declaring 

 the state of South Carolina no longer in the Union. 



By that time Maury had returned to the United 

 States, and he made a last effort to secure mediation 

 through Commodore Stockton as the representative of 

 the Governor of New Jersey; but early in the year 1861 

 he sorrowfully wrote that the New Jersey plan had 

 missed fire. After the failure of this attempt he sought 

 in vain to be made a member of the "Peace Congress", 

 which was called by the Border States and met in Wash- 

 ington in the month of February. In this he offered to 

 represent Tennessee, which he referred to as his Naomi. 



South Carolina had been followed out of the Union by 

 Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and 

 Texas. In February, the seceding states set up a 

 provisional government with Montgomery as the capital 

 and with Jefferson Davis as President and Alexander H. 

 Stephens as Vice President. But Maury urged the 

 "barrier" states, Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, to 

 remain in the Union in order to conserve the peace, to 

 mediate, and to organize a re-annexation party for the 

 next Presidential election. 



On the day of Lincoln's inauguration, Maury wrote, 

 "The new President is now on his way to the Capitol, 

 and the Express reports 'All quiet', as I took it for 



