708 



UNITED STATES. 



recommendation to avoid the passage of any hostile 

 legislation. I asked if I might be permitted to see the 

 sketch of the Message, to which he unhesitatingly re- 

 plied that he would take pleasure in showing it to me 

 next morning. 



Much more occurred in the course of an interview 

 which lasted for an hour and a half, all, however, re- 

 lating exclusively to the above topics, and I left him 

 entirely satisfied with the result of my interview. The 

 President was frank and entirely confiding in his lan- 

 guage and whole manner. A moment's reflection satis- 

 fied me that if the Message contained the recommen- 

 dation to Congress to abstain from hostile legislation, 

 I was at liberty to infer a similar determination on his 

 part of a state of quietude. 



Friday, 25. I waited on him again the following 

 morning, and he lost no time in reading me so much 

 of the sketch of the proposed Message as related to 

 the recommendation to Congress. I suggested no 

 change or alteration, believing it to be amply sufficient, 

 and I became only anxious for its presentation to Con- 

 gress. He said he should have it all prepared to be 

 submitted to his Cabinet on that day, and would send 

 it in the next day. On the afternoon of the same day 

 (Friday 25) I was waited on by the Secretary of 

 State and the Attorney-General, who stated that they 

 had called upon me, at the request of the President, to 

 express his regret that, in consequence of the adjourn- 

 ment over to Monday, he would not be able to send in 

 the Message until Monday. 



While in conversation with those gentlemen, which 

 chiefly turned on the condition of public affairs, I was 

 startled by the receipt of a telegraphic despatch from 

 Judge Kobertson, my co-commissioner, dated at 

 Charleston, South Carolina, inquiring into the founda- 

 tion of a rumor which had reached that place that the 

 steamship Brooklyn, with troops, had sailed from Nor- 

 folk. I immediately handed over the despatch to the 

 gentlemen, with the suitable inquiries. The Attorney- 

 General said, in substance : " You know, sir, that I 

 am attached to the law department, and not in the 

 way of knowing any thing about it." The Secretary 

 of State said that he had heard and believed that the 

 Brooklyn had sailed with some troops, but he did not 

 know when she sailed, or to what point she was des- 

 tined. I then said : " I hoped that she had not re- 

 ceived her orders since my arrival in Washington." 

 On this point the gentlemen could give me no infor- 

 mation, but expressed no doubt but that the President 

 would give me the information if requested. 



I excused myself to them, and, immediately with- 

 drawing to the adjoining room, I addressed to the 

 President a note, which Mr. Stanton, the Attorney- 

 General, kindly volunteered to bear in person and 

 without lapse of time to the President. In a short time 

 afterwards Mr. Stanton returned to inform me that he 

 had carried the note to the President's house, but, for 

 a reason not necessary here to state, he could not see 

 the President, but had placed it in the hands of his 

 servant to be delivered at the earliest opportunity. 

 The reply of the President reached me at half-past 11 

 o'clock that night. In. the interim I had despatched 

 by telegraph to Judge Robertson the information I 

 had collected, and upon the opening of the Telegraph 

 office the ne_xt morning, (Saturday,) the material part 

 of the President's reply relating to the sailing of the 

 Brooklyn, viz., that she had gone on an errand of 

 " mercy and relief," and that she was not destined to 

 South Carolina. The orders for the sailing of the ship, 

 as will be seen, were issued before I reached Washing- 

 ton. After receiving the letter, and willingly adopting 

 the most favorable construction of its expressions, I 

 resolved to remain in Washington until after Monday, 

 when the Message would go to the two Houses. I 

 listened to its reading in the Senate with pleasure. 



The following is the letter of Mr. Buchanan 

 to Mr. Tyler relative to the steamer Brooklyn : 



January 25, 1861. 



MY DEAR SIR : I have just received your note. The 

 orders were given to the Brooklyn, I believe, on Mon- 



day or Tuesday last ; certainly before your arrival in 

 this city. She goes on an errand of mercy and relief. 

 If she had not been sent it would have been an aban- 

 donment of our highest duty. Her movements are in 

 no way connected with South Carolina. 



Your friend, very respectfully. 



The resolutions of Virginia were sent to Con- 

 gress accompanied hy a Message, in which the 

 President expressed his gratification on the 

 occasion and his views of his own position. 

 (See page 178.) It is manifest that from the 3d 

 of December to this period, the views of the 

 Government had been openly and constantly 

 asserted relative to its position. In the Mes- 

 sage of the President at the commencement of 

 the session of Congress ; in the correspondence 

 with the retiring secretaries, and with the 

 three commissioners from South Carolina; in 

 the Message of the 8th of January ; in the cor- 

 respondence with Commissioner Hayne ; in the 

 interview with ex-President Tyler, and the 

 subsequent Message to Congress, and in the 

 speech of Secretary Dix at Union Square, the 

 Government appears firm and steadfast, and 

 unchangeable in its position of forbearance and 

 conciliation, refusing all pledges, and deter- 

 mined to use military force if any violence 

 should be manifested against its authority. 

 Under such a state of facts, it is difficult to con- 

 ceive of any grounds to sustain the implication 

 contained in the Message of President Lincoln 

 to Congress, on the 4th of July, in which he 

 thus speaks of the reinforcement of Fort 

 Pickens : 



" An order was at once directed to be sent 

 for the landing of the troops from the steam- 

 ship Brooklyn into Fort Pickens. This order 

 could not go by land, but must take the longer 

 and slower route by sea. The first return 

 news from the order was received just one 

 week before the fall of Fort Sumter. The news 

 itself was, that the officer commanding the 

 Sabine, to which vessel the troops had been 

 transferred from the Brooklyn, acting upon 

 some quasi armistice of the late Administra- 

 tion, (and of the existence of which the present 

 Administration, up to the time the order was 

 despatched, had only too vague and uncertain 

 rumors to fix attention,) had refused to land 

 the troops." 



So President Davis, in his Message to the 

 Confederate Congress on the 20th of July, thus 

 refers to these remarks of President Lincoln : 



" Fortunately for truth and history, however, 

 the President of the United States details with 

 minuteness the attempt to reenforce Fort Pick- 

 ens, in violation of an armistice, of which he 

 confessed to have been informed, but only by 

 rumors, too vague and uncertain to fix the 

 attention of the hostile expedition despatched 

 to supply Fort Sumter." 



It is worth while to note how far the posi- 

 tion of the Administration responded to the 

 public sentiment of the country at this time. 

 Congress was in session. Numerous propo- 

 sitions for an adjustment of difficulties were 

 under consideration in the House. A less 



