----------
[1] “The President has listened to him [General Scott] with due
friendliness and respect, but the War Department has been little
communicative. Up to this time he has not been shown the written
instructions of Major Anderson, nor been informed of the purport of
those more recently conveyed to Fort Moultrie verbally by Major
Buell.”—Gen. Scott (by G.W. Lay) to Twiggs, Dec. 28, 1860. W.R. Vol.
I., p. 580.
[2] In a Senate speech, January 10, 1861, “Globe,”
page 307, Jefferson Davis, commenting on these orders,
while admitting that they empowered Major Anderson
to go from one post to another, said, “Though
his orders were not so designed, as I am assured.”
THE RETIREMENT OF CASS
Thus far Mr. Buchanan’s policy of conciliation
through concession had brought him nothing but disappointment,
and whatever faint hope his loyal Cabinet advisers
may have had at the outset in its saving efficacy
was by practical experiment utterly destroyed.
The non-coercion doctrine had been adopted as early
as November 20, in the Attorney-General’s opinion
of that date. The fact was rumored, not only
in the political circles of the capital, but in the
chief newspapers of the country; and the three secession
members of the Cabinet had doubtless communicated
it confidentially to all their prominent and influential
confederates. Since that time South Carolina
had continued her preparation for secession with unremitting
industry; Mississippi had authorized a convention
and appointed commissioners to visit all the slave-States
and propagate disunion, among them Mr. Thompson, Buchanan’s
Secretary of the Interior, who afterwards exercised
this insurrectionary function while yet remaining in
the Cabinet; the North Carolina Legislature had postponed
the election of United States Senator; Florida had
passed a convention bill; Georgia had instituted legislative
proceedings to bring about a conference of the Southern
States at Atlanta; both houses of the National Congress
had rung with secession speeches, while frequent caucuses
of the conspirators took place at Washington.
[Sidenote] Cobb to Buchanan, “Washington
Constitution,” Dec. 12,
1860.
Mr. Buchanan’s truce with the South Carolina
Representatives had as little effect in arresting
the secession intrigues as his non-coercion doctrine
officially announced in the annual message. On
the evening of the day (December 8)[1] on which he
received the South Carolina pledge, the Secretary
of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, of Georgia, tendered
his resignation, announcing in the same letter his
intention to embark in the active work of disunion.
It had been generally understood that the non-coercion
theories of the message were adopted by the President
in deference to the wishes and under the influence
of Cobb, Thompson, and Floyd, and undoubtedly they
had also been largely instrumental in bringing about
