When Mr. Seward became Secretary of State under President Lincoln, he thought it proper to signalize his official correspondence with some of our representatives abroad, with many discursive views and statements about our internal affairs. However necessary it may have been to possess our ministers at the courts of Europe with the policy which the new administration intended to pursue in regard to the threatened revolution, in order that they might enlighten the statesmen of Europe on the subject, it was hardly to have been expected that an American Secretary of State would, in his official correspondence, inculpate a preceding administration of his own government, even if it had not been one of his own party. But in the letter addressed by Mr. Seward to Mr. Adams, on the 10th of April, 1861, from which I have already had occasion to quote, speaking of what was the state of things when he came into office, he said:

The Federal marine seemed to have been scattered everywhere except where its presence was necessary, and such of the military forces as were not in the remote States and Territories were held back from activity by vague and mysterious armistices, which had been informally contracted by the late President, or under his authority, with a view to postpone conflict until impracticable concessions to disunion should be made by Congress, or at least until the waning term of his administration should reach its appointed end.[[166]]

It is unnecessary for me to add anything to what has already been said concerning the situation of the military forces at the time when the secession movement began, or concerning the facts or reasons for the only armistice, or understanding in the nature of an armistice, “contracted by the late President,” (in regard to Pensacola,) or the temporary truce of arms entered into by Major Anderson in the harbor of Charleston. There was nothing “mysterious” about either of these arrangements; nothing that could not be plainly read on the records of the War and Navy Departments. And in regard to the position of every vessel of the Navy, the records of that Department, if Mr. Seward had taken the trouble to examine them before he penned the charge that “the Federal marine seemed to have been scattered everywhere except where its presence was necessary,” he would have been able to say something more than was intended to be conveyed by the word “seemed,” whatever that may have been, for he would have had before him the facts. With respect, too, to “impracticable concessions,” Mr. Seward might have compared his own policy, pursued for some time after he became Secretary of State, with that of the preceding administration. Mr. Toucey, Mr. Buchanan’s Secretary of the Navy called on Mr. Seward at the State Department soon after the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, and found that “the tenor of his [Mr. Seward’s] language was altogether for peace and conciliation.” “I was as strongly impressed with it,” says Mr. Toucey, “as Judge Campbell appears to have been on another occasion.”[[167]] But upon the matter of fact respecting the position of the naval forces, the following correspondence between Mr. Buchanan and Mr. Toucey exhibits in full detail the situation of the whole navy in the month of December, 1860, and the following months:

[MR. BUCHANAN TO MR. TOUCEY.]

Wheatland, near Lancaster, July 20, 1861.

My Dear Sir:—

Your favor of the 5th ultimo was duly received, and should long since have been answered, but truly I had nothing to communicate except to reiterate my warm attachment and respect for yourself, and I know this was not necessary.

I perceive by the papers that Mr. Grimes, of Iowa, has had a resolution adopted by the Senate, asking the President for information of the nature of the quasi armistice at Fort Pickens, referred to in his message, etc.

As I was able, I have written in scraps a historical review of the last four months of my administration, not, however, intending that it should be published in my name. I consider it a complete vindication of our policy. This is placed in the hands of Judge Black and Mr. Stanton, to enable them to use the facts which it contains in case of an attack against me in Congress. They write that it is not probable any such attack will be made; but I received their letter the day before the motion of Mr. Grimes. General Dix, the Judge, and Mr. Stanton unite in the opinion that nothing in our defence should be published at present, because they do not believe the public mind is prepared to receive it, and this would have the effect of producing violent attacks against me from the Republican press, whilst we have very few, if any, journals which would be willing to answer them; ——- sed quere de hoc. I send you a copy of that portion of my review relating to Fort Pickens. It is not so precise as the rest, because I have not the necessary official papers in my possession. I perceive from your letter you have a distinct recollection of the whole affair. Would it not be wise and prudent for you to write to some friend in Washington on the subject—Mr. Thomson, of New Jersey, or some other person....

I think you ought to pay immediate attention to this matter. It affords a fair opportunity to relieve yourself from the false and unfounded charge made against you that you had not vessels at hand to meet the emergency. The first paragraph of your letter to me presents facts which would put the charge to flight.