There was a peculiar, not to say a most offensive injustice, in representing Mr. Buchanan’s policy as having for its object “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.” There was nothing impracticable in what Mr. Buchanan urged Congress to do, nor was there any “concession to disunion” in his recommendations. Moreover, he used his utmost exertions to strengthen the hands of his successor, as well as his own, so that the Executive might be able to meet any conflict that might arise. There now lie before me four printed bills, three of which show what President Buchanan endeavored to make Congress do. One of them is a bill introduced into the Senate by Mr. Bigler, on the 14th of January, 1861, “to provide for taking the sense of the people of the several States on certain proposed amendments to the Constitution of the United States.”

This bill went rather beyond any “concessions” or proposed recommendations made by the President. It was read twice and ordered to be printed, but was never acted upon. The other three bills embodied measures urgently asked for by the administration, and they underwent the personal revision of the President, as appears from his MSS. notes on the copies furnished to him, which are now in my possession. The first was a bill reported on the 30th of January, 1861, from the select committee on the President’s message of January 8th, and was entitled, “a bill further to provide for calling forth the militia of the United States in certain cases.” It would, if enacted, have enabled the President to accept the services of volunteers to protect the forts and other public property of the United States, and to recover their possession if it had been lost. The second was a bill reported in the House by the same committee on the 30th of January, 1861, “further to provide for the collection of duties on imports.” This bill was drawn with a special view to the condition of things in the port of Charleston. The third of these bills, for giving the President powers which the exigency demanded, was reported by the Committee on Military Affairs, in the House, and was, on the 20th of February, 1861, ordered to be printed, pending its second reading. It was “a bill supplementary to the several acts now in force to provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, suppress insurrections and repel invasions.” The laws then in force provided for calling forth the militia only when the State authorities asked for protection against insurrections aimed at the State governments, or in cases of foreign invasion. The new bill was designed to provide against insurrections aimed at the authority of the United States. Not one of these bills was ever acted upon by that Congress; so that when “the waning term” of Mr. Buchanan’s administration expired, the Executive was without the appropriate means to collect the revenue outside of custom-houses, or to call out the militia to suppress insurrections against the United States, or to call for volunteers, and had but a mere handful of regular troops within reach, even to guard the city of Washington on the day of Mr. Lincoln’s inauguration, or to execute any law of the United States that might meet with resistance.[[168]]

For a long time after the month of February, 1862, there was current a story about a “cabinet scene,” said to have occurred in Mr. Buchanan’s cabinet in February, 1861, in which Mr. Stanton, then Attorney General, had, by a threat of resignation, backed by a similar threat by other ministers present, compelled the President to recede from something that he proposed to do. This story first became public in an English newspaper, on the 9th of February, 1862, and was immediately copied and extensively circulated in this country. The following correspondence discloses the public origin of this story, and gives it its appropriate refutation:

[THE HON. AUGUSTUS SCHELL TO THE HON. J. S. BLACK.]

New York, July 28th, 1863.

Dear Sir:—

You will find below an extract from a letter published in the London Observer on the 9th of February, 1862, subscribed with initials T. W. The signature is known to be that of Mr. Thurlow Weed, of Albany, who was at the time in London.

“In February, Major Anderson, commanding Fort Moultrie, Charleston harbor, finding his position endangered, passed his garrison by a prompt and brilliant movement over to the stronger Fortress of Sumter. Whereupon Mr. Floyd, Secretary of war, much excited, called upon the President to say that Major Anderson had violated express orders and thereby seriously compromised him (Floyd), and that unless the Major was immediately remanded to Fort Moultrie, he should resign the War Office.

“The cabinet was assembled directly. Mr. Buchanan, explaining the embarrassment of the Secretary of War, remarked that the act of Major Anderson would occasion exasperation at the South; he had told Mr. Floyd that, as the Government was strong, forbearance toward erring brethren might win them back to their allegiance, and that that officer might be ordered back.

“After an ominous silence, the President inquired how the suggestion struck his cabinet.