[MR. STANTON TO MR. BUCHANAN.]
Washington, April 12, 1861.
Dear Sir:—
We have the war upon us. The telegraphic news of this morning you will have seen before this reaches you. The impression here is held by many: 1st, that the effort to reinforce will be a failure; 2d, that in less than twenty-four hours from this time Anderson will have surrendered; 3d, that in less than thirty days Davis will be in possession of Washington.
Yours truly, Edwin M. Stanton.
[MR. BUCHANAN TO GENERAL DIX.]
Wheatland, near Lancaster, April 19, 1861.
My Dear General:
I need scarcely say I was much gratified with your letter to Major Anderson, as well as with his answer. You placed, in an eloquent and striking light, before him the infamous conduct of General Twiggs and others, and his response was manly and loyal. By the bye, I some time since received an insulting letter from General Twiggs, dated in Mississippi on the 30th ultimo. Its conclusion is as follows: “Your usurped right to dismiss me from the army might be acquiesced in, but you had no right to brand me as a traitor; this was personal, and I shall treat it as such, not through the papers, but in person. I shall, most assuredly, pay a visit to Lancaster, for the sole purpose of a personal interview with you. So, sir, prepare yourself. I am well assured that public opinion will sanction any course I may take with you.”
I have paid no attention to this note, and entertain but little apprehension from the threats of this hoary-headed rebel. My fate, however, is, in some respects, hard. After my annual message of the 3d December, in which I made as able an argument as I could against secession, and indicated my purpose to collect the revenue and defend the Federal forts in South Carolina, etc., the Southern friends of the administration fell away from it. From the line prescribed in this message, I am not conscious that I have departed a hair’s breadth, so far as it was practicable to pursue it. I was ready and willing at all times to attempt to collect the revenue, and, as a necessary preliminary, I nominated a collector to the Senate. You know the result.