to Congress, as the only human tribunal, under Providence, CHAP. VI. possessing the power to meet the existing emergency. To them, exclusively, belongs the power to declare war, or to authorize the employment of military force in all cases contemplated by the Constitution; and they alone possess the power to remove grievances which might lead to war, and to secure peace and union to this distracted country. On them, and on them alone, rests the responsibility. . . I therefore appeal through you to the people of the country to declare in their might that the Union must and shall be preserved by all constitutional means. In conclusion it may be permitted to me to remark that I have often warned my countrymen of the dangers which now surround us. This may be the last time I shall refer to the subject officially.

This is no longer the potential voice of a President of the United States administering government, but the cry of a bewildered functionary who has lost command, confidence, courage, and is even almost deserted by hope.

Most radical of all the changes effected by these developments was that wrought in Jeremiah S. Black, Secretary of State. No one can read his famous opinion on coercion, given to sustain the President's annual message, without realizing the profound influence under which the conspirators controlled his legal reasoning and his official utterance at the date of November 20, 1860. But on the retirement of Mr. Cass, his elevation to the Secretaryship of State appears to have given him wider and truer views. Growing with his increasing national responsibilities he now, in the Sumter crisis, seems to have risen to genuine. leadership.

On Sunday morning, December 30, convinced of the President's intention to adhere to his submitted

Buchanan,

Message, Jan. 8, 1861. "Globe,"

Jan. 9, 1861,

p. 295.

"Opinions of the AttorneysGeneral." Vol. IX., pp. 517 et seq.

CHAP. VI. reply to the commissioners, Mr. Black convened the Black, "Es- Union section of the Cabinet, and announcing to Speeches," them his inability to sustain further the President's

says and

p. 14.

contemplated action, declared his intention to resign, in which resolve he was also joined by Mr. Stanton. After due discussion and reflection, Mr. Toucey carried the information of this threatened defection to the President. Mr. Buchanan's courage utterly broke down before the prospect of finding himself alone in face of the political complications which came crowding upon him. He at once sent for Mr. Black; and after a confidential interview, the details of which have never been revealed, he gave the objectionable draft of his reply to the Secretary of State, with liberty to make all changes and amendments which in his 14 and 17. opinion might be necessary. It was the President's virtual abdication.

Ibid., pp.

Mr. Black hurried to the office of the AttorneyGeneral, and there in the presence of Mr. Stanton, and doubtless with his advice and suggestion, wrote out a detailed and methodical memorandum, covering the points at variance. It is a strong and patriotic paper, and had it been adopted by the Executive as the key-note of his annual message, and enforced promptly by the army and navy, the rebellion might never have reached its final proportions.

It not only deprecated any expression of regret that the commissioners should suspend negotiations, but roundly denied the right of South Carolina to send any such officials or agents. It stated that the Charleston forts belonged to the Government, and could not be made the subject

of any adjustment or arrangement, but must be CHAP. VI. maintained by the power of the nation. On the subject of the President's pledge it asserted with vigor that, "it deeply concerns the President's reputation that he should contradict this statement, since if it be undenied it puts him in the attitude of an executive officer who voluntarily disarms himself of the power to perform his duty, and ties up his hands so that he cannot, without breaking his word, 'preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and see the laws faithfully executed.'" The definition of "coercion" contained in this memorandum, when compared with the same writer's employment of the word in his famous opinion of November 20 1860, is a burst of patriotic sunlight:

The words "coercing a State by force of arms to remain in the confederacy-a power which I do not believe the Constitution has conferred on Congress"-ought certainly not to be retained. They are too vague, and might have the effect (which I am sure the President does not intend) to mislead the commissioners concerning his sentiments. The power to defend the public property, to resist an assailing force which unlawfully attempts to drive out the troops of the United States from one of the fortifications, and to use the military and naval forces for the pur- "Memoranpose of aiding the proper officers of the United States in the execution of the laws-this, as far as it goes, is coercion, and may very well be called "coercing a State by force of arms to remain in the Union.”

Contrasting the language of Mr. Black, Secretary of State, indorsed and sustained by a mutinous Cabinet majority, with the words of Mr. Black, Attorney-General, acquiesced in by the tolerant Cabinet majority of six weeks previous, we are able VOL. III.-6

dum" quoted in

Black, “Es-
Speeches,"

says and

pp. 14-17.