coln was busy in a series of original investigations of all sides of the Sumter question. While doing his utmost to obtain such information as would enable him to come to an intelligent conclusion, he was beset by both North and South. A report went out early in the month that Sumter was to be evacuated. It could not be verified; but it spread generally until there was, particularly in Washington, around Mr. Lincoln, a fever of excitement. Finally, on March 25, the Senate asked for the correspondence of Anderson. The President did not believe the time had come, however, to take the public into his confidence, and he replied:

On examination of the correspondence thus called for, I have, with the highest respect for the Senate, come to the conclusion that at the present moment the publication of it would be inexpedient.

Three days later, March 28, while he still was uncertain whether his order had reached Fort Pickens or not, General Scott, who was ill, sent a letter over to the White House, advising Mr. Lincoln to abandon both Sumter and Pickens. Coming from such a source, the letter was a heavy blow to the President. One of the men he most trusted had failed to recognize that the policy he had laid down in his inaugural address was serious and intended to be acted upon. It was time to do something. Summoning an officer from the Navy Department, he asked him to prepare at once a plan for a relief expedition to Fort Sumter. That night Mr. Lincoln gave his first state dinner. It was a large affair, many friends besides the members of the Cabinet being present. The conversation was animated, and Lincoln was seemingly in excellent spirits. W. H. Russell, the correspondent of the London "Times," was present, and he notes in his Diary how Lincoln used anecdotes in his conversation that evening:

"Mr. Bates was remonstrating, apparently, against the appointment of some indifferent lawyer to a place of judicial importance," says Mr. Russell. "The President interposed with, 'Come now, Bates, he's not half as bad as you think. Besides that, I must tell you he did me a good turn long ago. When I took to the law, I was going to court one morning, with some ten or twelve miles of bad road before me, and I had no horse. The judge overtook me in his wagon. 'Hello, Lincoln! Are you not going to the courthouse? Come in, and I'll give you a seat.' Well, I got in, and the judge went on reading his papers. Presently the wagon struck a stump on one side of the road; then it hopped off to the other. I looked out, and I saw the driver was jerking from side to side in his seat; so says I, 'Judge, I think your coachman has been taking a little drop too much this morning.' 'Well, I declare, Lincoln,' said he, 'I should not wonder if you are right; for he has nearly upset me half a dozen times since starting.' So putting his head out of the window, he shouted, 'Why, you infernal scoundrel, you are drunk!' Upon which, pulling up his horses, and turning round with great gravity, the coachman said, 'By gorra! that's the first rightful decision you have given for the last twelvemonth.' While the company were laughing, the President beat a quiet retreat from the neighborhood of the Attorney-General."

Lincoln's story-telling that evening was used, as often happened, to cover a serious mental struggle. After many of his guests had retired, he called his Cabinet aside, and agitatedly told them of General Scott's letter. He then asked them to meet him the next day. That night the President did not close his eyes in sleep. The moment had come, as it must come, at one time or another, to every President of the United States, when his vote was the only vote in the Cabinet-the only vote in the country. The decision and orders he should give the next day might plunge the country into civil war. Could he escape it? All night he went over the problem, but his watch only strengthened his purpose

When the Cabinet met, the President put the case before them in such a light that, on his asking the members to give him their views, only two, Seward and Smith, opposed the relief of Fort Sumter.

That day Lincoln gave his order that the expedition be prepared and ready to sail on April 6. Two days later, he ordered that an expedition for the relief of Fort Pickens be prepared. With the latter order he sent a verbal message to General Scott:

Tell him that I wish this thing done, and not to let it fail unless he can show that I have refused him something he asked for.

By April 6, news reached Mr. Lincoln from Fort Pickens. The commander of the vessel on which the troops were quartered, acting upon the armistice of Mr. Buchanan, had refused to land the re-enforcements. To relieve Sumter was the only alternative, and Lincoln immediately ordered forward the expeditions he had been preparing. At the same time he wrote with his own hand instructions for an agent whom he sent to Charleston to notify the Governor of South Carolina that an effort would be made to supply Fort Sumter with provisions only.

At last it was evident to the members of the Cabinet and to others in the secret that Mr. Lincoln did mean what he had said in his inaugural address: "The power confided to me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property and places belonging to the government."

Mr. Lincoln had another matter on hand at the moment as vital as the relief of Sumter-how to prevent further accessions to the Southern Confederacy. When he was inaugurated, seven of the slave-holding States had left the Union. In two others, Virginia and Missouri, conventions were in session considering secession; but in both, Union

sentiment predominated. Three others, North Carolina, Kentucky, and Tennessee, had by popular vote decided to hold no convention. Maryland had already held an irregular State assembly, but nothing had been accomplished by the separatists. Mr. Lincoln's problem was how to strengthen this surviving Union sentiment sufficiently to prevent secession in case the Administration was forced to relieve Sumter. Evidently he could do nothing at the moment but inform himself as accurately as possible, by correspondence and conferences, of the temper of the people and put himself into relations with men in each State on whom he could rely in case of emergency. He did this with care and persistency, and so effectively that later, when matters became more serious, visitors from the doubtful States often expressed their amazement at the President's knowledge of the sentiments and conditions of their parts of the country.

The first State in which Lincoln attempted any active interference in favor of the Union was one which had already voted itself out, Texas. A conflict had arisen there between the Southern party and the Governor, Sam Houston, and on March 18 the latter had been deposed. When Mr. Lincoln heard of this, he decided to try to get a message to the Governor, offering United States support if he would put himself at the head of the Union party of the State. The messenger who carried this word to Houston was Mr. G. H. Giddings, at that time the holder of the contract for carrying the mails by the El Paso route to California. He was taken to the White House by his friend Postmaster-General Blair, and gives the following account of what occurred at the interview. It is one of the very few descriptions of Mr. Lincoln in a Cabinet meeting which we have:

I was taken into the Cabinet room, and introduced by the Postmaster-General to President Lincoln and all the members of the Cabinet, who were there apparently waiting for

us. The President asked me to take a seat at the big table next to him. He then said to me, You have been highly recommended to me as a reliable man by the PostmasterGeneral, the Hon. G. A. Grow, and others. They tell me that you are an old citizen of Texas and about to return to your home. My object in wishing to see you is that I desire to intrust to you a secret message to Governor Houston."

I said, "Yes, Mr. President, I should have left to-night but for this invitation to call on you, which was a great pleasure to me."

He then asked me a great many questions, where I was born, when I went to Texas, what I had been doing there, how I liked the State, and what was the public sentiment in Texas in regard to the prospects of a war-all of which I answered to the best of my ability.

He then said to me that the message was of such importance that, before handing it to me, he would read it to me. Before beginning to read he said, "This is a confidential and secret message. No one besides my Cabinet and myself knows anything about it, and we are all sworn to secrecy. I am going to swear you in as one of my Cabinet." And then he said to me in jocular way, "Hold up your right hand," which I did. "Now," said he, "consider yourself a member of my Cabinet.'

He then read the message, explaining his meaning at times as he was reading it. The message was written in big bold hand, on large sheets of paper, and consisted of several pages. It was signed" A. Lincoln." I cannot give the exact words of the message, but the substance was as follows:

It referred first to the surrender, by General Twiggs, of the United States troops, forts, and property in Texas to the rebels, and offered to appoint Governor Houston a majorgeneral in the United States army in case he would accept. It authorized him to take full command in Texas, taking charge of all Government property and such of the old army as he could get together, and to recruit 100,000 men, if possible, and to hold Texas in the Union. In case he did accept, the President promised to support him with the whole power of the Government, both of the army and navy. After hearing the message read, I suggested to the President that it was