[
286]
Before “
Commissioner”
Hayne was dismissed, “
Commissioner”
Thomas J. Judge appeared on the stage at
Washington, as the representative of
Alabama, duly authorized “to negotiate with the
Government of the
United States in reference to the forts, arsenals, and custom houses in that State, and the debt of the
United States.”
He approached the
President through
Senator C. C. Clay, Jr., who expressed his desire that when
Judge might have an audience, he should “present his credentials and enter upon the proposed negotiations.”
1 The President placed
Mr. Judge on the same footing with
Mr. Hayne, as only a “distinguished” private gentleman, and not as an embassador; whereupon
Senator Clay wrote an angry letter to the
President,
too foolish in matter and manner to deserve a place in history.
The “Sovereign
State of Alabama” then withdrew, in the person of
Mr. Judge, who argued that the course of the
President implied either an abandonment of all claims to the
National property within the limits of his State, or a desire that it should be retaken by the sword.
2
No further attempts to open diplomatic intercourse between the
United States and the banded conspirators in “seceded States” were made during the remainder of
Mr. Buchanan's Administration; and he quietly left the chair of State for private life, a deeply sorrowing man. “Governor,” said the
President to
Senator Fitzpatrick, a few weeks before,
when the latter was about to depart for
Alabama, “the current of events warns me that we shall never meet again on this side the grave.
I have tried to do my duty to both sections, and have displeased both.
I feel isolated in the world.”
3
