Jefferson Davis, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government

The letter of the commissioners to Seward was written, as we have seen, on March 12. The oral message above mentioned was obtained and communicated to the commissioners through the agency of two judges of the Supreme Court of the United States—Justices Nelson of New York and Campbell of Alabama. On March 15, according to the statement of Judge Campbell,¹ Justice Nelson visited the Secretaries of State and of the Treasury and the Attorney General (Seward, Chase, and Bates), to dissuade them from undertaking to put in execution any policy of coercion. “During the term of the Supreme Court he had very carefully examined the laws of the United States to enable him to attain his conclusions, and from time to time he had consulted the Chief Justice [Taney] upon the questions which his examination had suggested. His conclusion was that, without very serious violations of Constitution and statutes, coercion could not be successfully effected by the executive department. I had made [continues Judge Campbell] a similar examination, and I concurred in his conclusions and opinions. As he was returning from his visit to the State Department, we casually met, and he informed me of what he had done. He said he had spoken to these officers at large; that he was received with respect and listened to with attention by all, with approbation by the Attorney General, and with great cordiality by the Secretary of State; that the Secretary had expressed gratification to find so many impediments to the disturbance of peace, and only wished there had been more. He stated that the Secretary told him there was a present cause of embarrassment: that the Southern Commissioners had demanded recognition, and a refusal would lead to irritation and excitement in the Southern States, and would cause a counter-irritation and excitement in the Northern States, prejudicial to a peaceful adjustment. Justice Nelson suggested that I might be of service.”

The result of the interview between these two distinguished gentlemen, we are informed, was another visit by both of them to the State Department, for the purpose of urging Seward to reply to the commissioners, and assure them of the desire of the United States government for a friendly adjustment. Seward seems to have objected to an immediate recognition of the commissioners, on the ground that the state of public sentiment in the North would not sustain it, in connection with the withdrawal of the troops from Fort Sumter, which had been