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Cabinet of every man known to give aid and comfort to, or in any way countenancing, the revolt of any State against the authority of the
Constitution and the laws of the
Union.”
On the morning of the same day,
the news of the occupation of
Fort Sumter by the garrison of
Fort Moultrie reached
Washington, and produced the greatest consternation among the conspirators.
The Cabinet assembled at midday.
They had a stormy session.
Floyd urgently demanded an order for
Anderson's return to
Fort Moultrie, alleging that the
President, by withholding it, was violating the “solemn pledges of the
Government.”
The latter, remembering his implied, if not actual pledges, was inclined to give the order;
1 but the warning voices of law, duty, and public opinion made him hesitate.
They spoke to his conscience and his prudence about faithfulness, impeachment, and a trial for treason; and to his patriotism concerning the goodness and the greatness of his native land, and its claims upon his gratitude.
He paused, and the
Cabinet adjourned without definite action.
The position of the aged
President, during the eventful week we are here considering, was a most painful one.
He was evidently involved in perilous toils into which he had fallen in less troublous times, when he believed that he had called into his counsels true men, as the world of politicians goes.
He found himself, if not deceived, unexpectedly subjected to the control of bad men; and for two or three days after this Cabinet meeting, as the writer was informed by an intimate acquaintance of the
President, he was in continual fear of assassination.
On the morning after the stormy cabinet meeting just mentioned, news came that
Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney had been seized by
South Carolina troops.
The President breathed more freely.
He felt himself relieved from much embarrassment, for the insurgents had committed the first act of war. He now peremptorily refused to order the withdrawal of the garrison from
Sumter, and on the following day
the disappointed
Floyd resigned the seals of his office, fled to
Richmond, and afterward took up arms against his country.
In his letter of resignation, this man, covered, as with a garment, with some of the darkest crimes known in history, spoke of “patriotism” and “honor.”
He said:--“I deeply regret that I feel myself under the necessity of tendering to you my resignation as
Secretary of War, because I can no longer hold it under my convictions of patriotism, nor with honor, subjected as I am to a violation of solemn pledges and plighted faith.”
2 His resignation was immediately accepted, and his place filled by the patriotic
Kentuckian,
Joseph Holt.
Then a load of anxiety was lifted from the burdened hearts of the loyal people of the
Republic.
The purification of
Buchanan's Cabinet went on, and there was a general change in the ministry by the middle of January.
When
Attorney-General Black succeeded
General Cass as
Secretary of State, his office was filled by
Edwin M. Stanton, afterward
Secretary of War under
President Lincoln;
Philip F. Thomas, of
Maryland, had succeeded
Cobb as
Secretary of the Treasury.