it is that the southern fire-eaters could not have found a tool more
perfectly suited to their purpose than James Buchanan. He was the
center of one of the most astonishing political cabals of all history.

Lincoln did not pass indiscriminate condemnation upon all men of
southern sympathies. At the time of which we are now writing, and
consistently up to the end of his life, he made a marked distinction
between the rank and file of the Confederates on the one hand, and
those leaders who, on the other hand, had, while in the service of the
United States government, sought to accomplish its destruction. The
first were revolutionists; they were so regarded generally in Europe,
and he believed they were sincere; he regarded them as having the
spirit of revolutionists. For the second, who held office under, drew
pay from, and were under solemn oath to support, the government, while
they were using the vantage of their official position to violate the
Constitution and disrupt that government, there is but one word, and
that a strong one,--traitors. This was Lincoln's judgment of the men.

Let us now briefly describe the situation. Jefferson Davis, though not
a member of Buchanan's cabinet, was probably the most influential of
the Southerners in Washington. He had been Secretary of War under
Pierce, and it was he who inaugurated the policy of stripping the North
for the purpose of strengthening the military defenses of the South.
This policy was vigorously pursued under his successor.

The only person to call a halt to the treasonable proceedings was
General Winfield Scott. He was residing in New York City, and on
October 29th addressed a letter to President Buchanan containing his
views upon the situation. A day or two later he added supplementary
considerations addressed to the Secretary of War. He set forth, with