"But," said his Southern friends, "the North can't fight; we have too
many allies there."

"You have friends," said Butler, "in the North, who will stand by you so
long as you fight your battles in the Union; but the moment you fire on
the flag the Northern people will be a unit against you. And you may be
assured, if war comes, _slavery ends_."

Butler was far too sagacious a man not to perceive that war was
inevitable, and too sturdy and patriotic not to resist it. With a
boldness and frankness which have shown themselves through his whole
political career, he went to Buchanan; he advised and begged him to
arrest the commissioners, with whom he was then parleying, and to have
them tried for treason! Such advice it was as characteristic of Benjamin
F. Butler to give as it was of President Buchanan to disregard.


II.


But the adoption of secession ordinances and the assumption of
independent authority was not enough for the Cotton Republic. Though
they hoped to evade civil war, still they never forgot for a moment that
a conflict was not only possible, but even probable. Their prudence told
them that they ought to prepare for such an emergency by at once taking
possession of all the arms and military forts within their borders.

At this time there was a large navy-yard at Pensacola, Florida; from
twelve to fifteen harbor forts along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts;
half-a-dozen arsenals, stocked with an aggregate of one hundred and