if the government determines to keep command of the harbor.[2]


In the same letter he also expressed the opinion that the people of
South Carolina intended to seize all the forts in Charleston harbor by
force of arms as soon as their ordinance of secession was published.

The faith of Secretary Floyd must, indeed, have been shaken while
reading such words! He might have ordered the removal of the writer of
them had not a rather unexpected incident now occurred to divert his
attention.

The Secretary of State, the venerable Lewis Cass of Michigan, at once
denounced submission to the conspiracy as treasonable, and insisted that
Major Anderson's demand for reinforcements should be granted. This
episode was a political bomb-shell in the camp of the enemy. The
President became a trifle alarmed, and sent for Floyd. A conference
between the President and the Secretary was held, when the latter
"pooh-poohed" the actual danger. "The South Carolinians," said he, "are
honorable gentlemen. They would scorn to take the forts. They must not
be Irritated." But the President evinced restlessness; he may have
suspected the motive of his cabinet officer. Floyd, too, grew restless;
the obstinacy of the executive alarmed him. He was only too glad to
consent to the suggestion that General Scott should be consulted.

General Scott rose from his sick-bed in New York, and hastened to
Washington, on the 12th of December. On the 13th he had an interview
with the President, in which he urged that three hundred men be sent to
reinforce Major Anderson at Fort Moultrie. The President declined, on
the ground, first, that Major Anderson was fully instructed what to do