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Ferry would be seized, and held for the purpose of opposing the
Government.
Already
Judge A. H. Handy, a commissioner from
Mississippi, had visited
Maryland for the purpose of engaging that State in the
Virginia scheme of seizing the
National Capital, and preventing the inauguration of
Mr. Lincoln.
The conspirators were so confident of the success of their schemes, that one of the leading Southern
Senators, then in Congress, said:--“
Mr. Lincoln will not dare to come to
Washington after the expiration of the term of
Mr. Buchanan.
This city will be seized and occupied as the capital of the Southern Confederacy, and
Mr. Lincoln will be compelled to take his oath of office in
Philadelphia or in New York.”
1 And the veteran editor,
Duff Green, the friend and confidential co-worker with
Calhoun when the latter quarreled with
President Jackson, and who naturally espoused the cause of the secessionists, told
Joseph C. Lewis, of
Washington, while under the half-finished dome of the
Capitol, early in 1861:--“We intend to take possession of the Army and Navy, and of the archives of the
Government; not allow the electoral votes to be counted; proclaim
Buchanan provisional
President, if he will do as we wish, and if not, choose another; seize the
Harper's Ferry Arsenal and the
Norfolk Navy Yard simultaneously, and sending armed men down from the former, and armed vessels up from the latter, take possession of
Washington, and establish a new government.”
There is ample evidence that the seizure of Washington City, the Government buildings, and the archives of the nation, was an original and capital feature in the plan of the conspirators; and their assertions, after they were foiled in this, that they sought only for “independence,” and that all they asked was “to be let alone,” was the most transparent hypocrisy.
They aimed at revolution at first, and disunion afterwards.
They had assurances, they believed, that the President would not interfere with their measures.
Should Congress pass a Force Bill, he was pledged by the declarations of his annual Message to withhold his signature from it; and most of them were satisfied that they might, during the next seventy days, establish their “Southern Confederacy,” and secure to it the possession of the Capital, without governmental interposition.
Yet all were not satisfied.
Some vigilant South Carolina spies in Washington would not trust the President.
One of them, signing only the name of “Charles,” in a letter to Rhett, the editor of the Charleston Mercury, said: “I know all that has been done here, but depend upon nothing that Mr. Buchanan promises.
He will cheat us ”