The Albany Evening Journal charged that Seward's appointment by Lincoln as Secretary of State was made “against the persistent protestations of those who concurred with the Tribune.” The Tribune replied that it “promptly and heartily approved” of Seward's selection, and let the new President know that its editor would not accept the Postmaster-Generalship.1
The announcement of Lincoln's election was followed by instant threats of secession on the part of the South, and by demands for concessions to the slave power by many interests-business and political — in the North. Greeley met this situation by taking the ground, in the Tribune of December 17, 1860, that, if the right of the colonists to rebel against Great Britain was justified by the “consent of the governed” clause of the Declaration of Independence, that clause would justify “the secession of five million of Southrons from the Federal Union in 1861.” Jefferson's principle might be “pushed to extreme and baleful consequences” ; but, while he would not uphold the secession of Governor's Island from New York, if seven or
