andon a purpose
deliberately matured and definitely announced, except under absolute
necessity. To determine now this question of necessity he sent an
emissary to Sumter and another to Charleston, and meantime stayed
offensive action on the part of the Confederates by authorizing Seward
to give assurance through Judge Campbell that no provisioning or
reinforcement should be attempted without warning. Thus he secured, or
continued, a sort of truce, irregular and informal, but practical.
Meantime he was encouraged by the earnest propositions of Mr. G.V. Fox,
until lately an officer of the navy, who was ready to undertake the
relief of the fort. Eager discussions ensued, wherein naval men backed
the project of Mr. Fox, and army men condemned it. Such difference of
expert opinion was trying, for the problem was of a kind which Mr.
Lincoln's previous experience in life did not make it easy for him to
solve with any confidence in the correctness of his own judgment.

Amid this puzzlement day after day glided by, and the question remained
unsettled. Yet during this lapse of time sentiment was ripening, and
perhaps this was the real purpose of Lincoln's patient waiting. On March
29 his ministers again put their opinions in writing, and now Chase,
Welles, and Blair favored an effort at reinforcement; Bates modified his
previous opposition so far as to say that the time had come either to
evacuate or relieve the fort; Smith favored evacuation, but only on the
ground of military necessity; and Seward alone advocated evacuation in
part on the ground of policy; he deemed it unwise to "provoke a civil
war," especially "in rescue of an untenable position."

Was it courtesy or curiosity that induced the President to sit and
listen to this warm debate between his chosen advisers? They would have
been angry had they known that they were bringing their counsel to a
chief who had already made his decision. They did not yet know that upon
every occasion of great importance Lincoln would make up his mind for
and by himself, yet would not announce his decision, or save his
counselors the trouble of counseling, until such time as he should see
fit to act. So in this instance he had already, the day before the
meeting of the cabinet, directed Fox to draw up an order for such ships,
men, and supplies as he would require, and when the meeting broke up he
at once issued formal orders to the secretaries of the navy and of war
to enter upon the nec