n of the laws within
the States against individuals, and to suppress an unjust rebellion
raised by a conspiracy among them against the Government of the United
States."--Buchanan, in "Mr. Buchanan's Administration," p. 129.

CHAPTER XXIII

THE CHARLESTON CONSPIRATORS

As President Buchanan might have foreseen, his inconsistent message
proved satisfactory to neither friend nor foe. The nation was on the
eve of rebellion and had urgent need of remedial acts, not of
temporizing theories, least of all theories which at the late
Presidential election had been rejected as errors and dangers. The
message served as a topic to initiate debate in Congress; but this
debate, resting only on the main subject long enough to cover the
Chief Magistrate's views and recommendations as a whole, with almost
unanimous expressions of dissent, and even of contempt, passed on to
words of mutual defiance and open declarations of revolutionary
purpose.

The conspirators in the Cabinet had done their work. By the official
declarations of the President of the United States, the Government had
tied its own hands--had resolved and proclaimed the duty and policy of
non-resistance to organized rebellion. Henceforth disunionists,
secessionists, nullifiers, and conspirators of every kind had but to
combine under alleged State action, and through the instrumentalities
of State Legislatures and State conventions cast off without let or
hinderance their Federal obligations by resolves and ordinances. The
semblance of a vote, a few scratches of the pen, a proclamation, and a
new flag, and at once without the existence of a corporal's squad, or
the smell of burnt powder, there would appear on the horizon of
American politics, if not a _de jure_ at least a _de facto_ State!

If there had hitherto been any doubt or hesitation in the minds of the
principal secession leaders of the South, it vanished under the
declared policy of inaction of the Federal Administration. The
President's message was a practical assurance of immunity from arrest
and prosecution for treason. It magnified their grievances,
specifically pointed out a contingent right and duty of revolution,
acknowledged that mere public sentiment might override and nullify
Federal laws, and pointedly bound up Federal authority in narrow legal
and Constitutional restrictions. It was blind as a mole to find
Federal power, but keen-eyed as a lynx to discover Federal impotence.

The leaders