. 28, 1860. W.R. Vol.
I., p. 580.

[2] In a Senate speech, January 10, 1861, "Globe," page 307, Jefferson
Davis, commenting on these orders, while admitting that they empowered
Major Anderson to go from one post to another, said, "Though his
orders were not so designed, as I am assured."

CHAPTER XXV

THE RETIREMENT OF CASS

Thus far Mr. Buchanan's policy of conciliation through concession had
brought him nothing but disappointment, and whatever faint hope his
loyal Cabinet advisers may have had at the outset in its saving
efficacy was by practical experiment utterly destroyed. The
non-coercion doctrine had been adopted as early as November 20, in
the Attorney-General's opinion of that date. The fact was rumored,
not only in the political circles of the capital, but in the chief
newspapers of the country; and the three secession members of the
Cabinet had doubtless communicated it confidentially to all their
prominent and influential confederates. Since that time South Carolina
had continued her preparation for secession with unremitting industry;
Mississippi had authorized a convention and appointed commissioners
to visit all the slave-States and propagate disunion, among them Mr.
Thompson, Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, who afterwards
exercised this insurrectionary function while yet remaining in the
Cabinet; the North Carolina Legislature had postponed the election of
United States Senator; Florida had passed a convention bill; Georgia
had instituted legislative proceedings to bring about a conference of
the Southern States at Atlanta; both houses of the National Congress
had rung with secession speeches, while frequent caucuses of the
conspirators took place at Washington.

[Sidenote] Cobb to Buchanan, "Washington Constitution," Dec. 12,
1860.

Mr. Buchanan's truce with the South Carolina Representatives had as
little effect in arresting the secession intrigues as his non-coercion
doctrine officially announced in the annual message. On the evening of
the day (December 8)[1] on which he received the South Carolina
pledge, the Secretary of the Treasury, Howell Cobb, of Georgia,
tendered his resignation, announcing in the same letter his intention
to embark in the active work of disunion. It had been generally
understood that the non-coercion theories of the message were adopted
by the President in deference to the wishes and under the influence of
Cobb, Thompson, and Floyd, and undoubtedly