States, which would induce the seceded States to return? These
questions were clearly absurd, but they were as clearly natural, and they
greatly exercised Seward. Disappointed at not being President and
equally disturbed at the prospect of civil war, but still inclined to
large and sanguine hopes, he was rather anxious to take things out of
Lincoln's hands and very anxious to serve his country as the great
peacemaker. Indirect negotiations now took place between him and the
Southern Commissioners, who of course could not be officially recognised,
through the medium of two Supreme Court Judges, especially one Campbell,
who was then in Washington. Seward was quite loyal to Lincoln and told
him in a general way what he was doing; he was also candid with Campbell
and his friends, and explained to them his lack of authority, but he
talked freely and rashly of what he hoped to bring about. Lincoln gave
Seward some proper cautions and left him all proper freedom; but it is
possible that he once told Douglas that he intended, at that moment, to
evacuate Fort Sumter. The upshot of the matter is that the decision of
the Government was delayed by negotiations which, as it ought to have
known, could come to nothing, and that the Southern Government and the
Commissioners, after they had got home, thought they had been deceived in
these negotiations.

Discussions were still proceeding as to Fort Sumter when a fresh
difficulty arose for Lincoln, but one which enabled him to become
henceforth master in his Cabinet. The strain of Seward's position upon a
man inclined to be vain and weak can easily be imagined, but the sudden
vagary in which it now resulted was surprising. Upon April 1 he sent to
Lincoln "Some Thoughts for the President's Consideration." In this
paper, after deploring what he described as the lack of any policy so
far, and defining, in a way that does not matter, his attitude as to the
forts in the South, he proceeded thus: "I would demand explanations from
Great Britain and Russia, and send agents into Canada, Mexico, and
Central America, to raise a vigorous spirit of independence on this
continent against European intervention, and if satisfactory explanations
are not received from Spain and France, would convene Congress and
declare war against them." In other words, Seward would seek to end all
domestic dissensions by suddenly creating out of nothing a dazzling
foreign policy. But this was not the only poi