Mr. Seward with certain secession leaders, that the
forts, particularly Sumter, if not attacked, should not be reinforced.
Of the plans of Mr. Seward and General Scott, and the understanding
which either of them had with the secessionists, President Lincoln was
not informed; but, while he had a sense of duty and a policy of his own,
he attentively and quietly listened to each and to all others entitled
to give their opinions.

The reports of Major Anderson and the defence of Sumter being military
operations, the President, pursuant to Mr. Seward's advice, referred to
General Scott, and it was supposed by those gentlemen that the President
acquiesced in their conclusions. Nor were they alone in that
supposition, for the President, while cautiously feeling his way,
sounding the minds of others, and gathering information from every
quarter, wisely kept his own counsel and delayed announcing his
determination until the last moment. He was accused of being culpably
slow, when he was wisely deliberate.

When his decision to reinforce Sumter was finally made known, the
Secretary of State and the General-in-Chief were surprised, embarrassed,
and greatly disappointed; for it was an utter negation and defeat of the
policy which they had prescribed. The General, like a good soldier,
quietly and submissively acquiesced; but Mr. Seward, a man of expedients
and some conceit, was unwilling and unprepared to surrender the first
place in the Administration, and virtually publish the fact by an
Executive mandate which upset his promised and preferred arrangements.
It was then that he became aware of two things: first, that neither
himself nor General Scott, nor both combined, were infallible with the
Administration; and second, that the President, with all his suavity and
genial nature, had a mind of his own, and the resolution and
self-reliance to form, and the firmness and independence to execute a
purpose. They had each overestimated the influence of the other with the
President, and underestimated his capacity, will, and self-reliance.
When the Secretary became convinced that he could not alter the
President's determination, he conformed to circumstances, immediately
changed his tactics, and after notifying the authorities at Charleston
that the garrison in Sumter was to be supplied, he took prompt but
secret measures to defeat the expedition by detaching the flagship, and
sending her, with the supplies and reinforcements that had b