y the
Secretary of State, Mr. Toombs, with a speedy adjustment of questions
growing out of the political revolution, upon such terms of amity and
good will as would guarantee the future welfare of the two sections. Mr.
Toombs instructed Mr. Crawford, whom he had especially persuaded to take
this delicate mission, that he should pertinaciously demand the
evacuation of Fort Sumter and the maintenance of the status elsewhere.

Secretary Seward declined to receive the commissioners in any diplomatic
capacity, or even to see them personally. He acknowledged the receipt of
their communication and caused the commissioners to be notified,
pointedly, that he hoped they would not press him to reply at that time.
Mr. Seward was represented as strongly disposed in favor of peace, and
the Confederate Government was semi-officially informed that Fort
Sumter would probably be evacuated in a short time, and all immediate
danger of conflict avoided. There is no doubt that such were Mr.
Seward's intentions. He had cordially agreed with General Winfield Scott
that the possession of Fort Sumter amounted to little in a strategical
way, and that the peace-loving people, North and South, should not be
driven into the war party by premature shock over the provisioning of a
fort that no Federal force could have held for a week. Mr. Lincoln's
Cabinet took this position and, by a vote of five to two, favored the
abandonment of Sumter. The commissioners were apprised of this feeling,
and in a dispatch to Secretary Toombs, on the 20th of March, declared
that there was no change in the status. "If there is any faith in man,"
they wrote, "we may rely on the assurances we have as to the status.
Time is essential to the principal issue of this mission. In the present
posture of affairs, precipitation is war."

On the 26th of March the commissioners, having heard nothing more, asked
the Confederate Secretary whether they should delay longer or demand an
answer at once. Secretary Toombs wired them to wait a reasonable time
and then ask for instructions. He gave them the views of President
Davis, who believed that the counsels of Mr. Seward would prevail in
Washington. "So long as the United States neither declares war nor
establishes peace, it affords the Confederate States the advantage of
both positions, and enables them to make all necessary arrangements for
public defense and the solidification of government more safely,
cheaply, and expeditiously t