notable Union meeting, held at Cooper Institute on
January 28 and addressed by eminent men of all parties, designated
James T. Brady, Cornelius K. Garrison, and Appleton Oaksmith, as
commissioners to confer with delegates to the conventions of these
seceding States "in regard to measures best calculated to restore the
peace and integrity of this Union."[644] Scarcely had the meeting
adjourned, however, before John A. Dix, as secretary of the treasury,
thrilled the country by his fearless and historic dispatch, "If any
one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot."

[Footnote 644: _Appleton's Cyclopaedia_, 1861, p. 520.]

Dix had brought to the Cabinet the training of a soldier and of a
wise, prudent, sagacious statesman of undaunted courage and integrity.
With the exception of his connection with the Barnburners in 1848, he
had been an exponent of the old Democratic traditions, and, next to
Horatio Seymour, did more, probably, than any other man to bring about
a reunion of his party in 1852. Nevertheless, the Southern politicians
never forgave him. President Pierce offered him the position of
secretary of state, and then withdrew it with the promise of sending
him as minister to France; but the South again defeated him. From that
time until his appointment as postmaster of New York, following the
discovery, in May, 1860, of Isaac V. Fowler's colossal defalcation,[645]
Dix had taken little part in politics. If the President, however,
needed a man of his ability and honesty in the crisis precipitated by
Fowler's embezzlement, such characteristics were more in demand, in
January, 1861, at the treasury, when the government was compelled to
pay twelve per cent. for a loan of five millions, while New York State
sevens were taken at an average of 101-1/4.[646] Bankers refused
longer to furnish money until the Cabinet contained men upon whom the
friends of the government and the Union could rely, and Buchanan,
yielding to the inevitable, appointed the man clearly indicated by the
financiers.[647]

[Footnote 645: Fowler, who was appointed postmaster of New York by
President Pierce, began a system of embezzlements in 1855, which
amounted, at the time of his removal, to $155,000.--Report of
Postmaster-General Holt, _Senate Document_, 36th Congress, 1st
Session, XI., 48. "In one year Fowler's bill at the New York Hotel,
which he made the Democratic headquarters, amounted to $25,000. His
brother, John Walke