r Fowler, clerk to Surrogate Tucker, subsequently
absconded with $31,079, belonging to orphans and others."--Gustavus
Myers, _History of Tammany Hall_, pp. 232, 233.]

[Footnote 646: John Jay Knox, _United States Notes_, p. 76.]

[Footnote 647: New York _Evening Post_, December 26, 1860.

"On Tuesday, January 8, my father received a dispatch from the
President to come at once to the White House. He went immediately and
was offered the War Department. This he declined, informing Mr.
Buchanan, as had been agreed upon, that at that moment he could be of
no service to him in any position except that of the Treasury
Department, and that he would accept no other post. The President
asked for time. The following day he had Mr. Philip Thomas's
resignation in his hand, and sent General Dix's name to the Senate. It
was instantly confirmed."--Morgan Dix, _Memoirs of John A. Dix_, Vol.
1, p. 362.]

Although now sixty-three years old, with the energy and pluck of his
soldier days, Dix had no ambition to be in advance of his party. He
favoured the Crittenden compromise, advocated Southern rights under
the limits of the Constitution, and wrote to leaders in the South with
the familiarity of an old friend. "I recall occasions," wrote his son,
"when my father spoke to me on the questions of the day, disclosing
the grave trouble that possessed his thoughts. On one such occasion he
referred to the possibility that New York might become a free city,
entirely independent, in case of a general breakup;[648] not that he
advocated the idea, but he placed it in the category of possibilities.
It was his opinion that a separation, if sought by the South through
peaceful means alone, must be conceded by the North, as an evil less
than that of war.... Above all else, however, next to God, he loved
the country and the flag. He did everything in his power to avert the
final catastrophe. But when the question was reduced to that simple,
lucid proposition presented by the leaders of secession, he had but
one answer, and gave it with an emphasis and in words which were as
lightning coming out of the east and shining even unto the west."[649]

[Footnote 648: The plan advocated by Fernando Wood in his annual
message to the Common Council, referred to on p. 348.]

[Footnote 649: Morgan Dix, _Memoirs of John A. Dix_, Vol. 1, pp. 336,
343.]

From the day of his appointment to the Treasury to the end of the
Administration, Dix resided at the White Hou