Thurlow Weed_, Vol. 2,
pp. 307, 308.]

Seward, who had now been in Washington several days, had not broken
silence even to his Republican colleagues in the Senate, and "to smoke
him out," as one of them expressed it, a caucus was called. But it
failed of its purpose. "Its real object," he wrote Weed, "was to find
out whether I authorised the _Evening Journal_, _Times_, and _Courier_
articles. I told them they would know what I think and what I propose
when I do myself. The Republican party to-day is as uncompromising as
the secessionists in South Carolina. A month hence each may come to
think that moderation is wiser."[669]

[Footnote 669: _Ibid._, Vol. 2, p. 308.]

It is not easy to determine from his correspondence just what was in
Seward's mind from the first to the thirteenth of December, but it is
plain that he was greatly disturbed. Nothing seemed to please him.
Weed's articles perplexed[670] him; his colleagues distrusted[671]
him; the debates in the Senate were hasty and feeble;[672] few had any
courage or confidence in the Union;[673] and the action of the Sumner
radicals annoyed him.[674] Rhodes, the historian, says he was
wavering.[675] He was certainly waiting,--probably to hear from
Lincoln; but while he waited his epigrammatic criticism of Buchanan's
message, which he wrote his wife on December 5, got into the
newspapers and struck a popular note. "The message shows
conclusively," he said, "that it is the duty of the President to
execute the laws--unless somebody opposes him; and that no State has a
right to go out of the Union--unless it wants to."[676]

[Footnote 670: "Weed's articles have brought perplexities about me
which he, with all his astuteness, did not foresee."--F.W. Seward,
_Life of W.H. Seward_, Vol. 2, p. 480.]

[Footnote 671: "Our senators agree with me to practise reticence and
kindness. But others fear that I will figure, and so interfere and
derange all."--_Ibid._, p. 480.]

[Footnote 672: "The debates in the Senate are hasty, feeble,
inconclusive and unsatisfactory; presumptuous on the part of the
ill-tempered South; feeble and frivolous on the part of the
North."--_Ibid._, p. 481.]

[Footnote 673: "All is apprehension about the Southern demonstrations.
No one has any system, few any courage, or confidence in the Union, in
this emergency."--_Ibid._, p. 478.]

[Footnote 674: "Charles Sumner's lecture in New York brought a
'Barnburner' or Buffalo party around him. They gave ni