him to be as well prepared as he can to either hold or retake the forts as the case may require at and after the inauguration.
Yours, as ever,
On the next day, December 22d, 1860, Mr. Lincoln wrote to Mr. Stephens, of Georgia, a letter marked "For your eye only, in which he asks, Do the people of the South entertain fears that a Republican administration would directly or indirectly interfere with the slaves, or with them about their slaves? If they do I wish to assure you as once a friend and still I hope not an enemy, that there is no cause for fears. (War between the States i, 267.)
Taking up again the proceedings of Congress for brief review, the severe charge made against it by President Buchanan may be recalled that it " deliberately refused throughout the entire session to pass any act or resolution either to preserve the Union by peaceful measures or to furnish the President or his successor with a military force to repel any attack which might be made by the Cotton States." In his opinion the opposing parties instead of presenting the peaceful aspect becoming the representatives of a great confederacy assembled to promote the various interests of their constituency, breathed nothing but mutual defiance. Severe as this indictment is, it was evidently made upon the evidence furnished by speeches and ballots influenced rather by ambitious dreams of party supremacy, than by patriotism. Northern statesmen either did not appreciate the danger or were willing to hazard everything on the chances of war. Yet the charge is too generally sweeping to be accepted as history. Resolutions were offered, other forms of legislation were attempted and there were occasions when the change of a few votes would have stayed secession and restored the Union.
The most prominent of these opportunities were fur-
