"
Is it to be wondered at that the Southern people were absolutely clear
in their conception of the right to secede if such doctrines were taught
in the North by the highest authority within the party which had elected
Abraham Lincoln?
If his own party leaders were boldly proclaiming such treason to the
Union how could he hope to stem the tide that had set in for its ruin?
The thousands of conservative men North and South who voted for Bell and
Everett demanded peace at any price. An orator in New York at a great
mass meeting dared to say:
"If a revolution of force is to begin it shall be inaugurated at home!
It will be just as brutal to send men to butcher our brothers of the
South as it will be to massacre them in the Northern States."
The business interests of the Northern cities were bitterly and
unanimously arrayed against any attempt to use force against the South.
The city of New York was thoroughly imbued with Secession sentiment, and
its Mayor, through Daniel E. Sickles, one of the members of Congress,
demanded the establishment of a free and independent Municipal State on
the island of Manhattan.
Seward had just written to Charles F. Adams, our minister to England:
"Only an imperial and despotic government could subjugate thoroughly
disaffected and insurrectionary members of the State.
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