lways, Lincoln kept his own counsel upon the maturing of a purpose
in his own mind. He listened to every adviser--opening his office doors
without reserve to all sorts and conditions--and silently, anxiously,
struggled with himself for a decision. He watched Virginia; he watched
the North; he listened--and waited. General Scott continued hopeless,
though minor military men gave encouragement. And whom should the
President trust-the tired old General who disagreed with him, or the
eager young men who held views he would like to hold? Many a time he was
to ask himself that question during the years to come.

On March twenty-ninth, he again consulted the Cabinet.(17) A great deal
of water had run under the mill since they gave their opinions on March
sixteenth. The voice of the people was still a bewildering roar, but
out of that roar most of the Cabinet seemed to hear definite words. They
were convinced that the North was veering toward a warlike mood. The
phrase "masterly inactivity," which had been applied to the government's
course admiringly a few weeks before, was now being applied
satirically. Republican extremists were demanding action. A subtle
barometer was the Secretary of the Treasury. Now, as on the sixteenth,
he craftily said something without saying it. After juggling the word
"if," he assumed his "if" to be a fact and concluded, "If war is to
be the result, I perceive no reason why it may not best be begun in
consequence of military resistance to the efforts of the Administration
to sustain troops of the Union, stationed under authority of the
government in a fort of the Union, in the ordinary course of service."

This elaborate equivocation, which had all the force of an assertion,
was Chase all over! Three other ministers agreed with him except that
they did not equivocate. One evaded. Of all those who had stood with
Seward on the sixteenth, only one was still in favor of evacuation.
Seward stood fast. This reversal of the Cabinet's position, jumping as
it did with Lincoln's desires, encouraged him to prepare for action.
But just as he was about to act his diffidence asserted itself. He
authorized the preparation of a relief expedition but withheld sailing
orders until further notice.(18) Oh, for Seward's audacity; for the
ability to do one thing or another and take the consequences!

Seward had not foreseen this turn of events. He had little respect for
the rest of the Cabinet, and had still to discover