nty of all, would automatically drive Virginia out of the
Union.(23)

Lincoln had now reached his decision. The fear that had dogged him all
along--the fear that in evacuating Sumter he would be giving something
for nothing, that "it would discourage the friends of the Union,
embolden its adversaries"--was in possession of his will. One may hazard
the guess that this fear would have determined Lincoln sooner than
it did, except for the fact that the Secretary of State, despite his
faults, was so incomparably the strongest personality in the Cabinet.
We have Lincoln's own word for the moment and the detail that formed
the very end of his period of vacillation. All along he had intended to
relieve and hold Fort Pickens, off the coast of Florida. To this, Seward
saw no objection. In fact, he urged the relief of Pickens, hoping, as
compensation, to get his way about Sumter. Assuming as he did that the
Southern leaders were opportunists, he believed that they would not
make an issue over Pickens, merely because it had not in the public
eye become a political symbol. Orders had been sent to a squadron in
Southern waters to relieve Pickens. Early in April news was received at
Washington that the attempt had failed due to misunderstandings
among the Federal commanders. Fearful that Pickens was about to fall,
reasoning that whatever happened he dared not lose both forts, Lincoln
became peremptory on the subject of the Sumter expedition. This was on
April sixth. On the night of April sixth, Lincoln's signatures to the
unread despatches of the first of April, came home to roost. And
at last, Welles found out what Seward was doing on the day of All
Fools.(24)

While the Sumter expedition was being got ready, still without sailing
orders, a supplemental expedition was also preparing for the relief of
Pickens. This was the business that Seward was contriving, that Lincoln
would not explain, on April first. The order interfering with the Navy
Department was designed to checkmate the titular head of the department.
Furthermore, Seward had had the amazing coolness to assume that Lincoln
would certainly accept his Thoughts and that the simple President need
not hereinafter be consulted about details. He aimed to circumvent
Welles and to make sure that the Sumter expedition, whether sailing
orders were issued or not, should be rendered innocuous. The warship
Powhatan, which was being got ready for sea at the Brooklyn Navy Yard,
was inte