indication and
maintenance of the rights, interest, honor, and safety of the
South. Florida may be unwilling to subject herself to the charge
of temerity or immodesty by leading off, but will most assuredly
cooperate with or follow the lead of any single Cotton State which
may secede. Whatever doubts I may have entertained upon this
subject have been entirely dissipated by the recent elections in
this State.

Florida will most unquestionably call a convention as soon as it
is ascertained that a majority of the electors favor the election
of Lincoln, to meet most likely upon a day to be suggested by some
other State.

I leave to-day for the capital, and will write you soon after my
arrival, but would be pleased in the mean time to hear from you at
your earliest convenience.

If there is sufficient manliness at the South to strike for our
rights, honor, and safety, in God's name let it be done before the
inauguration of Lincoln.

With high regard, I am yours, etc.,

M.S. PERRY

Direct to Tallahassee.

P.S. I have written General Gist at Union C.H.

Two agencies have thus far been described as engaged in the work of
fomenting the rebellion: the first, secret societies of individuals,
like "The 1860 Association," designed to excite the masses and create
public sentiment; the second, a secret league of Southern governors
and other State functionaries, whose mission it became to employ the
governmental machinery of States in furtherance of the plot. These,
though formidable and dangerous, would probably have failed, either
singly or combined, had they not been assisted by a third of still
greater efficacy and certainty. This was nothing less than a conspiracy
in the very bosom of the National Administration at Washington,
embracing many United States Senators, Representatives in Congress,
three members of the President's Cabinet, and numerous subordinate
officials in the several Executive departments. The special work
which this powerful central cabal undertook by common consent, and
successfully accomplished, was to divert Federal arms and forts to the
use of the rebellion, and to protect and shield the revolt from any
adverse influence, or preventive or destructive action of the general
Government.

----------
[1] As an evidence of the disunion combination which lay like smoldering
embers under the surface of Southern politics,