(Ga.) _Express_, quoted by Chicago _Times and
Herald_, October 25, 1860.]

[Footnote 886: There was a bare reference to the Montgomery incident
in the Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 12, 1860.]

[Footnote 887: Wilson, Slave Power in America, II, p. 700.]

[Footnote 888: Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 13, 1860;
Philadelphia _Press_, November 28, 1860.]

[Footnote 889: Chicago _Times and Herald_, November 19, 1860.]

[Footnote 890: Stanwood, History of the Presidency, p. 297.]

[Footnote 891: Douglas and Bell polled 135,057 votes more than
Breckinridge; see Greeley, American Conflict, I, p. 328.]

CHAPTER XIX

THE MERGING OF THE PARTISAN IN THE PATRIOT

On the day after the election, the palmetto and lone star flag was
thrown out to the breeze from the office of the Charleston _Mercury_
and hailed with cheers by the populace. "The tea has been thrown
overboard--the revolution of 1860 has been initiated," said that
ebullient journal next morning.[892] On the 10th of November, the
legislature of South Carolina called a convention of the people to
consider the relations of the Commonwealth "with the Northern States
and the government of the United States." The instantaneous approval
of the people of Charleston, the focus of public opinion in the State,
left no doubt that South Carolina would secede from the Union soon
after the 17th of December, when the convention was to assemble. On
November 23d, Major Robert Anderson, in command of Fort Moultrie in
Charleston harbor, urged the War Department to reinforce his garrison
and to occupy also Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney, saying, "I need
not say how anxious I am--indeed, determined, so far as honor will
permit--to avoid collision with the citizens of South Carolina.
Nothing, however, will be better calculated to prevent bloodshed than
our being found in such an attitude that it would be madness and folly
to attack us." "That there is a settled determination," he continued,
"to leave the Union, and to obtain possession of this work, is
apparent to all."[893] No sane man could doubt that a crisis was
imminent. Unhappily, James Buchanan was still President of the United
States.

To those who greeted Judge Douglas upon his return to Washington, he
seemed to be in excellent health, despite rumors to the contrary.[894]
Demonstrative followers insisted upon hearing his voice immediately
upon his arrival, and he was not unwilling to repeat what he had s