Abraham Lincoln : a history : the full and authorized record of his private life and public career . on and elsewhere in the South; but sofar neither the speeches nor bonfires nor palmettoflags, nor even the secession message of GovernorGist or the Convention bill of the South CarolinaLegislature, constituted a statutory offense. Fortwelve years the threat of disunion had been inthe mouths of the Southern slavery extremists andtheir Northern allies the most potent and formid-able weapon of national politics. It was declaimedon the stump, elaborated in Congressional speeches,set out in national
Abraham Lincoln : a history : the full and authorized record of his private life and public career . on and elsewhere in the South; but sofar neither the speeches nor bonfires nor palmettoflags, nor even the secession message of GovernorGist or the Convention bill of the South CarolinaLegislature, constituted a statutory offense. Fortwelve years the threat of disunion had been inthe mouths of the Southern slavery extremists andtheir Northern allies the most potent and formid-able weapon of national politics. It was declaimedon the stump, elaborated in Congressional speeches,set out in national platforms, and paraded as asolemn warning in executive messages. Mr. Buchanan had profited by the disunion cryboth as politician and functionary; and now whendisunion came in a practical and undisguised shapehe was to a degree powerless to oppose it, becausehe was disarmed by his own words and his ownacts. The disunionists were his partisans, hisfriends, and confidential counselors; they consti-tuted a remnant of the once proud and successfulparty which, by his compliance and cooperation in 336. GENERAL ROBERT ANDERSON. MAJOK ANDERSON 337 their interest, he had disrupted and defeated. Their chap. hitherto had been the policy uponwhich he had staked the success or failure of hisAdministration, so that in addition to every othertie he was bound to them by the common sorrowof political disaster. Being in such intimate relations and intercoursewith the leaders of the Breckinridge wing of theDemocratic party during the progress of the Presi-dential canvass, and that party being made up soexclusively of the extreme Southern Democrats,the President must have had constant informationof the progress and development of the disunionsentiment and purpose in the South. He was notrestricted as the other parties and the general pub-lic were to imperfect reports and doubtful rumorscurrent in the newspapers. But in addition there now came to him an officialwarning which it was a g
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