The
condition of affairs at these forts--especially at Fort Sumter--was a
subject of anxiety with the friends of peace, and the hope of settling
by negotiation the questions involved in their occupation had been one
of the most urgent motives for the prompt dispatch of the Commissioners
to Washington.
The letter of the Commissioners to Mr. Seward was written, as we have
seen, on the 12th of March. The oral message, above mentioned, was
obtained and communicated to the Commissioners through the agency of two
Judges of the Supreme Court of the United States--Justices Nelson, of
New York, and Campbell, of Alabama. On the 15th of March, according to
the statement of Judge Campbell,[154] Mr. Justice Nelson visited the
Secretaries of State and of the Treasury and the Attorney-General
(Messrs. Seward, Chase, and Bates), to dissuade them from undertaking to
put in execution any policy of coercion. "During the term of the Supreme
Court he had very carefully examined the laws of the United States to
enable him to attain his conclusions, and from time to time he had
consulted the Chief Justice [Taney] upon the questions which his
examination had suggested. His conclusion was that, without very serious
violations of Constitution and statutes, coercion could not be
successfully effected by the executive department. I had made [continues
Judge Campbell] a similar examination, and I concurred in his
conclusions and opinions.
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