No disavowal of his action, no apology nor explanation, was ever
made. Politically and legally, the President is unquestionably
responsible in all cases for the action of any member of his Cabinet,
and in this case it is as preposterous to attempt to dissever from him
the moral, as it would be impossible to relieve him of the legal,
responsibility that rests upon the Government of the United States for
the systematic series of frauds perpetrated by its authority.
On the other hand, Mr. Seward, throughout the whole negotiation, was
fully informed of the views of his colleagues in the Cabinet and of the
President. Whatever his real hopes or purposes may have been in the
beginning, it is positively certain that long before the end, and while
still reiterating his assurances that the garrison would be withdrawn,
he knew that it had been _determined_, and that active preparations were
in progress, to strengthen it.
Mr. Gideon Welles, who was Secretary of the Navy in Mr. Lincoln's
Cabinet, gives the following account of one of the transactions of the
period:
"One evening in the latter part of the month of March, there was
a small gathering at the Executive Mansion, while the Sumter
question was still pending. The members of the Cabinet were soon
individually and quietly invited to the council-chamber, where,
as soon as assembled, the President informed them he had just
been advised by General Scott that it was expedient to evacuate
Fort Pickens, as well as Fort Sumter, which last was assumed at
military headquarters to be a determined fact, in conformity
with the views of Secretary Seward and the General-in-Chief.
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