..And if satisfactory explanations were not received from Spain and France,"would convene Congress and declare war against them."His purpose,he said,was to change the question before the public,from one upon slavery,or about slavery,for a question upon Union or Disunion.Sumter was to be evacuated "as a safe means for changing the issue,"but at the same time,preparations were to be made for a blockade of the Southern coast.[20]This extraordinary document administered mild but firm correction to the President.He was told that he had no policy,although under the circumstances,this was "not culpable";that there must be a single head to the government;that the President,if not equal to the task,should devolve it upon some member of the Cabinet.The Thoughts closed with these words,"I neither seek to evade nor assume responsibility."Like Seward's previous move,when he sent Weed to Springfield,this other brought Lincoln to a point of crisis.For the second time he must render a decision that would turn the scale,that would have for his country the force of destiny.
In one respect he did not hesitate.The most essential part of the Thoughts was the predatory spirit.This clashed with Lincoln's character.Serene unscrupulousness met unwavering integrity.Here was one of those subjects on which Lincoln was not asking advice.As to ways and means,he was pliable to a degree in the hands of richer and wider experience;as to principles,he was a rock.Seward's whole scheme of aggrandizement,his magnificent piracy,was calmly waved aside as a thing of no concern.The most striking characteristic of Lincoln's reply was its dignity.He did not,indeed,lay bare his purposes.He was content to point out certain inconsistencies in Seward's argument;to protest that whatever action might be taken with regard to the single fortress,Sumter,the question before the public could not be changed by that one event;and to say that while he expected advice from all his Cabinet,he was none the less President,and in last resort he would himself direct the policy of the government.[21]
Only a strong man could have put up with the patronizing condescension of the Thoughts and betrayed no irritation.Not a word in Lincoln's reply gives the least hint that condescension had been displayed.He is wholly unruffled,distant,objective.There is also a quiet tone of finality,almost the tone one might use in gently but firmly correcting a child.The Olympian impertinence of the Thoughts had struck out of Lincoln the first flash of that approaching masterfulness by means of which he was to ride out successfully such furious storms.Seward was too much the man of the world not to see what had happened.He never touched upon the Thoughts again.Nor did Lincoln.The incident was secret until Lincoln's secretaries twenty-five years afterward published it to the world.
But Lincoln's lofty dignity on the first of April was of a moment only.When the Secretary of the Navy,Gideon Welles,that same day called on him in his offices,he was the easy-going,jovial Lincoln who was always ready half-humorously to take reproof from subordinates--as was evinced by his greeting to the Secretary.Looking up from his writing,he said cheerfully,"What have I done wrong?"[22]Gideon Welles was a pugnacious man,and at that moment an angry man.There can be little doubt that his lips were tightly shut,that a stern frown darkened his brows.Grimly conscientious was Gideon Welles,likewise prosaic;a masterpiece of literalness,the very opposite in almost every respect of the Secretary of State whom he cordially detested.That he had already found occasion to protest against the President's careless mode of conducting business may be guessed--correctly--from the way he was received.Doubtless the very cordiality,the whimsical admission of loose methods,irritated the austere Secretary.
Welles had in his hand a communication dated that same day and signed by the President,making radical changes in the program of the Navy Department.He had come to protest.
"The President,"said Welles,"expressed as much surprise as Ifelt,that he had sent me such a document.He said that Mr.
Seward with two or three young men had been there during the day on a subject which he (Seward)had in hand and which he had been some time maturing;that it was Seward's specialty,to which he,the President,had yielded,but as it involved considerable details,he had left Mr.Seward to prepare the necessary papers.These papers he had signed,many of them without reading,for he had not time,and if he could not trust the Secretary of State,he knew not whom he could trust.Iasked who were associated with Mr.Seward.'No one,'said the President,'but these young men who were here as clerks to write down his plans and orders.'Most of the work was done,he said,in the other room.
"The President reiterated that they [the changes in the Navy]
were not his instructions,though signed by him;that the paper was an improper one;that he wished me to give it no more consideration than I thought proper;to treat it as cancelled,or as if it had never been written.I could get no satisfactory explanation from the President of the origin of this strange interference which mystified him and which he censured and condemned more severely than myself....Although very much disturbed by the disclosure,he was anxious to avoid difficulty,and to shield Mr.Seward,took to himself the whole blame.
Thus Lincoln began a role that he never afterward abandoned.
It was the role of scapegoat Whatever went wrong anywhere could always be loaded upon the President.He appeared to consider it a part of his duty to be the scapegoat for the whole Administration.It was his way of maintaining trust,courage,efficiency,among his subordinates.
Of those papers which he had signed without reading on April first,Lincoln was to hear again in still more surprising fashion six days thereafter.
