"was virtually...irresistible force": FPB to MB, March 12, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
Fox"s ingenious plan: "Result of G.V. Fox"s Plan for Reinforcing Fort Sumpter; In His Own Writing," in Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Vasa Fox, pp. 3839; West, Gideon Welles, p. 98.
pacing up and down as he spoke: Helen Nicolay, "Lincoln"s Cabinet," Abraham Lincoln Quarterly 5 (March 1949), p. 274.
"a.s.suming it to be...to attempt it?": AL to WHS, March 15, 1861, in CW, IV, p. 284.
description of the State Department: Charles Lanman, Bohn"s Hand-Book of Washington (Washington, D.C.: Casimir Bohn, 1856), p. 35; Robert Mills, Guide to the National Executive Offices and the Capitol of the United States (Washington, D.C.: Peter Force Printer, 1841), published work 5007, reel 14, The Papers of Robert Mills, 17811855, ed. Pamela Scott, Scholarly Resources, microfilm edn.
Frederick...a.s.sistant secretary of state: WHS to FAS, March 8, 1861, in Seward, Seward at Washington...18461861, p. 518.
Seward reiterated...emphatic negative reply: WHS to AL, March 15, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"If the attempt...cannot advise it": SPC to AL, March 16, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"the organization of...its experiment": SPC to Alphonso Taft, April 28, 1861, reel 15, Chase Papers.
"it seems to me...affirmative answer": SPC to AL, March 16, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"to do any act...a civil war": Entry for March 16, 1861, in The Diary of Edward Bates, 18591866, p. 179.
"an inevitable...the better": Simon Cameron to AL, March 16, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"impression has gone...untold disaster": GW to AL, March 15, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"it would not...circ.u.mstances": Caleb B. Smith to AL, March 16, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"every new conquest...those who administer it": MB to AL, March 15, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
if he could keep Virginia...give up Sumter: Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, pp. 25152; Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 278.
"utterly ruinous...recognition abroad": AL, "Message to Congress in Special Session," July 4, 1861, in CW, IV, p. 424.
Lincoln sent Fox to talk directly: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. III, p. 389.
half-rations...until April 15: Ari Hoogenboom, "Gustavus Fox and the Relief of Fort Sumter," Civil War History 9 (December 1963), p. 386.
Lincoln sent Stephen Hurlbut..."a fixed fact": Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. III, pp. 39091 (quote p. 391).
"a cypher...a humdrum lawyer": Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 244.
"humiliating...their respective states": WHS to AL, March 28, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"certainly have...show me": SPC to AL, March 28, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"I believe...Whig & Democratic element": FPB to SPC, March 26, 1861, reel 14, Chase Papers.
cabinet meetings set for Tuesdays and Fridays: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 247 (quote); Welles diary, Vol. I, (1960 edn.), pp. 78.
William Russell: Leech, Reveille in Washington, p. 51.
"a subtle, quick...state mysteries": Entry for March 26, 1861, in William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South (Boston: T. O. H. P. Burnham, 1863), p. 34.
"put out his hand..."the Mississippi"": Entry for March 27, 1861, in ibid., p. 39.
"was already seated...agreeable, and sprightly": Ibid., pp. 4142.
"easily...or Reynolds": Belden and Belden, So Fell the Angels, pp. 56.
"In reality...charm and magnetism": Mrs. Charles Walker, quoted in Cincinnati Enquirer, August 1, 1899.
"I shall be glad...me at any time": Cincinnati Enquirer, August 1, 1899; Belden and Belden, So Fell the Angels, p. 4 (italics from Belden and Belden).
"there was a Babel...he is famous": Entry for March 28, 1861, in Russell, My Diary North and South, pp. 43, 44.
"according to recent...slave-holding States": Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. III, p. 394.
"A very oppressive silence...not General": MB to GW, May 17, 1873, reel 25, Welles Papers.
"timid temporizing...you are lost": FPB, Sr., to Martin Van Buren, May 1, 1861, reel 34, Papers of Martin Van Buren, Ma.n.u.script Division, Library of Congress.
Lincoln was unable to sleep: Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. III, p. 395.
"of all the trials...to survive them": Memorandum, July 3, 1861, quoted in Nicolay, With Lincoln in the White House, p. 46.
Lincoln presented..."for his expedition": Nicolay and Hay, Abraham Lincoln, Vol. III, pp. 42933 (quote p. 433).
"would be impossible...of time": JGN to TB, March 31, 1861, container 2, Nicolay Papers.
"it was finally...to go to war": George Harrington, "President Lincoln and His Cabinet: Inside Glimpses," undated, unpublished ma.n.u.script, George R. Harrington Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Mo.
"a peaceful...of the whole north": Frederick L. Roberts to WHS, March 18, 1861, reel 62, Seward Papers.
"Unionists...save the country": Benjamin Ogle Tayloe to WHS, April 3, 1861, reel 63, Seward Papers.
"no conception...equal to the hour": Entries for March 28 (first quote) and March 31, 1861, Charles Francis Adams diary, reel 76.
"two supreme illusions": Frederic Bancroft, "Seward"s Proposition of April 1, 1861, For a Foreign War and a Dictatorship," Harper"s New Monthly Magazine 99 (October 1899), p. 791.
Three commissioners...resorted to an indirect link: Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, pp. 25051.
"would be evacuated...next five days": Ellsworth D. Draper and Joshua L. Rosenbloom, "Secession C: Fort Sumter: The Near Fiasco," p. 9, Case Study, Lincoln and Fort Sumter, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, 1983, author"s collection.
"Some thoughts for the President"s consideration": WHS to AL, April 1, 1861, Lincoln Papers.
"handwriting...hands of any clerk": Seward, Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman and Diplomat, p. 149.
"We are...domestic or foreign": WHS to AL, "Some thoughts for the President"s consideration," April 1, 1861, Lincoln Papers.