Both the
Tennessee and the Cumberland rivers had their mouths open to Northern
frontiers and were navigable in midwinter for transports and gunboats
which could pierce the heart of Tennessee and Alabama.
It is not to be wondered at, therefore, that the first purpose of the
President of the Confederacy was to secure peace by all means consistent
with public honor and the trust imposed on him by the people.
His first official act was the dispatch of Confederate Commissioners to
Washington to treat for peace.
The hope that they would be received with courtesy and consideration was
a reasonable one. The greatest newspapers of the North were outspoken in
their opposition to the use of arms against any State of the Union.
The New York _Tribune_, the creator of Lincoln's party, led in this
opposition to the use of force. The Albany _Argus_ and the New York
_Herald_ were equally emphatic. Governor Seymour of New York boldly
declared in a great mass meeting his unalterable opposition to coercion.
The Detroit _Free Press_ suggested that a fire would be poured into the
rear of any troops raised to coerce a State. It was already known that
Mr. Lincoln would not advocate coercion in his inaugural.
Stephen A. Douglas, leader of the millions of the Northern Democracy,
offered a resolution in the Senate of the United States recommending the
immediate withdrawal of the garrisons from all forts within the limits
of the States which had seceded except those at Key West and Dry
Tortugas needful for coaling stations.
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