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whichever way determined it would prevent unauthorized action being taken.
For, if the commissioners were acquitted on the ground that they were ambassadors from a sovereign power, then there was nothing to be done except to treat other secession commissioners accordingly.
It was known at the time that such a proposition had been made, and my recollection is that no other commissioners ever came to the President to propose such an act of treason.
I thought then, and still believe, that the question of secession could have been settled then in a manner that would have saved life and treasure incalculable.
No lawyer with whom I have discussed the question since, has suggested a legal objection to the plan.1
I was well acquainted with Mr. Orr, one of the commissioners of South Carolina, and I stated to him my proposition as I had laid it before the President.
Orr replied: “Why, you would not have hanged us, would you?”
and I answered: “No; not unless you had been convicted.”
I was not alarmed at this condition of things, because, as I have said, I had foreseen it. But I wished to know if there was any hope
1 After this was written it occurred to me whether I ought, in justice to myself, to state this very advanced position which I had taken with the President, and I knew of no person living who was aware of the fact by whom, if it were denied, it could be substantiated. With some misgivings it was put in type. Afterwards when travelling in a car with General John Cochrane, of New York, a very distinguished Tammany politician and a warm friend of General McClellan, and chatting over matters which were of interest when we were political friends, he said to me: “I suppose you are not aware that I witnessed a very remarkable scene between yourself and President Buchanan in the latter part of December, 1860, when I met you in Washington.” I said I did not know that he had seen anything between Mr. Buchanan and myself. He answered that he had, and added: “You told me that you intended to advise Buchanan to treat Barnwell, Adams, and Orr,--the commissioners appointed by South Carolina to present the ordinance of secession to the President,--as traitors guilty of an overt act of treason; and that another audience had been granted you by the President for Monday morning at ten o'clock for that purpose. I determined to be there; and going up soon after ten o'clock I got a sight of that interview and it impressed itself upon my mind very strongly, and I have told it many times since to different friends.” “Ah,” I said, “I did not know that you knew anything about it.” “Yes, General, I did.” I said to him: “Will you kindly write me a note of your remembrance of the scene, as I wish to preserve some evidence of it?” “I will if you desire it,” said he. In a few days I received a note from the general, from which I extract the following:--
A. M. Thayer and Co. 1892.
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