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[377] a squadron in New York harbor, they again availed of the patriotic mediation of Justice Campbell on the 7th of April, and through him, even after the fleet was on its way to Charleston with instructions to reinforce peaceably or by force, they received from Mr. Seward the misleading message which has gone into history, ‘Faith as to Sumter fully kept—wait and see.’ On the next day, April 8th, the eyes of the commissioners, which had been blinded for twenty-three days, were opened, and they saw that they had been deliberately duped. Another communication was therefore sent by them on the 9th, addressed to Mr. Seward, which recapitulated the transactions of their official sojourn in Washington, and in indignant language boldly said to the Secretary. ‘had you met these issues with the frankness and manliness with which the undersigned were instructed to present them to you and treat them, the undersigned had not now the melancholy duty to return home and tell their government and their countrymen that their earnest and ceaseless efforts in behalf of peace had been futile and that the government of the United States meant to subjugate them by force of arms. Whatever may be the result, impartial history will record the innocence of the government of the Confederate States and place the responsibility of the blood and mourning that may ensue upon those who have denied the great fundamental doctrine of American liberty that “Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed,” and who have set naval and land armaments in motion to subject the people of one portion of the land to the will of another portion.’ Judge Campbell also discovered his own embarrassed position at the same time the eyes of Crawford and Forsyth were opened. On the 7th of April, Mr. Seward had said to him: ‘Faith as to Sumter fully kept—wait and see.’ On the next morning he read in the newspaper that a messenger from President Lincoln had already
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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