Lincoln had now reached his decision.  The fear that had dogged him all along—­the fear that in evacuating Sumter he would be giving something for nothing, that “it would discourage the friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries”—­was in possession of his will.  One may hazard the guess that this fear would have determined Lincoln sooner than it did, except for the fact that the Secretary of State, despite his faults, was so incomparably the strongest personality in the Cabinet.  We have Lincoln’s own word for the moment and the detail that formed the very end of his period of vacillation.  All along he had intended to relieve and hold Fort Pickens, off the coast of Florida.  To this, Seward saw no objection.  In fact, he urged the relief of Pickens, hoping, as compensation, to get his way about Sumter.  Assuming as he did that the Southern leaders were opportunists, he believed that they would not make an issue over Pickens, merely because it had not in the public eye become a political symbol.  Orders had been sent to a squadron in Southern waters to relieve Pickens.  Early in April news was received at Washington that the attempt had failed due to misunderstandings among the Federal commanders.  Fearful that Pickens was about to fall, reasoning that whatever happened he dared not lose both forts, Lincoln became peremptory on the subject of the Sumter expedition.  This was on April sixth.  On the night of April sixth, Lincoln’s signatures to the unread despatches of the first of April, came home to roost.  And at last, Welles found out what Seward was doing on the day of All Fools.(24)

While the Sumter expedition was being got ready, still without sailing orders, a supplemental expedition was also preparing for the relief of Pickens.  This was the business that Seward was contriving, that Lincoln would not explain, on April first.  The order interfering with the Navy Department was designed to checkmate the titular head of the department.  Furthermore, Seward had had the amazing coolness to assume that Lincoln would certainly accept his Thoughts and that the simple President need not hereinafter be consulted about details.  He aimed to circumvent Welles and to make sure that the Sumter expedition, whether sailing orders were issued or not, should be rendered innocuous.  The warship Powhatan, which was being got ready for sea at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, was intended by Welles for the Sumter expedition.  One of those unread despatches signed by Lincoln, assigned it to the Pickens expedition.  When the sailing orders from Welles were received, the commander of the Sumter fleet claimed the Powhatan.  The Pickens commander refused to give it up.  The latter telegraphed Seward that his expedition was “being retarded and embarrassed” by “conflicting” orders from Welles.  The result was a stormy conference between Seward and Welles which was adjourned to the White House and became a conference with Lincoln.  And then the whole story came out.  Lincoln played