through Baltimore, on his way to Washington, to be inaugurated. It was discovered in season, however, to prevent such a great calamity to the country. At all the cities and large towns on his route the people assembled and gave him most enthusiastic receptions. The loyal people of Baltimore had made preparations to testify their respect by a large gathering, procession, &c., while the conspirators had arranged to get up a riot at the depot, on his arrival, during which the President, unarmed and unprotected, was to be stabbed or shot. This plan was discovered by the police, who informed General Scott and senator Seward, and Frederick W. Seward, son of the senator, was immediately despatched to meet the President, and inform him of the danger to his life. He had a public reception at Harrisburg, after which, with a few of his friends, he retired to his private apartments at the hotel about six o'clock in the evening, and as he was known to be weary, was not interrupted. As soon as it was dark, he, in company with Colonel Lamon, unobserved, entered a hack and drove to the Pennsylvania railroad, where a special train was waiting for him. The telegraph wires were in the mean time cut, so that the knowledge of his departure, if discovered or suspected, could not be sent abroad. The train reached Philadelphia at half past ten o'clock that night. They drove immediately across the city

to the Baltimore and Washington depot. The regular night train was just leaving, at a quarter past eleven. They took berths in a sleeping-car, and, without any change, passed directly through Baltimore, and arrived at Washington safely and unexpectedly, at half past six o'clock next morning, being the 23d of February. Thus was an important part of the scheme of the rebels frustrated, and the proposed attempt to seize the capital was prevented by the energy and watchfulness of the friends of the incoming administration.

The conspirators had counted on a divided North, believing there were many friends of their cherished institution here who would join them in their rebellion against the government. Here, again, they made a great mistake; for, when the people of the Free States were aware of the wicked plot to break up the Union, and the extent of it, they arose as one man to meet the emergency; and the Northern men, with Southern sympathies, found themselves in a most disgraceful and hopeless minority. And the plan to invade the Northern States had to be abandoned, while General Scott, contrary to the wish of President Buchanan, who was completely under control of the slave power, had gathered about three hundred troops in and about the capital for its protection.

On the retirement of the traitor Floyd from the

War Department, Hon. Joseph Holt, of Kentucky, was appointed to fill the place. He coöperated with General Scott in the adoption of vigorous measures for the protection of Washington from the menaced capture by the rebels, which greatly alarmed them. On the 18th of February, Mr. Holt addressed a letter to President Buchanan, in reply to a resolution of the House of Representatives, inquiring into the state of the defenses of Washington, from which the following extracts are made:

"The scope of the question submitted by the House will be sufficiently met by dealing with the facts as they exist, irrespective of the cause from which they have proceeded. That revolution has been distinguished by a boldness and completeness of success rarely equalled in the history of civil commotions. Its overthrow of the Federal authority has not only been sudden and widespread, but has been marked by excesses which have alarmed all, and been sources of profound humiliation to a large portion of the American people. Its history is a history of surprises and treacheries, and ruthless spoliations. The forts of the United States have been captured and garrisoned, and hostile flags unfurled upon their ramparts. Its arsenals have been seized, and the vast amount of public arms they contained appropriated to the use of the captors; while more than half a million of dollars, found in the

mint at New Orleans, have been unscrupulously applied to replenish the coffers of Louisiana. Officers in command of revenue cutters of the United States have been prevailed on to violate their trusts, and surrender the property in their charge; and instead of being branded for their crimes, they and the vessels they betrayed have been cordially received into the service of the seceded States."

After reiterating the acts of the conspirators, the information that had reached his department upon the subject, the necessity for immediate and decided action, and telling the President what steps he had taken to save the government from humiliation and disgrace, Secretary Holt closes his letter as follows:

"Already this display of life and loyalty on the part of your administration has produced the happiest effects. Public confidence has been restored, and the feverish apprehension, which it was so mortifying to contemplate, has been banished. Whatever may have been the machinations of deluded, lawless men, the execution of their purposes has been suspended, if not altogether abandoned, in view of preparations, which announce more impressively than words, that this administration is alike able and resolved to transfer in peace to the President elect the authority that, under the Constitution, belongs to him. To those, if such there be, who desire the destruction of the re

public, the presence of these troops is necessarily offensive. But those who sincerely love our institutions, cannot fail to rejoice that, by this timely precaution, they have probably escaped the deep dishonor which they must have suffered had the capital, like the forts and arsenals of the South, fallen into the hands of revolutionists, who have found this great government weak, only because, in the exhaustless beneficence of its spirit, it has refused to strike, even in its own defence, lest it should wound the aggressors."

One Breshwood, a Virginian, who was in command of the revenue-cutter McLelland, infamously surrendered his vessel to the rebels at New Orleans; and Captain Morrison surrendered the revenue cutter Cass to the rebels at Mobile. The rebels seized Fort Morgan at Mobile, and called upon Lieutenant John N. Maffit, who was in command of the Crusader, which was exposed to the fire of the fort, to surrender his vessel to the "Alabama Navy." The noble lieutenant replied, “I may be overpowered; but in that event, what will be left of the Crusader will not be worth taking." He saved his vessel, which afterwards rendered signal service in the Gulf.

On the 3d of February, 1861, Lieutenant J. H. Hamilton, of South Carolina, ordered Captain Porter to surrender his ship to the rebels. The following is Captain Porter's noble reply: "You, sir, have called