He had betrayed that trust.

As Secretary of War he was reported through the northern press to have scattered the little army the country had so that the most of it could be picked up in detail when secession occurred.

About a year before leaving the Cabinet he had removed arms from northern to southern arsenals.

He continued in the Cabinet of President Buchanan until about the 1st of January, 1861, while he was working vigilantly for the establishment of a confederacy made out of United States territory.

Well may he have been afraid to fall into the hands of National troops.