Mr.Buchanan had been willing to receive commissioners from seceding States, so far as to confer with them, even when he declared that he had no power to take any action in the premises.
Mr.Lincoln had advanced beyond the position of Mr.Buchanan when he refused even to give audience to representatives bearing the commission of the Confederate States.
The situation therefore had become strained.

The point had been reached where it was necessary to go forward or go backward; where the Confederacy must assert itself, or the experiment of secession be abandoned.

From all quarters of the seven States came the demand upon the Montgomery government to do something decisive.

A prominent member of the Alabama Legislature told Jefferson Davis that "unless he sprinkled blood in the face of the Southern people they would be back in the old Union in less than ten days." Public meetings were held to urge the government to action.

At Charleston, in answer to a large crowd who came to pay him honor, Roger A.Pryor (whose attractive eloquence has since been used to better ends) told the people that only one thing was necessary to force Virginia into the Southern Confederacy: "to strike a blow." That done, he promised them that "Virginia would secede in less than an hour by Shrewsbury clock." The indifference of Mr.Lincoln's administration to the program of the Southern Confederacy was apparent and not real.