Even if a conflict of arms should be the ultimate result of the Secession movement, its authors and its deluded followers were made to believe that, against a South entirely united, there would be opposed a North hopelessly divided.

They were confident that the Democratic party in the free States held the views expressed in Mr.Buchanan's message.

They had conclusively persuaded themselves that the Democrats, together with a large proportion of the conservative men in the North who had supported Mr.Bell for the Presidency, would oppose an "abolition war," and would prove a distracting and destructive force in the rear of the Union army if it should ever commence its march Southward.
THE SECRETARY OF STATE RESIGNS.
The most alarming feature of the situation to reflecting men in the North was that, so far as known, all the members of Mr.Buchanan's Cabinet approved the destructive doctrines of the message.

But as the position of the President was subjected to examination and criticism by the Northern press, uneasiness was manifested in Administration circles.

It was seen that if the course foreshadowed by Mr.Buchanan should be followed, the authority of the Union would be compelled to retreat before the usurpations of seceding States, and that a powerful government might be quietly overthrown, without striking one blow of resistance, or uttering one word of protest.