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 Rh Sumter fully kept; wait and see," when he must have known that nothing was further from the truth, and as events then transpiring conclusively showed. Judge Campbell wrote two letters to Mr. Seward, setting out all the details of the deception practiced on the Commissioners through him and Justice Nelson, and asked an explanation of his conduct. But no explanation was ever given, simply because there was none that could he given. And Mr. Seward's own memorandum, made by him at the time, shows that he was acting all through this matter with the knowledge and approval of Mr. Lincoln. History affords but few parallels, if any, to such base conduct on the part of those occupying the high and responsible positions then held by these men. The only excuse that can be given for this conduct, is that they regarded it as a legitimate deception to practice in a war which they had then already inaugurated.

Mr. George Lunt of Massachusetts, in speaking of the occurrences at Fort Sumter, uses this cautiously framed language, as the question of which side commenced the war is one about which the North is very sensitive. As we know, on the 7th of April, 1861, President Davis said:

"With the Lincoln administration rests the responsibility of precipitating a collision and the fearful evils of protracted civil war."

And so Mr. Lunt says:

"Whether the appearance of this fleet (the Relief Squadron) under the circumstances could be considered a pacific or hostile demonstration may be left to inference. Whether its total inaction during the fierce bombardment of the fort and its defenses continued for days, and until its final surrender, justly bears the aspect of an intention to avoid the charge of aggression, and to give the whole affair the appearance of defense merely, may also be referred to the judgment of the reader."

The question also occurs, he says—

"Whether this sudden naval demonstration was not a palpable violation of the promised 'faith as to Sumter fully kept,' as to be