Both were
demanded by the Confederates, and both were in need of supplies.
But Fort Pickens lay to one side, so to speak, of the public
mind, and there was not conspicuously in the world's eye the
square issue over it that there was over Sumter. Seward
conceived the idea that, if the President's attention were
diverted from Sumter to Pickens and a relief expedition were sent
to the latter but none to the former, his private negotiations
with the Confederates might still be kept going; Lincoln might
yet be hypnotized; and at last all would be well.
On All-Fools' Day, 1861, in the midst of a press of business, he
obtained Lincoln's signature to some dispatches, which Lincoln,
it seems, discussed with him hurriedly and without detailed
consideration. There were now in preparation two relief
expeditions, one to carry supplies to Pensacola, the other to
Charleston. Neither was to fight if it was not molested. Both
were to be strong enough to fight if their commanders deemed it
necessary. As flagship of the Charleston expedition, Welles had
detailed the powerful warship Powhatan, which was rapidly being
made ready at the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Such was the situation as
Welles understood it when he was thinking of bed late on the
night of the 6th of April.
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