Saturday, December 29, 1860
James Buchanan
In Washington Confederate commissioners demand that Union forces be withdrawn from Fort Sumter – two days later they are rebuffed when President Buchanan declares: “Fort Sumter will be defended against all hostile attacks from whatever quarter.”
Senator William H. Seward writes Lincoln: “At length I have gotten a position in which I can see what is going on. In the councils of the President. It pains me to learn that things are even worse than is understood. The President is debating day and night on the question [of] whether he shall not recall …”
In Springfield, Lincoln moves out of the offices of the governor in the State Capitol; Governor Richard Yates will soon be inaugurated and a new legislative session will soon begin. A room is secured for his use in the nearby Johnson building.
Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War 
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