Advice: Montgomery Blair

Montgomery Blair

Postmaster General Montgomery Blair expressed "no confidence" in General Scott's judgment. Blair observed that it was "acknowledged to be possible" to relieve Sumter. Therefore, "it ought to be relieved without reference to Pickens or any other possession," he contended.

Blair asserted that South Carolina was the "head and front" of the secession rebellion, and if permitted to cast off federal authority, it would "strike a blow against our authority from which it will take us years of bloody strife to recover."

Bibliography: Lincoln, Works, eds. Nicolay and Hay, 6: 230.