In the chap­ter titled “Dis­may and Dis­hon­or” from “The Demon of Unrest,” dat­ed April 8, ten­sions between South­ern com­mis­sion­ers and Sec­re­tary of State William Seward are pal­pa­ble. Seward, writ­ing in the third per­son, express­es his inter­pre­ta­tion of recent rev­o­lu­tion­ary events, stress­ing that he does not see them as a legit­i­mate rev­o­lu­tion nor as a foun­da­tion for an inde­pen­dent nation. Instead, he views them as a tran­sient par­ti­san excite­ment. He declines the com­mis­sion­ers’ request for a meet­ing with Pres­i­dent Lin­coln, stat­ing that he does not have the author­i­ty to rec­og­nize them as diplo­mat­ic agents.

This rejec­tion, albeit expect­ed, ignites out­rage among the com­mis­sion­ers, who respond with furi­ous accu­sa­tions, claim­ing Seward is detached from real­i­ty. They express their belief that Seward’s refusal to acknowl­edge the estab­lished gov­ern­ment is a grave insult to South­ern hon­or. Their let­ter con­veys a dire warn­ing that inevitable blood­shed will be blamed on Lin­coln, and they accept the chal­lenge they believe Seward has thrown at them.

Seward’s response remains aloof and dis­mis­sive, entail­ing a sin­gle-sen­tence acknowl­edg­ment of their let­ter’s receipt while reit­er­at­ing that he can­not engage with them fur­ther. Mean­while, on the same evening, Pres­i­dent Lin­col­n’s mes­sen­gers, Chew and Tal­bot, arrive in Charleston with a mes­sage for Gov­er­nor Pick­ens regard­ing the resup­ply of Fort Sumter. The mes­sage indi­cates that pro­vi­sions will be sent with­out force unless resist­ed. Despite this, Gen­er­al Beau­re­gard flat­ly rejects Cap­tain Tal­bot’s request to pro­ceed to the fort, empha­siz­ing the entrenched posi­tions of both sides.

In a swift reac­tion, Beau­re­gard informs Con­fed­er­ate War Sec­re­tary Walk­er of Lin­col­n’s intent to send sup­plies, but Walk­er imme­di­ate­ly orders that no pro­vi­sions should be allowed into Fort Sumter. Lat­er that night, Beau­re­gard issues a notice to Major Ander­son, halt­ing all mail between the fort and Charleston. Ander­son, alarmed by this news, attempts to recov­er impor­tant out­go­ing let­ters, but Beau­re­gard denies his request, high­light­ing the esca­lat­ing stale­mate. The chap­ter effec­tive­ly show­cas­es the grow­ing estrange­ment and ten­sions lead­ing up to the Civ­il War, under­lined by Seward’s cold diplo­ma­cy and the urgency dis­played by mil­i­tary lead­ers on both sides.