**Chap­ter Sum­ma­ry: Blood and Dis­hon­or**

On Decem­ber 27, in Wash­ing­ton, for­mer Assis­tant Sec­re­tary of State William Hen­ry Trescot met with Sen­a­tors Jef­fer­son Davis of Mis­sis­sip­pi and R.M.T. Hunter of Vir­ginia to dis­cuss urgent news. They rushed to the White House to speak with Pres­i­dent Buchanan, who was vis­i­bly anx­ious. Trescot not­ed Buchanan’s ner­vous­ness as he made a casu­al ref­er­ence to the con­sul in Liv­er­pool, prompt­ing Davis to shift the con­ver­sa­tion to the real con­cern at hand.

Davis inquired if Buchanan had heard from Charleston recent­ly, to which Buchanan respond­ed neg­a­tive­ly. Davis then revealed the alarm­ing news of Major Ander­son­’s relo­ca­tion from Fort Moul­trie to Fort Sumter, artic­u­lat­ing the dire sit­u­a­tion by stat­ing that blood and dis­hon­or sur­round­ed the pres­i­den­cy. Buchanan, over­whelmed by the impli­ca­tions of this news, expressed his dis­be­lief and frus­tra­tion, claim­ing that it con­tra­dict­ed his orders.

Amidst this tur­moil, Sec­re­tary of War Floyd, upon being sum­moned, denied hav­ing received any telegrams con­firm­ing Ander­son­’s actions and was skep­ti­cal of their truth. He insist­ed on a cab­i­net meet­ing, which turned into a lengthy dis­cus­sion span­ning sev­er­al days about how to address the unten­able sit­u­a­tion. Dur­ing the gath­er­ing, ten­sions esca­lat­ed when Floyd pre­sent­ed a state­ment that blamed Major Ander­son for vio­lat­ing the gov­ern­men­t’s com­mit­ments, advo­cat­ing for the evac­u­a­tion of Sumter to pre­vent civ­il war.

This stance was met with robust oppo­si­tion from Sec­re­tary of State Jere­mi­ah S. Black, who sup­port­ed Ander­son­’s deci­sion. The cab­i­net was divid­ed, with Floyd’s sug­ges­tion of with­draw­al viewed by most as sur­ren­der­ing to South Carolina’s demands. Fear­ing the admin­is­tra­tion could appear weak, Attor­ney Gen­er­al Stan­ton crit­i­cized Floyd’s approach, cit­ing the dam­age to pub­lic trust and the loss of both a mil­lion dol­lars and a fort.

As the cab­i­net delib­er­at­ed, Sen­a­tor Robert Toombs vis­it­ed Buchanan, empha­siz­ing that the sit­u­a­tion at Fort Sumter had impli­ca­tions for the entire South, awak­en­ing Buchanan to the grav­i­ty of the cri­sis. Pres­sure mount­ed from all sides, with Ander­son­’s actions earn­ing him acco­lades in the North, where he became a sym­bol of courage, con­trast­ing sharply with the inac­tion of the admin­is­tra­tion. Buchanan rec­og­nized that with­draw­ing Ander­son would like­ly incite pub­lic out­rage, mark­ing the begin­ning of a much deep­er con­flict.