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“a feverish excitement”: WHS to AL, December 28, 1860, Lincoln Papers.

Edwin Stanton…“traitors and spies”: Edwin L. Stanton, quoted in George C. Gorham, Life and Public Services of Edwin M. Stanton, Vol. I (2 vols., Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin and The Riverside Press, 1899), p. 168.

If Maryland and Virginia…“& the navy”: Stephen H. Phillips to Horace Gray, January 31, 1861, Papers of Horace Gray, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

“be made to believe… this danger”: EMS to SPC, January 23, 1861, reel 14, Chase Papers.

“came to a momentous…for him to turn”: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, pp. 98 (first quote), 99 (second quote), 100.

Watson would call…“discussed and settled”: Henry Wilson, “Jeremiah S. Black and Edwin M. Stanton,” Atlantic Monthly 26 (October 1870), p. 465.

“At length I have gotten…prudence is omitted”: WHS to AL, December 29, 1860, Lincoln Papers.

“treason is all around and amongst us”: WHS to FAS, December 29, 1860, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, p. 488.

“abettors near the President”: WHS to TW, December 29, 1860, quoted in ibid., p. 487.

Stanton secretly spread word: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, pp. 108, 110, 111; Henry Wilson, “Edwin M. Stanton,” Atlantic Monthly 25 (February 1870), p. 237.

“By early disclosure…enemies of their country”: Henry L. Dawes, “Washington the Winter Before the War,” Atlantic Monthly 72 (August 1893), p. 163.

Stanton invited Sumner to his office: Thomas and Hyman, Stanton, p. 111; Wilson, “Jeremiah S. Black and Edwin M. Stanton,” Atlantic Monthly (1870), p. 466.

“found and read…place of deposit”: Dawes, “Washington the Winter Before the War,” Atlantic Monthly (1893), p. 163.

“held the key to all discontent”: “Two Manuscripts of Gideon Welles,” ed. Muriel Bernitt, New England Quarterly XI (September 1938), p. 589.

“came to be regarded…Republican party”: Wilson, “Jeremiah S. Black and Edwin M. Stanton,” Atlantic Monthly (1870), p. 465.

“By common consent…ruler of the country”: Adams, The Great Secession Winter, p. 22.

“Never in the history…from Lincoln himself”: Chicago Tribune, January 17, 1861.

“The families of nearly”…Jefferson Davis: NYTrib, January 19, 1861.

“No man was…his every word”: Boston Atlas and Bee, reprinted Cincinnati Commercial, January 20, 1861.

“to set forth…destruction would involve”: NYT, January 14, 1861.

of “perpetual civil war…everything is lost”: WHS, January 12, 1861, Congressional Globe, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., p. 342.

“difficult to restrain…his handkerchief”: Boston Atlas and Bee, reprinted Cincinnati Commercial, January 20, 1861.

“to meet prejudice…shall have ended”: WHS, January 12, 1861, Congressional Globe, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., pp. 343–44.

five Southern senators: See farewell remarks of Senators Yulee, Mallory, Clay, Fitzpatrick, and Davis, January 21, 1861, Congressional Globe, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., pp. 484–87; entry for January 21, 1861, in Long, The Civil War Day by Day, pp. 28–29.

“inexpressibly sad”: William C. Davis, Jefferson Davis: The Man and His Hour (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), pp. 295–96 (quote p. 296).

“in a state…on despair”: NYT, January 23, 1861.

“I am sure…wish you well”: Farewell remarks of Jefferson Davis, January 21, 1861, Congressional Globe, 36th Cong., 2nd sess., p. 487.

Seward himself had visited…Democrats and Republicans: Davis, Jefferson Davis, p. 261.

“Your man outtalked…but I didn’t”: Ishbel Ross, First Lady of the South: The Life of Mrs. Jefferson Davis (New York: Harper & Bros., 1958), p. 85.

“Mrs Jef asked me…bonds between us”: EBL to SPL, December 17, 1860, in ed. Laas, Wartime Washington, p. 18.

packed up their belongings…“ended in Washington”: Margaret Leech, Reveille in Washington, 1860–1865 (New York: Harper & Row, 1941; New York: Carroll & Graf, 1991), p. 31.

His “great wish…of the disunionists”: Adams, The Great Secession Winter, pp. 13, 14.

“As an indication…of every section”: NYT, January 14, 1861.

“many are sanguine…tide of