President Buchanan sends Caleb Cushing to ask South Carolina to postpone its Secession Convention

President Buchanan, in a last effort to avoid South Carolina's secession, dispatched Caleb Cushing, a Democratic loyalist and chair of the Democratic National Convention in South Carolina during the summer, to ask the new governor to postpone the Secession Convention.  In a short interview, Governor Pickens told Cushing that it was too late and "very candidly, that there was no hope for the Union."  The Secession Convention was already underway - Cushing was invited to attend but refused - and South Carolina seceded within hours.  (By John Osborne) 
Source Citation
Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861 (New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1887), 87. 
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Type
    Lawmaking/Litigating
    How to Cite This Page: "President Buchanan sends Caleb Cushing to ask South Carolina to postpone its Secession Convention," House Divided: The Civil War Research Engine at Dickinson College, https://hd.housedivided.dickinson.edu/index.php/node/34901.