Was it courtesy or curiosity that induced the President to sit and listen to this warm debate between his chosen advisers? They would have been angry had they known that they were bringing their counsel to a chief who had already made his decision. They did not yet know that upon every occasion of great importance Lincoln would make up his mind for and by himself, yet would not announce his decision, or save his counselors the trouble of counseling, until such time as he should see fit to act. So in this instance he had already, the day before the meeting of the cabinet, directed Fox to draw up an order for such ships, men, and supplies as he would require, and when the meeting broke up he at once issued formal orders to the secretaries of the navy and of war to enter upon the necessary preparation. Contemporaneously with this there was also undertaken another enterprise for the relief of Fort Pickens at Pensacola. It was, however, kept so strictly secret that the President did not even communicate it to Mr. Welles. Apparently his only reason for such extreme reticence lay in the proverb: "If you wish your secret kept, keep it." But proverbial wisdom had an unfortunate result upon this occasion. Both the President and Mr. Welles set the eye of desire upon the warship Powhatan, lying in New York harbor. The secretary designed her for the Sumter fleet; the President meant to send her to Pensacola. Of the Sumter expedition she was an absolutely essential part; for the Pensacola plan she was not altogether indispensable. On April 6 Captain Mercer, on board the Powhatan as his flagship, and on the very point of weighing anchor to sail in command of the Sumter reinforcement, under orders from Secretary Welles, was astounded to find himself dispossessed and superseded by Lieutenant Porter, who suddenly came upon the deck bringing an order signed by the President himself. A few hours later, at Washington, a telegram startled Mr. Welles with the news. Utterly confounded, he hastened, in the early night-time, to the White House, and obtained an audience of the President. Then Mr. Lincoln learned what a disastrous blunder he had made; greatly mortified, he requested Mr. Seward to telegraph with all haste to New York that the Powhatan must be immediately restored to Mercer for Sumter. Lieutenant Porter was already far down the bay, when he was overtaken by a swift tug bringing this message. But unfortunately Mr. Seward had so phrased the dispatch that it did not purport to convey an order either from the President or the secretary of the navy, and he had signed his own name: "Give up the Powhatan to Mercer. SEWARD." To Porter, hurriedly considering this unintelligible occurrence, it seemed better to go forward under the President's order than to obey the order of an official who had no apparent authority to command him. So he steamed on for Pensacola.