He found the malign influence of Mr.
Buchanan's message fully at work throughout the South.

Under its encouragement only three days were required by the convention at Charleston to pass the Ordinance of Secession, and four days later Governor Pickens issued a proclamation declaring "South Carolina a separate, sovereign, free, and independent State, with the right to levy war, conclude peace, and negotiate treaties." From that moment Judge Black's position towards the Southern leaders was radically changed.

They were no longer fellow-Democrats.

They were the enemies of the Union to which he was devoted: they were conspirators against the government to which he had taken a solemn oath of fidelity and loyalty.
Judge Black's change, however important to his own fame, would prove comparatively fruitless unless he could influence Mr.Buchanan to break with the men who had been artfully using the power of his administration to destroy the Union.

The opportunity and the test came promptly.