United States Government, to the Confederate Government.

March 10.—It is reported at Washington that such word has been received from Major Anderson as to render the evacuation or the reprovisioning of Fort Sumter a necessity. Great excitement exists in consequence. General Scott is willing to assume the responsibility of the withdrawal, considering it impossible to throw in reenforcements and provisions, except at great cost of life.

March 12.--The Southern Commissioners, Messrs. Crawford and Forsythe, communicate their mission to Secretary Seward, pronounce their Government an independency de facto et de jure, and request a day to be named when they may present to the President their credentials.

March 13.-The Georgia Convention turns over all forts, arsenals, arms, &c., seized from the Federal Government, to the Confederate Government.

-The Charleston (South Carolina) Courier of today says the batteries bearing on the ship channel are of the heaviest kind, and that they are now in a high state of preparation, and ready for any force that may be sent against them. It believes the re

enforcement of Fort Sumter an impossibility. It estimates that three thousand highly-disciplined troops are in the various fortifications.

-By proclamation of General Bragg, all vessels are probibited to furnish supplies to war vessels off Pensacola or to Fort Pickens, under penalty of for

feiture to the Confederation.

-A long list of the Confederate army and navy appointments is published. Nearly all of them were formerly Federal officers.

March 22.-The Missouri Convention adjournshaving passed no ordinance of secession.

-A dispatch from New Orleans says: "The Commissioners of the Confederate States to EuropeMessrs. Yancey, Mann, and Rost-will leave here on the 31st inst. for Havana, and connect with the British steamer of the 7th of April for England."

-Alexander H. Stephens makes a speech at Savannah, (Georgia,) expounding the principles and purposes of the new Confederacy. He argued that negro slavery was the "chief corner-stone of the new edifice." [See History of Rebellion, Vol. I., pages 30, 31.]

March 26.-The South Carolina State Convention reassembles.

March 15.-Mr. Seward, Secretary of State, answers the cornmunication of the Southern Commissioners, Messrs. Crawford and Forsythe, by a memorandum," without signature, refusing to recognize the agents in any public capacity, &c. This memorandum" was not called for by the Commissioners until April 8th-understanding it to be a refusal of recognition.

the force now at the command of the Administration. He describes the military preparations of the rebels as of great magnitude, and very skilfully made.

April 2.-Gov. Houston sends a message to the Texas Legislature protesting against the Convention, appealing to the Legislature to sustain him, and claiming still to be Governor. The Legislature took not the slightest notice of it.

The

-The Texas State Convention passes an ordinance declaring, on the refusal of Governor Houston to take the oath under the State Constitution, the office of Governor vacant, and appointing Lieutenant-Governor Clark Governor. The office of Secretary of State is also declared vacant.

March 18.-The Texas Legislature met. The members of the House and Senate took the oath of allegiance to the new Government, a few of them under protest. Governor Houston and the Secretary of State have retired from their offices and surrendered the archives. Governor Houston had issued an appeal to the people denouncing the State Convention. March 20.-The Arkansas Convention adjourns, after having rejected an ordinance of secession. It was decided, however, to take a vote of the people, in August, on the question of" secession” or “no secession."

-The Texas Legislature passes a resolution approving of the Convention act deposing Governor Houston.

March 21.—A resolution passes the Ohio State Legislature, asking Congress to call a National Convention.

Bragg, and preparations are making for a decisive movement. Bragg has nearly four thousand troops under his command, all well armed and in a state of efficiency. Lieut. Slemmer is prepared for the worst, and will sustain the honor of his flag to the last.

April 5-8.-The steamers Atlantic, Baltic, and Illinois, load at New York with Navy stores, munitions, &c. Much excitement prevails as to their destination. The frigate Powhatan is hurriedly put into commission, at New York, and sails south, April 6th. Great activity at the Brooklyn, the Philadelphia, and the Charlestown (Mass.) Navy-yards. Every Government vessel of war, it is understood, is ordered out of ordinary, to be fitted for commission.

April 5.-Kentucky Legislature adjourns. No action taken looking to secession, or resistance to the Federal Government.

April 6.-Great excitement prevails throughout the South in consequence of the great naval move

3

ments announced. Gen. Beauregard announces to Major Anderson that no further communications will be allowed with the land-thus placing him in a state of siege.

April 8.-A dispatch from Montgomery says: "The Cabinet here have just concluded a protracted session on the course to be pursued in the present serious crisis. Jefferson Davis strongly urged an aggressive policy towards the United States, and it was at length decided to instruct the Commissioners at Washington to present their ultimatum to President Lincoln, and if it should not be accepted, to

declare war.”

-A dispatch from Charleston says: "Vessels have been ordered from the range of fire between Fort Sumter and Sullivan's Island. The floating battery sails at 7 o'clock this evening for a point near Fort Sumter. A house has just been blown up near the five-gun battery. Business has been suspended, and fearful excitement prevails. Gen. Beauregard has ordered out 5,000 more troops. Companies of volunteers are constantly arriving and being put in position in the harbor. New batteries are also being constructed."

-More steamers chartered as transports at New York. Great amounts of stores, arms and munitions are being shipped. The armed revenue-cutter Harriet Lane puts to sea with sealed orders, followed by the steam-tugs Yankee and Uncle Ben. The frigate (steam) Wabash, the sloop Savannah, and the gun-boat Perry, at the Brooklyn Navy-yard, are being rapidly prepared for sea.

Lieutenant Talbot arrives in Charleston, to say that Major Anderson would be supplied with provisions at every hazard. The messenger was denied access to Anderson. Immense preparations were immediately made to repel the reenforcement or supply, come in what shape it might. All Charleston was under arms, and the united defences of the harbor and city placed ready for action.

The State Department at Washington replies

to the Confederate State Commissioners, declin

ing to receive them in their official capacity, but expressing deference for them as gentlemen. The Secretary expresses a peaceful policy on the part of the Government, declaring a purpose to defend only when assailed.

April 9.-Gov. Curtin sends a message to the Pennsylvania Legislature, recommending that the State be, at once, placed on a footing of military efficiency, and readiness. He also stated that Mr. Lincoln had informed him of a design to attack and seize the Capital.

-A dispatch from Washington says the designs of the Government are peaceful--that unarmed ships are to supply United States forts with required provision, troops, &c. If they are assaulted, the responsibility of inaugurating war would rest with the assailants.

-A requisition was made by Jefferson Davis upon the Confederate States for 3,500 troops from each, except Florida, which was required to furnish 1,500, all for immediate service.

-The Steam transports Illinois and Baltic get to sea-the first having 300 and the latter 160 troops on board. The Atlantic steamer sailed April 7th, with 358 troops.

-The Steam Sloop of War Pawnee sails under seal

ed orders from Norfolk. She mounts 10 guns and carries 200 men.

April 10.-Sloop-of-war Jamestown and frigate St. Lawrence at the Philadelphia Navy-yard, ordered to be fitted for sea forthwith.

-Troops mustering in Washington from the militia. Adjutant-General McDowell is organizing them into regiments and preparing them for service. Additional forces of regulars ordered to the Capital: Sherman's Artillery from Fort Ridgely, in Minnesota, and two companies of cavalry ordered to report immediately at Washington. The active preparations are understood to result from the known presence, in the vicinity of Washington, of Colonel Ben McCullough, the Texan Ranger, who, having secured the United States forts in Texas, has hurried to the East to lead an attempt upon the Capital.

-A dispatch from Charleston says: Troops are pouring in from the interior and all is ready for a collision. Fort Sumter will be attacked without waiting for the Abolition fleet. Eagerness for the conflict is unbounded. Messrs. Wigfall, Chesnut, Roylston, and others, have secured a place on Gen. Beauregard's staff. The floating battery, finished, mounted, and manned, was taken out of the dock last evening and moored in the cove near Sullivan's Isıand. The Convention has just adjourned, subject to the call of its President. A large number of its members, after adjournment, volunteered as privates. About 7,000 troops are in the defences, with as many more in reserve."

-L. P. Walker, Secretary of War of the Confederate States, orders General Beauregard to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter, which demand he is to enforce by proceeding to reduce the fort.

April 11.-The Southern Commissioners, Messrs. Crawford, Forsythe, and Roman, left Washington today. Before leaving they transmitted [April 9th] to Secretary Seward a rejoinder, setting forth their reasons for departing, and replying to the positions assumed in his answers to their demands. It was very severe in its tone, charging duplicity on the part of the Secretary. They take the ground that they have exhausted every resource for a peaceful solution of the existing difficulties, and that if civil war results, on the head of the Federal Government will rest the responsibility. They charge the Administration with gross perfidy, insisting that under the shelter of the pretext and assertion that Fort Sumter was to be evacuated, an immense armada has been dispatched to provision and reenforce that fort. They repeat they had almost daily indirect assurances from the Administration that Fort Sumter was positively to be abandoned, and that all the Government's efforts were to be directed towards peace. The Commissioners allege that the Government at Montgomery was earnestly desirous of peace; and that, in accordance with its instructions, as well as their own feelings, they left no means unexhausted to secure that much-desired end; but all their efforts having failed, they were now forced to return to an outraged people with the object of their mission unaccomplished; and they express the firm conviction that war is inevitable.

-A formal demand made by General Beauregard, of Major Anderson, for the surrender of Fort Sumter. Anderson refused compliance with this demand.

April 12.-At one o'clock, A. M., a second demand was made, or rather proposition, in which Beau

Mr. Lincoln's Inaug

ural Address.

UNITED STATES: "In compliance with a custom as old as the Government itself, I appear before you to address you briefly, and to take in your presence the oath prescribed by the Constitution of the United States to be taken by the President before he enters on the execution of his office. I do not consider it necessary at present for me to discuss those matters of administration about which there is no special anxiety or excitement.

Apprehension seems to exist among the people of the Southern States that by the accession of a Republican Administration, their property, and their peace and personal security, are to be endangered. There has never been any reasonable cause for such apprehension. Indeed, the most ample evidence to the contrary has all the while existed, and been open to their inspection. It is found in nearly all the published speeches of him who now addresses you. I do but quote from one of those speeches when I declare that 'I have no purpose, directly or indirectly, to interfere with the institution of Slavery in the States where it exists. I believe I have no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so.' who nominated and elected me did so with a full knowledge that I had made this and many similar declarations, and had never recanted them. And, more than this; they placed in the platform for my acceptance, and as a law to themselves and to me, the clear and emphatic resolution which I now read:

Those

Resolved, That the maintenance inviolate of the rights of the States, and especially the right of each State to order and control its own domestic institutions according to its own judgment exclusively, is essential to that balance of power on which the perfection and endurance of our political fabric depend, and we denounce the lawless invasion by armed force of the soil of any State or Territory, no matter under what pretext, as among the gravest of crimes.'

"It is scarcely questioned that this provision was intended, by those who made it, for the reclamation of what we call 'fugitive slaves' and the intention of the law-giver is the law. All members of Congress swear their support to the whole Constitution; to this provision as well as any other. To the proposition, then, that slaves whose cases come within the terms of this clause 'shall be delivered up,' their oaths are unanimous. Now, if they would make the effort, in good temper, could they not, with nearly equal unanimity, frame and pass a law by means of which to keep good that unanimous oath? some difference of opinion whether this clause should be enforced by National or by State authority; but, surely, that difference is not a very material one. If the slave is to be surrendered, it can be of but little consequence to him or to others, by which Should any one, in any case, authority it is done.

There is

be content that his oath shall go unkept on a merely unsubstantial controversy as to how it shall be kept?

Again, in any law upon this subject, ought not all the safeguards of liberty known in the civilized and humane jurisprudence to be introduced, so that a free man be not, in any case, surrendered as a slave? And might it not be well, at the same time, to provide by law for the enforcement of that clause in the Constitution which guarantees that 'the citizens of each State shall be entitled to all the privi leges and immunities of citizens in the several States?' I take the official oath to-day with no mental reservations, and with no purpose to construe the Constitution or laws by any hypercritical rules; and, while I do not choose now to specify particular acts of Congress as proper to be enforced, I do suggest that it will be much safer for all, both in official and private stations, to conform to and abide by all those acts which stand unrepealed, than to violate any of them, trusting to find impunity in having them held to be unconstitutional.'

up

“There is much controversy about the delivering of fugitives from service or labor. The clause I now read is as plainly written in the Constitution as any other of its provisions:

"No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be discharged from such

During that period fifteen different and very distinguished citizens have in succession administered the Executive branch of the Government. They have conducted it through many perils, and, generally, with great success. Yet, with all this scope for precedent, I now enter upon the same task for the brief Constitutional term of four years, under great and peculiar difficulty. A disruption of the Federal Union, heretofore only menaced, is now formidably attempted.

"I hold that, in contemplation of universal law