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You will perceive that it is upon the presumption that it CHAP. XI. is solely as property that you continue to hold Fort Sumter, that I have been selected for the performance of the duty upon which I have entered. I do not come as a military man to demand the surrender of a fortress, but as the legal officer of the State,-its attorney-general,—to claim for the State the exercise of its undoubted right of eminent domain, and to pledge the State to make good all injury to the rights of property which arise from the exercise of the claim. South Carolina, as a separate, independent sovereign, assumes the right to take into her own possession everything within her limits essential to maintain her honor or her safety, irrespective of the question of property, subject only to the moral duty requiring that compensation should be made to the owner. . . Repudiating as you do the idea of coercion, avowing peaceful intentions, and expressing a patriot's horror for civil war and bloody strife among those who once were brethren, it is hoped that on further consideration you will not, on a mere question of property, refuse the reasonable demand of South Carolina, which honor and necessity alike compel her to vindicate.

He concluded by setting forth that either the assertion or exercise of the right to send reënforcements to Sumter would be regarded as a declaration of war. The noteworthy feature of this missive. is, however, that Governor Pickens's characteristic urgency was all at once abated. If the President were not prepared to give an immediate answer, he might send it within a reasonable time to Charleston, and Hayne might close his mission and return.

It was nearly a week later that the President gave his reply through Secretary Holt, who wrote on February 6:

The proposal then, now presented to the President, is simply an offer on the part of South Carolina to buy Fort Sumter and contents as property of the United

Hayne to Jan. 31, 1861. port, No. 91,

Buchanan,

House Re

2d Session, 36th Con

gress, pp. 64-68.

CHAP. XI. States, sustained by a declaration, in effect, that if she is not permitted to make the purchase she will seize the fort by force of arms. . . The title of the United States to Fort Sumter is complete and incontestable. Were its interests in this property purely proprietary, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, it might probably be subjected to the exercise of the right of eminent domain; but it has also political relations to it, of a much higher and more imposing character than those of mere proprietorship. It has absolute jurisdiction over the fort and the soil on which it stands. This jurisdiction consists in the authority to "exercise exclusive legislation" over the property referred to, and is therefore clearly incompatible with the claim of eminent domain now insisted upon by South Carolina. This authority was not derived from any questionable revolutionary source, but from the peaceful cession of South Carolina herself, acting through her W. R. Vol. Legislature under a provision of the Constitution of the United States.

Holt to
Hayne,

Feb. 6, 1861.

I., pp. 166,

167.

"Mr. Buch

anan's Administra

tion," p.205.

Buchanan

in the "Na

tional Intel

ligencer,"

Nov. 1, 1862.

Gen. Scott, "Autobiography,' Vol. II., pp. 621, 622.

anan's Ad

ministra

This seems to have ended the argument on the subject. A few days later Colonel Hayne, imitating the rebel commissioners, sent a splenetic epistle to the President and left the city. The Administration, acting on the theory that Mr. Holt's reply of February 6 terminated Anderson's truce, turned their attention anew to a second relief expedition to Sumter. Sumter. Several plans were discussed, and one apparently adopted. The evidence as to its origin and preparation is vague and conflicting.

Captain Ward, of the navy, was to take three or four small steamers, belonging to the coast survey, "Mr. Buch- and endeavor to make his way to Anderson, with tion," p.210. supplies and reënforcements. Mr. Buchanan claims Adjutant to have initiated it on the 31st of January; an order Feb:21,18. concerning it, dated February 21, shows that its W. B. Yo time of sailing was even then uncertain. The governing causes in this instance may perhaps be best

General to

R. Vol. I., p. 179.

inferred from a letter of Holt to Anderson, Feb- CHAP. XI. ruary 23, which discloses an abandonment of the attempt:

A dispatch received in this city a few days since from Governor Pickens, connected with the declaration on the part of those convened at Montgomery, claiming to act on behalf of South Carolina, as well as the other seceded States, that the question of the possession of the forts and other public property therein had been taken from the decision of the individual States, and would probably be preceded in its settlement by negotiation with the Government of the United States, has impressed the President with a belief that there will be no immediate attack on Fort Sumter, and the hope is indulged that wise and patriotic counsels may prevail and prevent it altogether. The labors of the peace Congress have not yet closed, and the presence of that body here adds another to the powerful motives already existing for the adoption of every measure, except in necessary self- Feb. 23,1861. defense, for avoiding a collision with the forces that surround you.

Dilatory diplomacy had done its allotted work. While Mr. Buchanan refused a truce in theory, he granted one in fact. Between the 12th of January and the 6th of February the insurrection at Charleston worked day and night in building batteries and preparing men and material to attack Sumter. In other States the processes of secession, seizure, drill, equipment, and organization had also been going on with similar activity. Receiving no effective discouragement or check, the various elements of rebellion had finally united in a provisional congress at Montgomery, which, two days later, perfected a provisional government for the rebellion. There can be no severer criticism of this delusive policy of concession and inaction than

Holt to Anderson,

W. R. Vol.
I., p. 183.

1861.

CHAP. XI. the course and argument of Governor Pickens, as shown in a letter written by him to the president of the new provisional congress at Montgomery, on the 13th of February, on being informed that it had taken charge of the "questions and difficulties" between the Government and the rebellion:

I am perfectly satisfied that the welfare of the new confederation and the necessities of the State require that Fort Sumter should be reduced before the close of the present Administration at Washington. . . Mr. Lincoln cannot do more for this State than Mr. Buchanan has done... If war can be averted, it will be by making the capture of Fort Sumter a fact accomplished durCobb, Feb. ing the continuance of the present Administration, leaving to the incoming Administration the question of an open I., pp. 254-6. declaration of war.

Pickens to

13, 1861. W. R. Vol.

This, then, was to be the harvest of conciliation of the "wise, just, and peaceful solution," which the Senatorial cabal had promised - of “a patriotic horror for civil war and bloody strife," which Colonel Hayne had invoked-of the allurements of accommodation which Governor Pickens had so temptingly blended with his threats of violence and assault. Having lulled Mr. Buchanan into confidence, he proposed its sudden and secret violation, and in the same breath with his encomiums on peace, officially advised the shedding of blood, not upon any present necessity, but for the prospective gain of an improved vantage-ground towards the new Administration. Prudential reasons deferred the scheme for the moment. Six weeks later it was adopted and enacted by the provisional government of the conspiracy.

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IN

N the main the secession incidents and proceed- CHAP. XII. ings enacted in South Carolina were imitated and repeated in the other Cotton States. Their several Governors initiated the movement by early official action-proclamations, messages, and orders. The office-holders at each State capital formed a convenient local junto of conspiracy. The programme in each case ran through essentially the same stages. There was first the meeting of the Legislature, prompted and influenced by the State officials, and the Senators. and Representatives in Congress. Then under a loud outcry of public danger which did not exist, hasty measures to arm and defend the State-large military appropriations and extensive military organization. Next an act to call a convention, ostensibly to consult public opinion, but really for the occasion to rouse and mislead it. In each of the Cotton States the Breckinridge Democracy, the most ultra of the three factions, was largely in the majority. Again, the long political agitation had brought into power and prominence the most radical leaders of this extreme party.

These leaders were generally disunionists at heart, even where they had not been active and persist

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