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HEADQUARTERS, FORT SUMTER, S. C., "January 9, 1861.

the Government, has been fired upon at the entrance of Charleston Harbor, by order of the authorities of the State of South Carolina, and the communication of the Government with one of its military posts thus forcibly prevented, there is but one course to pursue. The authority and dignity of the Government must be vindicated at every hazard. The issue thus having been made, it must be met and sustained, if necessary, by the whole power of the navy and army. We take it for granted, that, if the present version of the af

•To his Excellency F. W. Pickens, Governor of the fair is correct, a vessel of war will be disState of South Carolina:

"SIR: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication of to-day, and to say, that under the circumstances I have deemed it proper to refer the whole matter to my Government, and that I intend deferring the course indicated in my note of this morning until the arrival from Washington of the instructions I may receive. I have the honor

also to express the hope that no obstructions will be placed in the way of, and that you will do me the favor of giving every facility to, the departure and return of the bearer, Lieut. T. Talbot, United States Army, who has been directed to make the journey. "I have the honor to be, very respectfully,

Popular Indignation.

"ROBERT ANDERSON, "Major United States, Commanding." If anything was wanting to cement the Union sentiment in the North, nothing could have been conceived better calculated to arouse the feeling of resistance to the revolution than this firing on the American flag. The indignity of the act awoke, in the hearts of all classes and parties in the North, but one emotion-that of indignation, and a resolve to avenge the insult. The unity of popular sentiment produced by the dispatches announcing the news, resembled the gathering of the elements preparatory to a terrific storm. All issues were suddenly merged in that of resentment for the outrage offered the Government. This may be inferred from the tone of the opposition press, which, up to that moment, had clamored for compromise and had deprecated all thoughts of coercion. Thus the Breckenridge organ at Albany said: "If the Star of the West, in commission of

patched and will enter the harbor and communicate with Major Anderson at any cost. Thus much is necessary to preserve for the Government a decent respect, both at home and abroad." The editor "took for granted" what did not follow. The President, evidently alarmed at the crisis thus thrust upon him, neither ordered the Star of the West back; nor the Brooklyn and Harriet Lane, vessels of war, to Charleston; nor did he authorize Major Anderson to execute his threat; nor did he allow the Major the poor privilege of shelling the offending battery and Fort Moultrie for their treason and insolence. He had to sit upon his lonely ramparts, day by day, there to watch the swarms of soldiers and negroes on the islands around him throwing up batteries and preparing for his destruction. No order, no encouraging voice came from Washington to inspirit him. But, from the twenty millions of loyal lips went up a shout which must have thrilled his soul like the sound of an Archangel's clarion. The people were true; and, thus comforted, the little garrison labored incessantly, to its utmost strength, to mount the guns which would be needed for the assault seemingly close at hand. Sumter seemed left to its fate. It lay out in the waters, silent and gloomy, like a sullen thought in the Nation's heart. It ere long became radiant with fires which shot from its ports, not only to Moultrie and Morris'island, but to the farthest verge of the Union, to kindle the beacons of patriotism on every hill, and in every valley of the teeming North.

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CHAPTER XIII.

SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR RESIGNS.

MR. HOLT IN THE WAR DEPARTMENT. THE PREVALENCE OF TREASON. THE LAW OF TREASON. RESIGNATION OF Ꮇ Ꭱ . THOMAS AND APPOINTMENT GENERAL DIX то THE TREASURY.

OF

Resignation of Mr.
Thompson.

HON. JACOB THOMPSON, | ances, and declared his purpose to do his Secretary of the Interior, whole duty, fearlessly. resigned his Cabinet seat, Thursday, January 8th. His reasons were, that "after the order to reenforce Major Anderson was countermanded, on the 31st of December, there was a distinct understanding that no troops should be ordered South without the subject being considered and decided on in the Cabinet. At the Cabinet meeting, on the 2d of January, the matter was again debated, but not determined. Notwithstanding these facts, the Secretary of War, without the knowledge of Secretary Thompson, sent 250 troops in the Star of the West to reénforce Anderson. Not learning of this till Tuesday morning, he forthwith resigned." The resignation proved a relief rather than an embarrassment to the President. He was, like all the Southern men in the Cabinet, inimical to a policy of resistance to the revolution, and served only to distract the Cabinet Council. The remaining Southern member, Mr. Thomas, of Maryland, Secretary of the Treasury, was less offensive than any of those who had withdrawn; but, being a "Southern man," his resignation was, also, daily looked for, and, by the great mass of the people and members of Congress, was desired.

Congress not being in session Tuesday, Mr. Buchanan was waited upon by a large number of Congressmen, as well as by eminent persons then in Washington, to be congratulated on the growing sentiment for Union. He was quite generally assured that his policy of resistance would not only gratify the majority of the people, but that they would be satisfied with nothing less than a firm enforcement of the laws. The President expressed much gratification with these assur

Mr. Holt, PostmasterGeneral, continued to dis- The War Department. charge the duties of the War Department. His labors were almost exclusively performed in General Scott's office, where he could find not only privacy, but could, at all moments, obtain the wise counsel of the veteran Lieutenant-General. Spies and Southern emissaries lurked everywhero, and scarcely a whisper was uttered which did not seem to be heard and repeated to the Government's detriment. Eminent men from the South stooped to the mean position of tale-bearers and special reporters; while the army of Southerners in employ of all the departments, in all branches of the civil service, in the Army and Navy-almost without exception-became petty informers, plotting and intriguing against the Government whose bounty they were living upon. Such wide spread and thorough demoralization of the sentiment of honor never before was witnessed in America: may it never again be seen! Mr. Holt brought to the duties of his responsible position courage, patriotism and industry quite equal to the extraordinary emergencies by which he was environed, and Southern men beheld in him the controlling genius of the unqualified Union policy.

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excuse offered was the impossibility of sustaining the arrests with sufficient force to make them secure; but the constitutional timidity of the President, and the opposition offered by the venerable man who occupied the position of Chief-Justice of the United States Supreme Court,* were, doubtless, the real causes of the latitude granted to men who were writing and preaching the most undoubted treason; were buying arms to use against the Government; were exciting sedition and corrupting the loyalty of those still true to the Union and the Constitution.t

* Mr. F. C. Treadwell, of New York, on Jan. 16th, proceeded to Washington, to enter formal complaint against a large number of the leading Secessionists. This complaint, legal and pro forma in its nature, was returned by the Clerk of the United States Supreme Court, with the message from Judge Taney-not the written endorsement (for that would have been evidence of his own complicity,) as such cases required -that" they were improper papers to be presented to the Court." The United States Supreme Court thus planted itself before the conspirators to give them immunity from arrest. No wonder the President was hesitating, when even the Supreme Bench offered sympathy to treason!

The following resolutions, as indicative of the sentiments of a large body of the people, unanimously passed the Central Republican Club of New York City, January 10th:

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Whereus, A band of traitors in the Cabinet at Washington, in both Houses of Congress, and in several of the Southern States of this Republic, have made war against the United States; have seized forts, arsenals, and other public property; robbed the Treasury, obstructed the telegraph, and committed other acts of violence, in combination and conspiracy against the people of the United States,

The crime of treason is thus defined by the Constitution [Art. III., sec. 3]: "Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open Court." The same section also stipulates that Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason. In exercising this power Congress passed its act of April 30th, 1790, in which it is declared:

The Law of Treason.

"If any person or persons, owing allegiance to the United States of America, shall levy war against them, or shall adhere to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort, within the United States, or elsewhere, and shall be thereof convicted, on confession in open court, or on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act of treason whereof he or they shall stand indicted, such person or persons shall be adjudged guilty of treason against the United States, and shall suffer death.

"If any person or persons, having knowledge of the commission of any of the treasons aforesaid, shall conceal, and not, as soon as may be, disclose and make known the same to the President of the United States, or some one of the judges thereof, or to the President or Governor of a particular State, or some one of the judges or justices thereof, such person or persons, on conviction, shall be adjudged guilty of misprision of treason, and shall be impris oned not exceeding seven years, and fined not exceeding one thousand dollars."

Chief Justice Marshal, in administering this act, thus interpreted it:

"It is not the intention of the Courts to say that no individual can be guilty of this crime who has not appeared in arms against his country.

"On the contrary, if war be actually levied-that and their Constitution of Government, for the pur-is, if a body of men be actually assembled for the pose of introducing Slavery temporarily or permanently into every State and Territory of this Union;

therefore,

Resolved, That the Constitution as it is, provides the most perfect system of government known to man; that it needs no amendment, and shall have none, at the beck and call of traitors, or their insolent mouth-pieces.

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purpose of effecting by force a treasonable purpose all those who perform any part, however minute, or however remote from the scene of action, and who are actually leagued in the general conspiracy,

are to be considered as traitors."

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THE LAW OF TREASON.

open and secret sales of arms and munitions were consummated during all the months of December, January and February-arms which the manufacturers and salesmen knew were to be used against the Government, and, beyond question, sold them so to be used. The Adams' Express was an accredited carrying agent for the transportation of arms to the South; and, during these months, almost daily transported packages which its agents knew to contain arms and munitions ordered by the revolutionary States for use against the Government. During March, large quantities of clothing were manufactured in Northern cities for Southern troops, and rapidly carried South by this same "Southern" Express, knowing the clothing to be for the aid and comfort of the enemies of the Government. In Washington, as we have stated, the Departments, the floors of Congress, the Army, the Navy, all fairly stiffened with the insolence and hauteur of treason and misprision of treason. Army and Navy officers resigned, with the expressed purpose of taking service against their Government-some taking such service before they could even know if their resignations were acted upon, as in the cases of Commander Farrand and Lieut. Renshaw, at Pensacola; while others not even deigned to send in a resignation, but took their vessels with them when they passed over to the revolutionists, as in the cases of Capt. Coste, Capt. Breshwood, and Capt. Morrison-each one of whom betrayed his vessel into the hands of the rebels.

How it will astonish future generations to read the law of Congress above quoted, and then to learn that, in the face of all this undisguised cooperation and collusion with the conspirators, not one arrest was made-not one indictment for treason! That the violent Secessionists in Congress, the Army and Navy officers offering their resignations from secession proclivities, the manufacturers and salesagents of arms,—all should have been arrested admits of no question if the law was to be considered else than a dead letter. That Adams' Express Company should have had its charter confiscated, and its rights and immunities sequestered, can hardly be a matter of argument in the face of that act of Congress.

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The responsibility of non-action on the part of Congress and the Executive cannot be excused on the plea that the States, individually, had power to punish treason committed against them, for, what was treason against a State was equally treason against the common country, and, therefore, amenable to the constitutional provision for its punishment. Judge Story says:-`

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The power of punishing the crime of treason against the United States is exclusive in Congress; and the trial of the offence belongs exclusively to the tribunals appointed by them. A State cannot take cognizance, or punish the offence; whatever it

may do in relation to the offence of treason, committed exclusively against itself, if indeed any case can, under the Constitution, exist, which is not, at the same time, treason against the United States." [Com. on Const. § 1296, p. 173, vol. III.]

Further Cabinet Changes.

On Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Executive alone must rest the responsibility of non-action. That the growth of the defection was precipitate and wide-spread owing to this very smothering of the plain processes of the law is now, as it then was, evident even to the most casual observer. A telegram from Washington dated the 11th, stated that the "President had signified to Mr. Thomas, Secretary of the Treasury, that his resignation was desired." This is said to have grown out of a visit of several leading capitalists of New York, as representatives of the banks of that city, who expressed a willingness and wish to aid Government with funds, but felt so little confidence in the Secretary that his removal must precede any tenders of money. The fact that Mr. Thomas was a disunionist-as well as his first assistant, Mr. Clayton-was sufficient to inspire a want of faith in their integrity of administration. The capitalists, it is probable, also suggested the nomination, as Secretary of the Treasury, of General John A. Dix, then Postmaster of New York City. Mr. Thomas resigned (January 11th), and Mr. Dix took the vacated bureau to try and resuscitate the distressed finances of the country from their humiliating condition. The shocking mismanagement of that Department by the Secession, ist, Secretaries had almost ruined the credit of Government; and Mr. Buchanan performed a wise act in listening to the counsel of

the New York men of money. The Treasury | supported in a vigorous policy, but soon dissoon felt the magnetism of integrity and covered that his advisers were ready for a true patriotism; and, from that hour, it began to Jacksonian handling of the reins of Governrecover its old character for efficiency. How-ment. The brief term of his rule, together ell Cobb took the keys to find the chest absolutely burdened with its riches: Mr. Thomas found and left it in a state of discredit and bankruptcy. The end designed of crippling the Federal Government had been accomplished.

with his distaste for a state of war, contributed to lead his feet into bye-paths-to impel him to choose a course of action which should leave the incoming Administration to grapple with the monster which his timidity had not strangled in its infancy.

He was, indeed, to leave for his successor the veritable Pandora box. It was his only

This last change restored the Cabinet to harmony of action. It was now composed of men of undoubted ability and of devoted patriot- legacy. ism, and the President found himself not only |

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WHEN it became proba- | looked eagerly for the news of each steamer to read their fate, if possible, in the revelations of the foreign press.

Relative Positions. ble that a disrupted Confederacy would be the result of the disunion revolution, the foreign The North viewed the matter of English relations of the country began to excite un- and French sympathy without concern. Apwonted interest on the part of the revolu-preciating the force of the arguments urged tionary leaders. The South turned longingly by the South, to create a foreign interest in to England and France for their sympathy. its behalf, the Free States felt confident of Were these nations not greatly dependent on being able to restrain active sympathy for the the products of Slavery for their prosperity? revolutionists, not more by old ties, treaties Could they fail to recognize a new Confederacy and international obligations, than by the rewhich might safely promise more cotton at a pugnance which the people-particularly of less price than under the old Union? Would Great Britain-felt for Slavery. A pure they not be happy to establish new commer- Slave Confederacy never could win their concial relations, unhampered by tariffs, and en- fidence. If they must have the products of couraged by a system of exchanges-the Slave labor, to employ their millions of weavforeign nations acting as consumers of a raw ers and spinners, they preferred to practice material to return it manufactured? What the little hypocrisy of excusing themselves a fine promise, truly, for British commerce for the purchase, so long as it came from the and French looms! And then, weightier | free United States; but, make the issue dithan all, would not those nations rejoice to rect, to support a Confederation formed exsee the great Western Republic reduced from pressly to extend the area of Slavery, to rivet a first-class to a third-rate power-thus giv- the chains more securely on the miserable ing monarchy a new lease of its prerogatives? bondmen-then the English people would cry, All views seemed favorable to the scheme for Never! The North seemed to rest assured the Slave Confederation, and the leaders of this feeling, and did not experience the

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