The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1861-03-14
THE INT r. Nd r ID EVACUATION OF
FORT SUMTER
OPINIONS OF THE REPUBLICAN PRESS.

1t Is stated that on Tuesday dispatch was |
sent by the Government at Washington to |
Major Anderson, instructing him to inform |
the authorities of South Carolina that the |
garrison will be withdrawn from Fort Sum-
ter SO soon as a steamer can be sent to convey |
them to New York. He is also to arrange
with them to permit the vessel to enter the |
port without moles tation. There is to be no |
formal surrender, but he is to leave it with Il |
small garrison, who will surrender on de-
mand, without oppo siton. The rumors
aad speculations of the correspondents of the
New York papers on the subjece are interest
ing. The Washington letter to the Tribune
says:
There is great fever among the RepubIi-
cans in the city on account of the orders for
the retirement of the troops srom Fort Sum
ter. Every man is ferocious at the bare idea
of such thing. The act is depreca ted and
denounced in every form of anathema yet it
is an act in which the Cabinet are compelled
to be comparatively passive. They merely
follow the judgment of Gen. Scott, who ad-
vises the evacuation, and, of course, takes the
whole responsibility of the act. But the rea-
son of its surrender must not be misunder-
stood. 1t is done wholly because it cannot
now be reinforced before the supplies of the
garrison are exhausted.
The rumors about Fort Pickens being given
up are entirely unfounded. This fortress
be reinforced, and il will be.
An extra session of Congress is likely to be
soon called to supply the omission OF the last,
and to enable the Admins tration to assert the
authority of the Government. The policy
will probably be to repeal the laws making
ports of the seeding States ports of foreign
entry, and to station national vessels thereat
to prevent foreign importations.
WASHINGTON, Monday, March 11-There is
no longer any doubt that Major Anderson's
command is to be withdrawn from Fort Sum
ter. General Scott decides it to be a military
necessity, and his Judgment determines the
question, as it has done some others nearly as
delicate. Conferences have been held for sew
eral days past, t,swith Mr.. Baehe, of the Coast
Survey, in regard to the access to Charleston
harbor with Mr.. Totten, of the Engineers,
and with other distinguished officers of the
different corps. After a full consultation it
was agreed that the attempt to reinforce Fort
Sumter could only be made in two ways, and
then with doubtful success. First, by a large
naval force breaking into the harbor through
the Instructions in the channel, if possible
and, second, by landing an army of over 10 900
men, and attacking the batteries in the rear
which command the entrance to the harbor.
The President has no armv at his disposal
for this purpose. Eight companies are now
stationed in this city, and seven at Fortress
Monroe, none of which can be spared. The
troops recently dispersed in Texas will not be
available for several months, if at all, and
but $50 are reported us on the way back. The
force i'll Utah cannot be reached Immediately.
Congress gave no power TO call out volun-
teeTS III case Ol Necessity, anu therefore Jne
President is confined to the actual and limited
regular force. His hands are tied, and his re-
| sources crippled by the reasonable conspi-
racy of his predecessor and Cabinet. This
| predicament was eliberatelY contrived to EN-
| barrass the new Administration.
| The decision 10 withdraw Major Anderson
| naturally eXcltes much feeling, particularly
| among the Western delegations. What effect
| it may produce upon foreign Governments,
| which looked to the assertion of strong
| policy at all hazards, remains to be seem
| Here, it is regarded as compulsory alterna-
| tive to which Mr.. Lincoln has yielded from
Overwhelming necessity, and because he was
| poWerless to carry out his own purpose.
| The Washington dispatch to the New
York Times says:
| Quite sensation was created here this
| morning, at the Capitol and Departments, by
| report that mr. Chase had resigned the
| Treasuryship on account of the determination
| to withdraw the troops from Fort Sumter -
| There is, however, no foundation for the re-
| port, except that Mr.. Chase is known TO be
strongly opposed to that policy. His friends
| are assured that the Cabinet has not yet de-
| cided the point respecting the forts and that
| Mr.. Chase, consequently, Will attend to his
| duties as usual
! While 10 decision has been come to on the
| subject, am satisfied that the Admins ira
ton will not reinforce at the terrible sacrifice
| of life which Gen Scott says it would require
OF course there are divisions of opinion or
| this policy. w ate says it's 4 surrender; bu
many who at first doubted its propriety, &C
| cept its wisdom upon reflection.
Andrew johnson says MIR. Lincoln shoulC
have no false pride on this subject; that hi;
Admins tration is not responsible for the eX
| listing condition of affairs, which makes i
wiser now to withdraw the troops than to re
inforce.
Depend upon it, the statement is untru,
that orders for the withdrawal have already
been issued. That was stock -lobbing cd,t0rd
As late as Friday last the President was de
cidedly against withdrawal, but information
since received, together with military infor
nation bearing on the question, have led hin
TO think more avorably of the policy.
dispatch to the Herald says:
The Republican Senators, Immediately afte
the adjournment held caucus and remaine'
in session for upwards OF two hours 1t i
unders TODD that the question of evacuatin
| Fort Sumter was one of the questions unde
consideration. There was large majority O
, Senators opposed to that policy. They sa
that it would be regarded as a back down fror
their position. Other Senators say they hat
better back down Thousand times tha
plunge the country into civil war.
OPINIONS OF THE REPUBLICAN PRESS.
The Tribune accepts the evacuation as a ne
cessity, but grumbles bitterly:
1t is not for us to Judge of the jus tificatio
the Government may have for surrendering-
OF abandoning, for there is no difference in th
: two acts--a post of so much importance, fC
the circumstances by which they are infiu
y ~
NAV. at least, express the wish that no deter
NINA ton to take 80 important and irreyoca
! bic a step be come to through any hasty cour
/ sell War, and the consequences of war, al
+ a possible near future from which few shrin
with more instructive dread than we do; bl
there worse sacrifices in the conduct {
9 human affairs than human life.
l For four months the Federal GoyernmeI
= | has succumbed to rebellion because it wanted
d not material, but moral strength. II the co
!, of reinforcing Sumter be so great in blood an
r treasure that its surrender or abandonmei
may seem advisable, there can. at least, be
: | immediate haste for such step, and M
, Lincoln may divide the responsibility wit
Congress by appealing to them for aid. f
| the surrender of Il post by the Admin
tration, before it has been a fortnight
= power, which the outgoing Admins ira tio
r with all its imbecility and pusillanimity, pc
| sisted in holding, is an act which cannot IA
to have most important consequences. 1t
q to begin with, an acknow ledgment of the d
feat of the Federal Government, and that u
9 doctrine announced in Mr.. Lincoln's lnaug'
raj is found TO be untenabie on the very nr
n trial
: 1t is an acknowl ledgment that the Union
: utterly dissolved past all possibility OF reco
II struction, except by the most aoJect conce
: sions. 1t is, moreover, question Wnetn
these ackno owledgments will not so demorall
- the North. and so strengthen the South, tn
the hideous front of Compromise may be aga
raised with renewed hopes and renew
strength, and whether the yigor which n;
'e hitherto opposed it may not, by THIS act, ma
d gone out from forever. As we said befor
Il we cannot judge of the wisdom OF this or TN
STEP without a better knowledge of all II
. circums stances than we now possess; but
II cannot help thinking, that if we are to acce
the terms of disunion which the Confedera
d States offer u.s. we may begin with some s
p | less humiliating than the surrender OF re
J. Sumter.
e, The N. York Commercial Advertiser thin
ID the abandonment of the fort tantamount
"a. ~ .f.a.
,r .'h h''@ho " 'e''s' Va ',AN
Is racy: