Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1861-02-23

be expected in Charleston.
( With considerations Of high respect, I am,
very respectfully.
(Signed) /. w. HAYNE,
r Special Envoy.
LETTER OF MR.. noLr TO MIR. nAYNE.
. WAR DEPARTMENT,. February 6, 1861.
Sir: The President of the United States
has received your letter of the 3lst ult and
has charged me with the duty of replying
thereto l.-,.s 4r. g,ei
In The communication addressed to the
President b, Governor Pickcns, under date
of the 18th of January, and which acconipa-
nies yours now before me, his Excellency says
+" have determined to send to you the Hon
[. W. Hayne, the Attorney-G General of the
State of South Carolina, and have instructed
him to demand the surrender of Fort Sum
ter, in the harbor of Charleston, to the con
stituted authorities of the State of South
Carolina. The demand j have made of Ma
lor Anderson, aud which l now make of you,
lie suggested because of my earnest desire to
avoid the bloodshcd which persistence in
your attempt toretan the possession, of that
fort will cause, and which will be unavail-
ing to secure to you that possession but in.
ducc calamity-most deeply to be dcplored, :"
The character of the >domaud thus authorized
to be made, appears under the influence,
presume, of the correspondence with the Son
ators towlnich You refer, to oShavc been modi-
fled by subsequent instructions to his Excel
lcncy, dated the Goth, and received by your
self on the 30th of January, in which he
says: "If it be so that Fort Sumter is held
as property, then as property, the rights what
ever they may be, of the United States, can
be ascertaiucd, and for the satisfaction of
these rights, the pledge of the State of South
Carolina, you are authorized to give."o The
full scope and precise purport of your instruc-
tions, as thus modified, you have expressed in
the following words g |, do not come as a
military man to demand the surrender of
fortress but as the legal officer of the State
Its Attorney -General7lto 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 proper
ty which arise from the exercise of the claim I"
And lest this explicit language should not
sufficiently define. your position, you add /:
"The proposition now is that her (South Car
olina,s) law officer, should, under authority
of the Governor and his Council, distinctly
pledge tho fith of South Carolina, to make
such compensation, in regard to Fort Sumter
and its appurtenanccs and contents, to the. full
extent of the money value of the property of
the United States. delivered over to the au-
thoritics of South Carolina by your command. y
You then ADOPT his Excelenoy's train of
thought upon the subject, so far as to suggest
that the possession of Fort Sumter by the
United States, if continued long enough must
lead to collision" and that " an attack upon it
would scarcely improve it as property, whatev-
erthe result, and if captured, it would ne
longer be thesubiect of account" The pro
posal then, now presented to the President,
Is simply an offer on the part of South Caro-
lima to buy Fort Sumter and contents as prop
erty of the United States, sustained by de-
clurGtion, in effect, that if she is not permit
ted to make. the purchase, she will seize the
fort by force of arms. AS tho initiation of a
negotiation for the transfer of property be-
tween friendly governments, this proposal i'm
presses the President as having assumed a
most unusual form. He has, however inves-
E.tigated the claim on which it processes to be
Based apart from the declaration that accom-
panies it. And it may bchorc remarked that
mpch, stress has been. laid upon the employ
lnent of the words property" and public
property by the President in his several
Messages These are the most compreh6n-
sive terms which can be used in such a con
ncction, and surely, when referring to fort
or any other public establishment they en-
byaec the entire and undivided interest of the
-GSoveument therein. The title of the Uni
ted States to Fort Sumter is complete and in
contestabloi Were it's intorcst,iui this proper.
ty purely proprietary, in the ordinary accep.
tation of the term, It might probably be sub
jeosed to the exercise of theright Of eminent
domain; but it has also political relations to it
of u much higher aud more imposing cbarao.
tor than those of mere proprietorship IL lras
absolute jurisdiction oyer the fort aud the sol.
.oh which it stands. This jurisdiction con.
sists in the authority to exercise exclusive
legislation - over the property referred to,
aud is, therefore, clearly incompatible wish
The claim of z eminent domain now insist
i ed upon by South Carolina. This authority
was not derived from. any questionable ,reyo;
lutiopary source, hut. from,the peaceful ces-
,sioK of South Carolina herself acting through
her Legislature, under apropision of the
Constitution of the United States. South
Carolina can no more assert the right of enii
nent domain over Fort Sumterthan Maryland
can assert 1t over the District Of Columbia.s-
| The political and proprietary rights of the
| United StatesiI either case rdst upon precise
ly tho same ground. N l,e,., y,
The President, however, is relieved from
the Necessity of 4drtherap this inaui
Try by the fact thet, whatever may be. the
claim Of South Carolina TO this fort, he has
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