Delaware state journal. [volume] (Wilmington, Del.) 1870-1883, 1883-08-09
A LETTER FROM d EEF DAVIS.


published long letter from Jefferson
Davis, being a review of early secession
issues in reply to some strictnres made
several months ago by Judge Jeremiah s.
Black.
The letter opens with a quotation from
what Mr.. Davis calls ''hs unwarrsnted
attack upon myself" in which Judge
Black says that Davis accused President
Buchanan of timidity in refusing to
evscuate the forts and lei secession have
its own way /; that Davis object in ad- |
vising this course WAS to remove an OBJ
stacle from the path which he and his |
constituents had made MP their minds to |
travel that South Carolina tried to bully |
the President, while others, including |
Davis, tried to coax him, and that it is
no evidence of timidity in President |
Buchanan that he resisted both.
Judge Black, says Mr.. Davis, herein |
assumes to describe my conduct and to |
assign to it a motive which, if his aaser-
ton had been true, he had no oppertu-
nifty to know and which | pronounce
utterly false Inexcusably false, because |
II he had desired to know the truth he
could have learned 1t by conference with
either of his associates in Mr.. Buchanan'R
Cabinet, with whom had confidential
with whom held about that time fire.
quent and uureserved conversations, be-
lieving, as | had reason to do, that he,
like myself, desired peaceful solution Of
the issues which then threatened our
onititutionai union; Or he might have
found what were my feelings and motives
by reference to the speeches had made
during the many years | had served in
ha tyUn nf L1,
| appeal to auy other source purer than his
own imagination.
In support of this denial Mr.. Davis
quotes from speech made by himself in
the United States Senate on January
10th, 1861, in which he said that "peaoe
would have spread its pinions over this
land and calm negotiation would have
been the order of the day. had the garri.
son at Charleston been withdrawn. lie
reminds Judge Black that South Carolina
forbore to seize Fort Sumter when it was
without a garrison that the State
offered to account for the valuation
of government property in the forts, and
that the evacuation OF Fort Moultrie by
night, after the guns had been spiked
and their carriages burned, and the occu-
patton of Fort Sumter by the garrison OF
Fort Moultrie preceded the seizure by
South Carolina OF the unoccupied forts
Could there have been more hostile
demonstration Con the part of the Gov
ernmenO than this MIR. Davis asks
and adds that the order resulting in this
change of the status is one of the claims
Judge Black makes for service rendered
TO the union so it deserves to be fol-
lowed TO it's consequences and viewed in
connection with oontemporsneous events.
1t occurred when South Carolina, hope
, fnl Of peaceful solution of all pending
, issues, had sent three OF her most dis
tingulshed sons ae commissioners to visit
and confer with the President. Other
proof cannot be needful that South Caro-.
lima had no design TO attack Fort Moul-
trie or take other aggressive action. Mr..
, Buchanan, with the keen perception of q
patriot desiring to avoid civil war, sag
= the danger which this movement por.
tended, and with the seIsbility of man
OF honor shr Tx from the imputation Of
bad faith. Therefore he wrote to The
J Commissioners of South Carolina, on The
8 Both of December, 1850: "Whel
. learned tina. Major Anderson bad LEFT
8 Fort Moultrie snd proceeded 10 Fort sum
8 ter, my first pfompiinga we're to o5mmaut
u him to return to his former position AM
o there to awsit contingencies presented i,
3 his instructions"
Judge Black defended the maintainin,
q OF Fort Sumter as q menace to the peoll
q OF Charleston by claiming that the govern
1t ment had bought and paid for the for
II aud had full and undisputed proprietor
10 right to it, which was not impaired ii
1t the slightest degrees by South Carolina
Is act OF secession. To this Mr.. Davi
y replies that the government never bnngh
the sites of the Charleston forts, but ina
a they were coded to 1t by the State, and h
q. cites the act of oession and combat
l. Judge Black 3 claim that South Carolin
a thereby relinquished her right Of eminen
ia domain. He refers to similar acts G
IN cession by other states of the site c
ID the Brooklyn navy yard and Watervlie
Y, arsenal sites, accompanied by declare
tlons OF concurrent State 1risdiction an
n, final reversion should the Gov4rnmen
" abandon or appropriate the sites 10 othe
10 uses, and submits that, unless there wa
" proprietary right to tile Government
ra these sites, there was noue to For
20 Sumter.
vs Mr. Davis then replies to Judge Black
20 charge that the demand for the evauue
an tion and surrender of Fort Sumter
he Carolina was ''the most impudent in til
~, history OF the world" ard thst "Sout
~ Carolina insultingly insisted upon II
NJ surrender to her, avowedly with inter
% to use it for hostile purposes against IL
Government TO which it belonged /" l.
quoting from letter of South Carolina
e special envoy, Isaac W. Hayne, to Pres
w dent Buchanan, and adding that onl
" one seeking preteXt for hostile demon
| o.
II, have found insult in this temnera
70 appeal and have called for the army Ar
iu navy to perform such acts aa natural
ne would and finally did lead to civil wa
~ He asks where Judge Black four
OF authority for asserting thst the deua,
'cl was made "avowedly for hostile pu
q posea," when no resistance had be,
~ 'iisrtd to ths execution OF auy civ
'"l process and there were no United Stat
ut ilieers in South Carolina who con
ar require aid for tie execution of the law
as lie then says;
Ne The old friends of Mr.. Buchana
of among whom ] am one, if they acee
this self.laudatory exhibit OF Jud
a Black, will be glad to learn that NJ
~ Buchanan prepared such an answer
Is, the commissioners of South Carolina
q was consistent with the avowed policy
ex peace aud respect for State sovereigpit
to and i'll memory of all which followed ii
ed needless rejection of quasi negbtiat!
he the country, think, has reason to /
,re greet that he was ever turned from Il
ed course his wisdom aud patriotism dictate
he Those friends, moreover, will b. surpris
er to learn that he was not master in i
in own house, bnt according to the stat
" ment to Judge Black, was controlled