Year: 1861

case lot using IL WAS now presented, anC


it was resolved to send il forward, as had


been intended.


In this contingency it was resolved tc


notify the Governor of South Carolina


that he might expect an attempt would


be made to provision the Fort, and that


if the attempt should not De resisted, there


would be no attempt to throw in men,


arms or ammunition, without further no.


tice, or in case of an attack upon the Fort
This notice was accordingly given, where
upon the fort was attacked and bOmbarded


to its fall, without awaiting the arrival OF


the provision expedition. 1t is thus seen
that the assault upon and the reduction,


of Fort Sumter were in DO sense a matter


Of self defence on the part Of the assail-


ants, They well knew tat the garrison


in the Fort could by no possibility com


NIT aggression upon them. They knew


they were expressly notified that giving


bread to the few brave and hungry men
| of the garrison were all that would on


that occasion be attempted unless them
selves, by resisting so much. should pro-
woke more. They knew that the Govern


ment desired 10 keep the garrison in the
/ fort, not to assail them, but merely to
maintain visible possession and thus to
/ preserve the Union from actual and i'm
mediate dissolution, trusted as herein be-
! fore stated, to time, discussion and the
ballot-box or final adjustment; and they de-
! liberately reduced the fort for precisely the
reverse object-to drive out the visible
( Il, e Io -,
force an immediate dissolution. That this
was their object the Executive we'll un-
derstood; and having said to them in the
Inaugural address - You can have no
conflict without being yourselves the ag-
gressors," he took particular pains not
only to keep this declaration good, but
to keep the case SO far fron ingenious
sophistry that the world should not mis-
understand it, By The affair at Fort Sum
ter, with its surrounding circumstances,
that point was reached. Then and there,
by the assalants of the Government, be-
gan the conflict without a gun in sight or
expectancy to return their firing, save
only the few in the fort, sent to that har


Dor years before for their own protection
in whatever was loyal, In this act, dis
carding all else, they have forced upon tie
country the distinct issue Of immediate dis
solution or blood, and this embraces more
than The fate of these United States. 1t
presents 10 the whole family Of man the
question whether a Constitutional Repub


lie or Democracy, government of the
people, the same people, can or cannot
maintain its territorial integrity against
its own domestic foes II presents the
question whether disconteuted persons,
too few in numbers to control the Admin


istration according to tie organic law In
any case, can always upon the pretenses
made in this case, or any other preteuse,
arbitrarily, without any pretense, break
up their Government and thus pracaticEIy
put an end to free government on the
earth. 1t forces us to ask, is there in
all republics that inherent fatal weakness?
Must Z. Government of necessity, be too
strong for the liberties Of the people, or
too weak to maintain its own existence?
So viewing the issues. no choice was left
but to call out the war power Of the Gov
ernment aud so TO resist the fcrce en-
ployed for its destruction by force for its
preservation. The call was made and the
response of the country was most gratify


ing. surprising in unanitnlty and spirit
the most sanguine expectations.


Yet none of the States commonly called
slave States, except Delaware, gave a reg
iment through the regular State organiza-
ton. A few regiments have been organ
lied within some other of those States by
individual enterprise, and received into
the Government service OF course. The
seeded States, so called, and to which
Texas had been joined about the time of
the Inauguration, gave no troops to the
cause of the Union. The border States.
so called, were not uniform in their ac


ton, some Of them being almost for the
Union, while in others, as in Virginia,
North Carolina, Tennessee and Arkansas
the Union sentiment was nearly repressed
and silenced. The course taken in Vir-
ginia was the most remarkable, perhaps
the most important. A convention elect
ed by the people of that State to consider
this very question Of disrupting the Fed
eral Union was in session at the capital Of


Virginia when Fort Sumter fell. To this
body the people had chosen large ma
! iority of professed Union men. Almost
Immediately after the fall OF Sumter num-
bers of that maj rity went over to the orig
inal minority, and with them adopted an
ordinance for Withdrawing the State from
| this Union. Whether this change was


wrought by their great approval OF the as
sault on Sumter. or their great resentment
/ to she Government 5 resistance to that as
sault, is not definitely known. Although
they submitted the ordinance for ratifca-
/ ton to a vote of the people, to be taken
| somewhat more than month distant the
Convention and Legislature, which was


also in session at the same time and place,


with leading men Of the State, Immediately
commenced acting as if the State was al
ready out of the Union. They pushed


military preparations vigorously forward
all over the State. They seized the Uni
ted States armory at Harper's Ferry and


the Navy Yard at Gosport near Norfolk.
They received, perhaps invited into their
Stale, large bodies of troops, with their
warlike appointments, from the so-called
! seeded States. They formally entered
/ into treaty with the so-called Confeder-


ate States, and sent members to their Con-
gress at Montgomery, and finally they per


miited the insurrectionary government to


be transferred to the Capital at Richmond.
The peo le of Virginia have thus al


lowed this giant insurrection to make lis
nest within their borders, and this Gov