Year: 1861

would better enable the country to &C


cept the evacuation of Sumter as


military necessity. Then an order wa.


at once directed to be sent for the land


ing of the troops from the steamship


Brooklyn into Fort Pickens. This or


der could not 60 by land but must take
the surer and slower route by sea. The
first returning news from the order was
received just one week before the fall


of Sumter. The news itself was that
the officer commanding the Sabine, to
which vessel the troops had been trans
ferred from the Brooklyn, acting upon
some armistice of the late administra-
ton, and of the existance of which the
present administration, up to the time
the order was dispatched, had only two
vague and uncertain rumors to fix atten-
ton, had refused to land the troops. To
now reinforce Fort Pickens before the
crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter
was impossible, rendered so by the mere
exhaustion of provisions in the latter
named Fort. In precaution against
such contingency the Government
had few days before commenced pre-
pairing an expedition as well adapted


as might be to relieve Fort Sumter,
which expedition was intended to be
ultimately used or not according to Cir
cumstances. The strongest anticipat-
ed case for using it was now presented,
and it was resolved to send it forw ard,
as had been intended. In this contin-
gency it was also resolved to 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 be resisted, there
would be no attempt to throw in men,
arms, or ammunition, without further
notice, or in case of an attack upon


the Fort. This notice was accordingly


given, whereupon the fort was attacked


and bombarded to its fall, even await


ing the arrival of the provision expedi-
ton. 1t is thus seen that the assault
upon and reduction of Fort Sumter
were in no sense matter of selfde-
fence on the part of the assailants.


They we'll knew that 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 was
all that would on that occasion be at.
tempted unless themselves, by resist.
ing so much, should provoke more.


They knew that this Government de-
sired to keep the garrison in the fort,


not to assail them, but merely to main


tain visible possession, and thus to pre-
serve the Union from actual and imme-
diate dissolution, trusting, as herein
before stated, to time, discussion and
the balIot-bo for final adjustment; and
they assailed and reduced the fort for
precisely the reverse object-to drive
out the visible authority of the Federal
Union, and thus force it to immediate
dissolution. That this was their object
the Executive we'll understood; and
having said to them in the Inaugural
address, You can have no conflict
without being yourselves the agrees
ors," he took pains not only to keep
the declaration good, but also to keep
the case so far from ingenious sophistry
that the world should not misunder-
stand it. BY the affair at Fort Sumter.
with its surrounding circumstances,
that point was reached. Then and
there, by the assailants of the Govern
ment, began the conflict without gun
in sight or expectancy to return their
firing, save only the few in the fort.
sent to that harbor years before fol-


their own protection, and still ready to
give that protection in whatever was
loyal. In this act, discarding all else


they have forced upon the country the


distinct issue of immediate dissolution


or blood, and this embraces more thar
the fate of these United States. i


presents to the whole family of mar


the question whether Constitutions
Republic or Democracy, a government


;. of the pople, the same people can Of
j cannot maintain its territorial integrity
against its own domestic foes. 1t pre-
sents the question whether discontente(
persons, too few in numbers to contro
the Administration according to th'
organic law in any case, can always
upon the pretenses made in this case o
any other pretenses, or arbitrarily, with
out any pretenses break up their Gov


ernment and thus practically put al
end to free government upon the earth
1t forces us to ask, is there in all re
: publics this inherent and fatal weak
r ness? Must Government Of necessity
5 be too strong for the liberties of tn
people, or too weak to maintain its ow


: existence? So viewing the issues, n
choice was left but to call out the wa
: power of the Government and so t
e resist the force employed for its dc
e struction by force for its preservation
t The call was made and the respons
t Of the country was most gratlfyine
e surprising in unanimity and spirit tn
most sanguine expectation. Yet non
g of the States commonly called slav
4 States, except Delaware, gave reg
v ment through the regular State o.


l. ganizatfon. A few regiments hav
g been organized within some other {
t those States by individual enterprise
i and received into the Government Sc
l. vice of course. The seeded State
It SO called, and to which Texas had bee
e Joined about the time of the inaugur'


fI,f n 4