Volume I Part 18 (1/2)

The ill-advised attempt secretly to throw reenforcements and provisions into Fort Sumter, by means of the steamer Star of the West, resulted in the repulsion of that vessel at the mouth [pg 218] of the harbor, by the authorities of South Carolina, on the morning of the 9th of January. On her refusal to heave-to, she was fired upon, and put back to sea, with her recruits and supplies. A telegraphic account of this event was handed me, a few hours afterward, when stepping into my carriage to go to the Senate-chamber. Although I had then, for some time, ceased to visit the President, yet, under the impulse of this renewed note of danger to the country, I drove immediately to the Executive mansion, and for the last time appealed to him to take such prompt measures as were evidently necessary to avert the impending calamity. The result was even more unsatisfactory than that of former efforts had been.

On the same day the special message of the President on the state of the Union, dated the day previous (8th of January), was submitted to Congress. This message was accompanied by the first letter of the South Carolina Commissioners to the President, with his answer, but of course not by their rejoinder, which he had declined to receive. Mr. Buchanan, in his memoirs, complains that, immediately after the reading of his message, this rejoinder (which he terms an ”insulting letter”) was presented by me to the Senate, and by that body received and entered upon its journal.119 The simple truth is, that, regarding it as essential to a complete understanding of the transaction, and its publication as a mere act of justice to the Commissioners, I presented and had it read in the Senate. But its appearance upon the journal as part of the proceedings, instead of being merely a doc.u.ment introduced as part of my remarks, was the result of a discourteous objection, made by a so-called ”Republican” Senator, to the reading of the doc.u.ment by the Clerk of the Senate at my request. This will be made manifest by an examination of the debate and proceedings which ensued.120 The discourtesy recoiled upon its author and supporters, and gave the letter a vantage-ground in respect of prominence which I could not have foreseen or expected.

The next day (January 10th) the speech was delivered, the [pg 219] greater part of which may be found in the Appendix121-the last that I ever made in the Senate of the United States, except in taking leave, and by the sentiments of which I am content that my career, both before and since, should be judged.

The history of Fort Sumter during the remaining period, until the organization of the Confederate Government, may be found in the correspondence given in the Appendix.122 From this it will be seen that the authorities of South Carolina still continued to refrain from any act of aggression or retaliation, under the provocation of the secret attempt to reenforce the garrison, as they had previously under that of its nocturnal transfer from one fort to another.

Another Commissioner (the Hon. I. W. Hayne) was sent to Was.h.i.+ngton by the Governor of South Carolina, to effect, if possible, an amicable and peaceful transfer of the fort, and settlement of all questions relating to property. This Commissioner remained for nearly a month, endeavoring to accomplish the objects of his mission, but was met only by evasive and unsatisfactory answers, and eventually returned without having effected anything.

There is one pa.s.sage in the last letter of Colonel Hayne to the President which presents the case of the occupancy of Fort Sumter by the United States troops so clearly and forcibly that it may be proper to quote it. He writes as follows:

”You say that the fort was garrisoned for our protection, and is held for the same purposes for which it has been ever held since its construction. Are you not aware, that to hold, in the territory of a foreign power, a fortress against her will, avowedly for the purpose of protecting her citizens, is perhaps the highest insult which one government can offer to another? But Fort Sumter was never garrisoned at all until South Carolina had dissolved her connection with your Government. This garrison entered it in the night, with every circ.u.mstance of secrecy, after spiking the guns and burning the gun-carriages and cutting down the flag-staff of an adjacent fort, which was then abandoned. South Carolina had not taken Fort Sumter into her own possession, only because of her misplaced confidence in a Government which deceived her.”

[pg 220]

Thus, during the remainder of Mr. Buchanan's Administration, matters went rapidly from bad to worse. The old statesman, who, with all his defects, had long possessed, and was ent.i.tled still to retain, the confidence due to extensive political knowledge and love of his country in all its parts-who had, in his earlier career, looked steadily to the Const.i.tution, as the mariner looks to the compa.s.s, for guidance-retired to private life at the expiration of his term of office, having effected nothing to allay the storm which had been steadily gathering during his administration.

Timid vacillation was then succeeded by unscrupulous cunning; and, for futile efforts, without hostile collision, to impose a claim of authority upon people who repudiated it, were subst.i.tuted measures which could be sustained only by force.

Footnote 111: (return) ”Revised Statutes of Ma.s.sachusetts,” 1836, p. 56.

Footnote 112: (return) See ”Revised Statutes of Virginia.”

Footnote 113: (return) ”Buchanan's Administration,” chap. ix, p. 165, and chap. xi, pp. 212-214.

Footnote 114: (return) ”Buchanan's Administration,” chap. ix, p. 166.

Footnote 115: (return) Ibid.

Footnote 116: (return) Ibid., chap. x, p. 180.

Footnote 117: (return) See Appendix G.

Footnote 118: (return) ”Buchanan's Administration,” chap. x, pp. 187, 188.

Footnote 119: (return) ”Buchanan's Administration,” chap. x, p. 184.

Footnote 120: (return) See ”Congressional Globe,” second session, Thirty-fifth Congress, Part I, p. 284, et seq.

Footnote 121: (return) See Appendix I.

Footnote 122: (return) Ibid.

CHAPTER III.

Secession of Mississippi and Other States.-Withdrawal of Senators.-Address of the Author on taking Leave of the Senate.-Answer to Certain Objections.

Mississippi was the second State to withdraw from the Union, her ordinance of secession being adopted on the 9th of January, 1861. She was quickly followed by Florida on the 10th, Alabama on the 11th, and, in the course of the same month, by Georgia on the 18th, and Louisiana on the 26th. The Conventions of these States (together with that of South Carolina) agreed in designating Montgomery, Alabama, as the place, and the 4th of February as the day, for the a.s.sembling of a congress of the seceding States, to which each State Convention, acting as the direct representative of the sovereignty of the people thereof, appointed delegates.

Telegraphic intelligence of the secession of Mississippi had reached Was.h.i.+ngton some considerable time before the fact was officially communicated to me. This official knowledge I considered it proper to await before taking formal leave of the Senate. My a.s.sociates from Alabama and Florida concurred [pg 221] in this view. Accordingly, having received notification of the secession of these three States about the same time, on the 21st of January Messrs. Yulee and Mallory, of Florida, Fitzpatrick and Clay, of Alabama, and myself, announced the withdrawal of the States from which we were respectively accredited, and took leave of the Senate at the same time.