PUBLIC DOCUMENTS. 



617 



F 







U 



of the very day on which the fleet might be expected 

 to arrive. 



That tliis mancenvre failed in its purpose was not 

 the fault of those who controlled it. A heavy tempest 

 delayed the arrival of the expedition, and gave time 

 to the commander of our forces at Charleston to ask 

 and receive instructions of the Government. Even 

 then, under all the provocation incident to the con- 

 temptuous refusal to listen to our commissioners, and 

 the treacherous course of the Government of the 

 United States, I was sincerely anxious to avoid the 

 effusion of blood, and directed a proposal to be made 

 to the commander of Fort Sumter, who had avowed 

 himself to be nearly out of provisions, that we would 

 abstain from directing our fire on Fort Sumter if he 

 would promise to not open fire on our forces unless 

 first attacked. This proposal was refused. The con- 

 clusion was, that the design of the United States was 

 to place the besieging force at Charleston between the 

 simultaneous fire of the fleet. The fort should, of 

 course, be at once reduced. This order was executed 

 bv General Beauregard with skill and success, which 

 * were naturally to be expected from the well-known 

 character of that gallant officer ; and, although the 

 bombardment lasted some thirty-three hours, our flag 

 did not wave over the battered walls until after the 

 appearance of the hostile fleet off Charleston. 



Fortunately, not a life was lost on our side t and we 



ere gratified in being prepared. The necessity of an 

 . seless effusion of blood, by the prudent caution of the 

 officers who commanded the fleet, in abstaining from 

 the evidently futile effort to enter the harbor for the 

 relief of Major Anderson, was snared. 



I refer to the report of the Secretary of War, and 

 the papers accompanying it, for further particulars of 

 this brilliant affair. 



In this connection I cannot refrain from a well- 

 deserved tribute to the noble State, the eminently sol- 

 dierly qualities of whose people were conspicuously 

 displayed. The people of Charleston for months had 

 been irritated by the spectacle of a fortress held with- 

 in their principal harbor as a standing menace against 

 their peace and independence built in part with their 

 own money its custody confided with their long con- 

 sent to an agent who held no power over them other 

 than such as they had themselves delegated for their 

 own benefit, intended to be used by that agent for 

 their own protection against foreign attack. " How it 

 was held out with persistent tenacity as a means of 

 offence against them by the very Government which 

 they had established for their own protection, is well 

 known. They had beleagured it for months, and felt 

 entire confidence in their power to capture it, yet 

 yielded to the requirements of discipline, curbed th'eir 

 impatience, submitted without complaint to the unac- 

 customed hardships, labors, and privations of a pro- 

 tracted siege, and when at length their patience was 

 relieved by the signal for attack, and success had 

 crowned their steady and gallant conduct, even in the 

 very moment of triumph they evinced a chivalrous 

 regard for the feelings of the brave but unfortunate 

 officer who had been compelled to lower his flag. 



All manifestations or exultations were checked in 

 his presence. Their commanding general, with their 

 cordial approval and the consent of his Government, 

 refrained from imposing any terms that would wound 

 the sensibility of the commander of the fort. He was 



Eermitted to" retire with the honors of war, to salute 

 is flag, to depart freely with all his command, and 

 was escorted to the vessel on which he embarked with 

 the highest marks of respect from those against whom 

 his guns had so recently been directed. 



Not only does every event connected with the siege 

 reflect the highest honor on South Carolina, but the 

 forbearance of her people and of this Government 

 from making any harangue of a victory obtained un- 

 der circumstances of such peculiar provocation, attest 

 to the fullest extent the absence of any purpose beyond 

 securing their own tranquillity, and the sincere desire 

 to avoid the calamities of war". 

 Scarcely had the President of the United States re- 



ceived intelligence of the failure of the scheme which 

 he had devised for the rei-uforcement of Fort Sumter, 

 when he issued the declaration of war against this 

 Confederacy, which has prompted me to convoke you. 

 In this extraordinary production, that high functionary 

 affects total ignorance of the existence of an independ- 

 ent Government, which, possessing the entire and 

 enthusiastic devotion of its people, is exercising its 

 functions without question over seven sovereign - 

 over more than tive millions of people and over a 

 territory whose area exceeds five hundred thousand 

 square miles. 



He terms sovereign States " combinations too pow- 

 erful to be suppressed in the ordinary course of judi- 

 cial proceedings, or by the powers vested in the mar- 

 shals by law.' 1 



He cal%. for an army of seventy-five thousand men 

 to act as the posse comitatus in aid of the process of 

 the courts of justice in States where no courts exist, 

 whose mandates and decrees are not cheerfully obeyed 

 and respected by a willing people. 



He avows that the first service to be assigned to the 

 forces which have been called out will not be to exe- 

 cute the processes of courts, but to capture forts and 

 strongholds situated within the admitted limits of this 

 Confederacy, and garrisoned bv its troops, and de- 

 clares that this effort is intended to maintain the per- 

 petuity of popular Government. 



He concludes by commanding the persons composing 

 the " combinations " aforesaid, to wit, the five millions 

 of inhabitants of these States, to retire peaceably to 

 their respective abodes within twenty days. 



Apparently contradictory as are the "terms of this 

 singular document, one point was unmistakably evi- 

 dent. The President of the United States calls for an 

 army of seventy-five thousand men, whose first service 

 was'to be to capture our forts. It was a plain decla- 

 ration of war which I was not at liberty to disregard, 

 because of my knowledge that under the Constitution 

 of the United States the President was usurping a 

 power granted exclusively to the Congress. 



He is the sole organ of communication between that 

 country and foreign powers. The law of nations did 

 nr>t permit me to question the authority of the Execu- 

 tive of a foreign nation to declare war against this 

 Confederacy. Although I might have refrained from 

 taking active measures for our defence, if the States 

 of the Union had all imitated the action of Virginia, 

 Xorth Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, and 

 Missouri, by denouncing it as an unconstitutional 

 usurpation of power to which they refuse to respond, 

 I was not at liberty to disregard the fact that many of 

 the States seemed quite content to submit to the exer- 

 cise of the powers assumed by the President of the 

 United States, and were actively engaged in levying 

 troops for the purpose indicated in the proclamation. 

 Deprived of the aid of Congress, at the moment I was 

 under the necessity of confining my action to a call on 

 the States for -volunteers for the common defence, in 

 accordance with the authority you had confided to me 

 before your adjournment. 



I deemed it proper further to issue a proclamation, 

 inviting applications from persons disposed to aid in 

 our defence in private armed vessels on the high seas, 

 to the end that preparations might be made for the 

 immediate issue of letters of marque and reprisal, 

 which you alone, under the Constitution, have the 

 power to grant. 



I entertain no doubt that you will concur with me 

 in the opinion, that in the absence of an organized 

 navy, it will be eminently expedient to supply their 

 place with private armed vessels, so happily styled by 

 the publicists of the United States the militia of the 

 sea, and so often and justly relied on by them as 

 an efficient and admirable instrument of defensive 

 warfare. 



I earnestly recommend the immediate passage of a 

 law authorizing me to accept the numerous proposals 

 already received. 



I cannot close this review of the acts of the Govern- 

 ment of the United States without referring to a proc- 



