UNITED STATES. 



703 



immediately to withdraw the troops from the harbor 

 of Charleston, and I am informed that without this 

 negotiation is impossible. This I cannot do this I 

 will not do. Such an idea was never thought of by me 

 in any possible contingency. No such allusion had 

 been made in any communication between myself and 

 any human being. But the inference is that I am 

 bound to withdraw the troops from the only fort re- 

 maining in the possession of the United States in the 

 harbor of Charleston, because the officer there in com- 

 mand of ail of the forts thought proper, without in- 

 structions, to change his position from one of them to 

 another. 



At this point of writing, I have received informa- 

 tion by telegraph from Capt. Humphreys, in command 

 of the arsenal at Charleston, that " it has to-day (Sun- 

 day, the S'.'th'i been taken by force of arms.'"* It is 

 estimated that the munitions of war belonging to this 

 arsenal are worth half a million of dollars. 



Comment is needless. After this information, I 

 have only to add, that whilst it is my duty to defend 

 Fort Sumter, as a portion of the public property of the 

 United States, against hostile attacks, from whatever 

 quarter they may come, by such means as I possess 

 for this purpose, I do not perceive how such a defence 

 can be construed into a menace against the city of 

 Charleston. 



To this letter of the President the commis- 

 sioners sent a reply, dated January 1, 1861. 

 It is devoted to an examination of the main 

 points of the President's letter, and insists that 

 he was under a pledge to preserve the status of 

 affairs in Charleston harbor previous to the re- 

 moval of Major Anderson to Fort Sumter, and 

 insisting that he should observe this pledge. 



This communication was returned by the 

 President, with the following indorsement upon 

 it: "This paper, just presented to the Presi- 

 dent, is of such a character that he declines to 

 receive it. 1 ' 



After the departure of the South Carolina 

 delegation, Messrs. "Win. Porcher Miles and 

 Lawrence M. Keitt published at Charleston, 

 S. C., a narrative entitled. " A statement of 

 what transpired between the President and the 

 South Carolina delegation,'' in relation to the 

 reenforcement of Major Anderson. The fol- 

 lowing extract shows that the understanding 

 on the subject between the President and rep- 

 resentatives of the State was not, even in the 

 opinion of the latter, in the nature of a pledge 

 on either side : 



The very fact that we, the representatives from 

 South Carolina, were not authorized to commit or 

 " pledge " the State, were not treating with the Presi- 

 dent as accredited ministers with full powers, but as 

 gentlemen assuming, to a certain extent, the delicate 

 task of undertaking^to foreshadow the course and pol- 

 icy of the State, should have made the President more 

 readv to strengthen our hands to bring about and carry 

 out the course and policy which he professed to have 

 as much at heart as we had. "While we were not au- 

 thorized to say that the Convention would not order 

 the occupation' of the forts immediately after secession, 

 and prior to the sending on of commissioners, the Presi- 

 dent, as commander-in-chief of the army and navy of 

 the United States, could most positively say that, so 

 long as South Carolina abstained from attacking and 

 seizing the forts, he would not send reinforcements to 

 them or allow their relative military status to be 

 changed. We were acting in the capacity of gentle- 

 men holding certain prominent positions, and anxious 

 to exert such influence as we might possess to effect a 

 peaceful solution of pending political difficulties, and 



prevent, if pos-iMe, thr> horrors of war. The President 

 was acting in a double capacity ; not only as a gentle- 

 man, whose influence in carrying out hi-, .-hare of the 

 understanding or agreement wa.-> t>otcntiul, but us the 

 head of the army, and, therefore, having the absolute 

 control of the whole matter of rer'nforcing or transfer- 

 ring the garrison at Charleston. But we have dwelt 

 long enough upon this point. Suffice it to say that, 

 considering the President as bound in honor, if not by 

 treaty stipulation, not to make any change in the forts, 

 or to send rei-nforcemcnts to them unless they were at- 

 tacked, we of the delegation who were elected to the 

 Convention felt equally bound in honor to do every 

 thing on our part to prevent any premature collision. 

 This Convention can bear us witness as to whether or 

 not we endeavored honorably to carry out our share of 

 the agreement. 



Affairs now continued to grow worse. The 

 hope of an amicable adjustment was diminished 

 by every hour's delay, and as the prospect of a 

 bloodless settlement passed away, the public 

 distress became more and more aggravated. 

 The Treasury was without money, and could 

 obtain it only at twelve per cent, interest. The 

 military force of the Government was almost 

 entirely on the western frontier, and the ves- 

 sels of the navy were in active service in dis- 

 tant stations, or required immediate repairs. 



AVY.) 



On the 8th of January the President sent a 

 Message to Congress, urging its immediate 

 attention to the state of affairs. After alluding 

 to the views advanced in his former Message, 

 he said : 



This left me no alternative, as the chief Executive 

 officer under the Constitution of the United States, but 

 to collect the public revenues and to protect the public 

 property, so far as this might be practicable, under ex- 

 isting laws. 



This is still my purpose. My province is to execute, 

 and not to make' the laws. It belongs to Congress ex- 

 clusively to repeal, to modify, or to enlarge their pro- 

 visions to meet exigencies as they may occur. I pos- 

 sess no dispensing power. 



I certainly had no right to make aggressive war 

 upon any State ; and I am perfectly satisfied that the 

 Constitution has wisely withheld that power even from 

 Congress. But the right and the duty to nse military 

 force defensively against those who resist the Federal 

 officers in the execution of their legal functions, and 

 against those who assail the property of the Federal 

 Government, are clear and undeniable. 



But the dangerous and hostile attitude of the States 

 towards each other has already far transcended and 

 cast in the shade the ordinary Executive duties already 

 provided for by law, and has assumed such vast and 

 alarming proportions as to place the subject entirely 

 above and beyond Executive control. The fact cannot 

 be disguised that we are in the midst of a great revo- 

 lution. In all its various bearings, therefore, I com- 

 mend the question to Congress, as the only human 

 tribunal, under Providence, possessing the power to 

 meet the existing emergency. To them exclusively 

 belongs the power to declare war, or to authorize the 

 employment of military force in all cases contemplated 

 by the' Constitution, and they alone possess the power 

 to remove grievances which might lead to war, and to 

 secure peace and union to this distracted country. On 

 them, and on them alone, rests the responsibility. 



Referring to the principle which had thus far 

 governed his conduct, he said : 



At the beginning of these unhappy troubles I deter- 

 mined that "no act of mine should increase the excite- 

 ment in either section of the country. If the political 

 conflict were to end in a civil war it was my deter- 



