706 



UNITED STATES. 



which I am at present charged, will await further in- 

 structions. 



Mr. Holt then states that the President lias 

 endeavored to perform his duties in such a 

 manner as to preserve the peace and prevent 

 bloodshed. His sole object has been to act 

 strictly on the defensive, and to authorize no 

 movement against the people of South Caro- 

 lina, unless clearly justified by a hostile move- 

 ment on their part. 



In regard to the proposition of Colonel Hayne, 

 "that no reenforcemenCs will be sent to Fort 

 Sumter in the interval, and that the public 

 peace will not be disturbed by any act of hos- 

 tility towards South Carolina," it is impossible 

 for him to give any such assurances. The 

 President has no authority to enter into such 

 an agreement or understanding. As an execu- 

 tive officer, he is simply bound to protect the 

 public property, so far as this may be practi- 

 cable ; and it would be a manifest violation of 

 his duty to place himself under engagements 

 that he would not perform this duty either for 

 an indefinite or a limited period. At the pres- 

 ent moment, it is not deemed necessary to re- 

 enforce Major Anderson, because he makes no 

 such request, and feels quite secure in his posi- 

 tion. Should his safety, however, require reen- 

 forcements, every effort will be made to supply 

 them. 



In regard to an assurance from the President 

 " that the public peace will not be disturbed by 

 any act of hostility towards South Carolina," 

 Mr. Holt said : " The answer will readily occur 

 to yourselves. To Congress, and to Congress 

 alone, belongs the power to make war, and it 

 would be an act of usurpation for the Execu- 

 tive to give any assurance that Congress would 

 not exercise this power, however strongly he 

 may be convinced that no such intention exists." 



This correspondence was forwarded to 

 Charleston, and the Governor of South Caro- 

 lina ordered Mr. Hayne to deliver his letter 

 forthwith. The demand of Mr. Hayne was 

 urged on these grounds : 



South Carolina, as a separate independent sovereign, 

 assumes the right to take into her own possession every 

 thing within her limits essential to maintain her honor 

 or her safety, irrespective of the question of property, 

 subject only to the moral duty requiring that compen- 

 sation should be made to the owner. This right she 

 cannot permit to be drawn into discussion. As to 

 compensation for any property, whether of an indi- 

 vidual or a Government, which she may deem it neces- 

 sary, for her honor or safety, to take into her posses- 

 sion, her past history gives ample guarantee that it 

 will be made, upon a fair accounting, to the last dollar. 



In another part of his letter he speaks in 

 terms of similar purport, as follows : 



She (South Carolina) rests her position on some- 

 thing higher than mere property. It is a considera- 

 tion of her own dignity as a sovereign, and the safety 

 of her people, which prompts her to demand that this 

 property should not longer be used as a military post 

 by a Government she no longer acknowledges. She 

 feels this to be an imperative duty. It has, in fact, 

 become an absolute necessity of her condition. 



On the 6th of February, Mr. Holt gave a 

 final reply, in which he said : 



The proposal now presented to the President, it 

 simply an ofl'er on the part of South Carolina to buy 

 Fort Sumter and contents as property of the United 

 States, sustained by a declaration, in e'fi'ect, that if she 

 is not permitted to make the purchase, she will seize 

 the fort by force of arms. As the initiation of the ne- 

 gotiation for the transfer of property between friendly 

 Governments, this proposal impresses the President as 

 having assumed a most unusual form. He has, how- 

 ever, investigated the claim on which it professes to 

 be based, apart from the declaration that accompanies 

 it. And it may be here remarked that much stress 

 has been laid upon the employment of the words 

 "property" and " public property " by the President 

 in his several messages. These are the most compre- 

 hensive terms which can be used in such a connection, 

 and surely, when referring to a fort or any other public 

 establishment, they embrace the entire and undivided 

 interest of the Government therein. 



The title of the United States to Fort Sumter is com- 

 plete and incontestable. Were its interest in this prop- 

 erty purely proprietary, in the ordinary acceptation 

 of the term, it might probably be subjected to the ex- 

 ercise of the right of eminent" domain ; but it has also 

 political relations to it of a much higher and more im- 

 posing character than those of mere proprietorship. 

 It has absolute jurisdiction over the fort and the soil 

 on which it stands. This jurisdiction consists in the 

 authority to " exercise exclusive legislation " over the 

 property referred to, and is therefore clearly incom- 

 patible with the claim of eminent domain now insisted 

 upon by South Carolina. This authority was not de- 

 rived from any questionable, revolutionary source, but 

 from the peaceful cession of South Carolina herself, 

 acting through her Legislature, under a provision of 

 the Constitution of the United States. South Carolina 

 can no more assert the right of eminent domain over 

 Fort Sumter than Maryland can assert it over the Dis- 

 trict of Columbia. The political and proprietary rights 

 of the United States in either case rest upon precisely 

 the same ground. 



The President, however, is relieved from the neces- 

 sity of further pursuing this inquiry by the fact that, 

 whatever may be the claim of South Carolina to this 

 fort, he has no constitutional power to cede or surren- 

 der it. The property of the United States has been 

 acquired by force of public law, and can only be dis- 

 posed of under the same solemn sanctions. Tlie Presi- 

 dent, as the head of the Executive branch of the Gov- 

 ernment only, can no more sell and transfer Fort 

 Sumter to South Carolina, than he can sell and con- 

 vey the capitol of the United States to Maryland, or to 

 any other State or individual seeking to possess it. 

 His Excellency the Governor is too familiar with the 

 Constitution of the United States, and with the limita- 

 tions upon the powers of the Chief Magistrate of the 

 Government it has established, not to appreciate at 

 once the soundness of this legal proposition. 



The question of reenforcing Fort Sumter is so fully 

 disposed of in my letter to Senator Slidell and others, 

 under date of the 22d of January a copy of which 

 accompanies this that its discussion will not now be 

 renewed. I then said : " At the present moment it is 

 not deemed necessary to reenforce Major Anderson, 

 because he makes no such request. Should his safety, 

 however, require reinforcements, every effort will be 

 made to supply them." I can add nothing to the ex- 

 plicitness of this language, which still applies to the 

 existing status. The right to send forward reenforce- 

 ments, when in the judgment of the President the 

 safety of the garrison requires them, rests on the same 

 unquestionable foundation as the right to occupy the 

 fortress itself. 



In the letter of Senator Davis and others to your- 

 self, under date of the loth ultimo, they say : " \Ve, 

 therefore, think it especially due from South Carolina 

 to our States to say nothing of other slaveholding 

 States that she should, as far as she can consistently 

 with her honor, avoid initiating hostilities between her 

 and the United States, or any other Power ;" and you 

 now yourself give to the President the gratifying as- 



