then requiring. The Democrats of the Breckin ridge party were eager to do all that they ever had required, or ever could require. Even in Boston there was a disposition to frown down the Abolitionists, as the cause of all the mischief. On the 3rd of December, 1860, a large number of persons assembled in Fremont Temple, denounced the acts of John Brown as bloody and tyrannical, and violently drove out of the hall all the Abolitionists and negroes who happened to be in it. Mr. Wendell Phillips was mobbed on several occasions. sentiment, however, was generally felt by all classes and all parties. It was resolved to maintain the Union by force, if it could not be preserved by milder measures.

One

But it was apparent that nothing

could be done during the remaining weeks of Mr. Buchanan's Presidency. His Cabinet had been made up of active traitors and weak accomplices. It is not very easy to say which of these categories Mr. Buchanan himself belonged to; but he certainly was no friend of the North, and, be his motives what they might, his action had been most disastrous to the Union. All men now looked forward to the Administration of his successor; some in the spirit of hope, others in that of fear. Whatever he might do or leave undone, it was known that Mr. Lincoln would not trifle with rebellion. The organ of the President-elect, published at Springfield, Illinois, where Lincoln himself resided, spoke very clearly on this subject during those anxious days of waiting. "If," said that journal, "South Carolina does not obstruct the collection of the revenues at her ports, nor violate another Federal law, there will be no

I'

trouble, and she will not be out of the Union. she violates the law, then comes the tug of war." But even here there was a disposition to take the most lenient view. It was not too late to draw back, except for those reasons of false pride which are at the bottom of so many crimes. Had South Carolina paused in her career, or had the other Southern States refused to join her, the quarrel might even then have been settled without blows. There was every disposition on the part of the North to accommodate the feud. The one thing which the North would not grant was separation; the one thing which would rouse it to concerted action was the note of absolute defiance. The same natural regard for settled dominion which nerved Great Britain in her seven years' struggle against the revolted colonies of America, now nerved the Union against her fratricidal brethren in the South. The existing generation of Americans had succeeded to an inheritance of thirty-three majestic and prosperous. States. They could not be expected to relinquish any part of their possessions at the demand of a league of slave-holders. For the creation of that Republic, their fathers had fought; for the maintenance of that Republic, themselves would die. It was not possible to misinterpret the prevalent sentiment on that point in the closing days of 1860. On a hundred other subjects there might have been a hundred different opinions; as to that stern necessity there was but one. But there were still two months of Mr. Buchanan's feeble Administration to be traversed, and the cause of treason and of the South had got the start.

IN any operations for the vindication of Federal authority in the South, it was necessary that the Government of the Union should be in a position of command as regarded the forts and other military

works belonging to that part of the Republic. But the conspirators at Washington had taken care that this should not be the case. The harbour of Charleston was defended by four structures mounted

1860.]

with guns; viz., Castle Pinckney, Fort Moultrie, Fort Sumter, and Fort Johnson. Of these, the strongest and most important was Fort Sumter; the others were of no great value as means of defence. The commandant of Charleston Harbour, in October, 1860, was Colonel Gardner; but he was shortly afterwards removed from his position by Floyd, the treacherous Secretary of War, for attempting to increase his supply of ammunition. He was succeeded by Major Robert Anderson; but if Floyd, Howell Cobb, and their confederates, supposed that they had obtained in him a more pliant agent, they were mistaken. He saw the weakness of the Federal position at Charleston, and he also perceived that the South Carolinians were plotting mischief. On the 23rd of November-three days after his arrival--he wrote to Adjutant-General Cooper, at Washington, warning the Government authorities of the military preparations which were evidently being made by the people, revealing the weak condition of the forts, and advising immediate measures for putting them in a more effective state. Of course his representations were unheeded, for their existing state was the very thing which the conspirators desired to preserve until the revolution could be effected. It would be time enough to strengthen Charleston when it had become one of the chief cities of a Southern Confederacy. For the present, the weaker the Federal forts, the better for the design in hand. Cooper ultimately took service with the rebels; and in the meanwhile it must have been very encouraging to him to read the communications of Anderson. That officer declared that Sumter was at the mercy of insurgents. It was the key of the position; and, should it be seized, its guns would command Fort Moultrie, and drive out the occupants of that work. Castle Pinckney and Fort Johnson would soon follow, and Federal authority would then be at an end in Charleston.

Anderson, though meeting with no satisfactory response, continued to address his warnings to Adjutant-General Cooper, who was in immediate communication with Mr. Floyd, the Secretary of War. The commandant was instructed to address himself exclusively to one or other of those officials, for it was feared that if he should make known the weak condition of the forts to General Scott, the Commander-in-Chief of the American army, immediate steps would be taken for guarding against such a danger. Floyd was bent on supplying the South with as many arms as possible for use against the Union. On the 20th of December he gave orders that forty-four large guns should at once be sent from the arsenal at Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, to an unfinished fort on Ship Island, off the coast of

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Mississippi, and seventy-eight others from the same arsenal to another uncompleted fort situated at Galveston. The people of Pittsburg, however, were determined that no such transfer should be made. A meeting was held, at the requisition of the Mayor; the guns were forcibly detained; and when, shortly afterwards, Floyd resigned office, his successor countermanded the order. To send heavy guns to unfinished forts, where they could not be used in defence of Federal authority, but would soon fall into the hands of the rebels, was a notable device of treason; but no guns were to be spared for Fort Sumter, lest the South Carolinians should take it ill. Anderson was even directed to send some of the workmen on the fort to the Charleston authorities, should a demand be made for their services in the State militia. The commandant felt himself powerless, for the Government was evidently resolved to betray the position. General Scott was equally perplexed. He represented the gravity of the situation in the strongest colours to the War Minister and the President; but nothing was done. Mr. Buchanan's excuse for not strengthening the Southern forts was that the South Carolinians would probably send commissioners to Washington for the peaceable secession of the State, and the acquisition by purchase of the Federal property; and that he did not yet know what course Congress would be disposed to take in such a case. The fact is, Mr. Buchanan wished well to Secession, and gladly avoided any measures for its defeat. possible, however, that weakness, and not intentional treason, was at the bottom of his policy. At the beginning of the troubles, he was eagerly desirous of sending reinforcements; saying that he would rather be at the bottom of the Potomac than that the forts should be in the hands of those who designed to take them. A few days later, he suffered himself to be converted by the arguments of his War Secretary, who had been taking the advice of Mr. Jefferson Davis, and others of the same faction! * Left to himself and to his own resources, Major Anderson sent some engineers and workmen to repair Castle Pinckney, and at the same time did his best to strengthen Fort Moultrie. On the 22nd of December-two days after the South Carolinian convention had passed the Ordinance of Secessionhe wrote to the Department of War that a steamer had been stationed near Sumter, evidently with a view to prevent any troops being placed in that fort, and that it was obviously the intention of the South Carolinians to seize the position as soon as they might see reason to doubt its being handed

*

It is

Speech of Mr. Floyd at Richmond, Virginia, Jan. 11th, 1861.

over to the State. He received no answer whatever to this communication, and, reflecting that he had no means to defend the whole of the four works, but that by concentrating his forces he might perhaps save the principal, he determined to shift his head-quarters from Moultrie to Sumter. Before doing this he transferred the women and children in the former work, first to Fort Johnson, and afterwards to the chief position; adopting a tortuous course with a view to blinding the Charleston authorities as to his real design. The removal to Fort Sumter did not take place until the evening of the 26th of December, when, under a bright moon, the troops were safely carried over from Moultrie, though the South Carolinians were seldom without watch-boats hovering about to observe the actions of the Federal representatives. A few officers and men were left at the abandoned work, to spike the great guns, destroy the carriages, and cut down the flag-staff; after which they were to join their comrades. Anderson at once wrote to Adjutant-General Cooper, informing him of what had been done; but before his letter could arrive, the Charleston Secessionists had telegraphed the news to the War Office at Washington. Floyd was astonished and disconcerted. He demanded explanations of the commandant, saying that the reported withdrawal to Fort Sumter was not believed, because there had been no order for such a movement. It was replied that the change had been made as a necessary measure of defence, and to save both guns and men. Great was the indignation of Floyd At a Cabinet meeting he called attention to the fact that both he and the President had pledged their words to the authorities of South Carolina that the existing military position in that State should not be changed during the expiring term of the Democratic Administration.* The same statement was made to Major Anderson by a messenger from the Governor of South Carolina, who, on the 27th of December, arrived at Fort Sumter in a boat, with a demand (which was of course refused) for that officer's immediate return to Fort Moultrie. When, on the same day, Floyd brought the matter before the Cabinet, he vehemently declared that the solemn pledges of the Government had been violated, and he demanded of the President permission to withdraw the garrison from the harbour of Charleston altogether. For once, Mr. Buchanan held to his duty, though not without some momentary hesitation. He refused, and Mr. Floyd resigned on the 29th of December. The retiring Secretary (who at once repaired to the South) was succeeded by Mr. Joseph Holt, of Kentucky-a gentleman of *Pollard's First Year of the War, chap. 1.

upright character and loyal views. On the last day of the old year, Mr. Holt conveyed to Major Anderson the approval of the Government as to his recent action; and, a week later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution commending the bold and patriotic course followed by the commandant, and offering to support the President in all constitutional measures to enforce the laws

and preserve the Union. Mr. Buchanan was being steadied by the pressure of circumstances.

Previously to these events, the condition of the Southern forts had been frequently made a subject of inquiry by Northern members of Congress; but for some time the topic was ingeniously stifled by members from the slave-holding States, who always dwelt on the impolicy of irritating the South by exhibitions of distrust. At length, however, at the beginning of 1861, the House of Representatives appointed a Committee on Military Affairs, feeling persuaded that the new Secretary of War, Mr. Holt, would give correct information. The report of this committee surprised the public by some very ugly facts. It appeared that on the 29th of December, 1859, Floyd had ordered the transfer of a large number of muskets and rifles from the armoury at Springfield, Massachusetts, and from two arsenals in the North, to arsenals in the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana; and the transfer was in fact made in the spring of 1860. On the 9th of January in that year, Jefferson Davis introduced into the Senate a Bill to authorise the sale of public arms to the several States and Territories, and to regulate the appointment of Superintendents of the National Armouries. The design of this measure was to enable a number of volunteers who had been formed in the South to obtain the weapons which they required. The Bill, after passing the Senate, was lost in the House of Representatives; but Floyd and his companions were not to be foiled. An Act of Congress of 1825 empowered the Secretary of War to sell arms, ammunition, and other military stores, which might be found unsuitable for public service. Accordingly, Floyd, by a forced construction of the law, sold to some of the Southern States, and to certain individuals, an immense number of muskets, at a very low sum each. This was after the election of Mr. Lincoln, and when Secession was beginning to loom ominously on the horizon. That Mr. Buchanan knew of these transactions, and permitted them, seems probable. He has himself put it on record that the refusal to strengthen the Southern forts was his own act; and it is therefore not + Letter to the National Intelligencer, dated "Wheatland, near Lancaster, October 28th, 1862."-In this letter, Mr.

1860.]

unlikely that he connived at the concentration of weapons in the hands of the disaffected. At any rate, the South got the arms, and the North was denuded of them. A newspaper in one of the seceding States put the matter very frankly, shortly after the arrangement had been made. During the past year," said this journal, "135,430 muskets have been quietly transferred from the Northern arsenal at Springfield alone to those in the Southern States. We are much obliged to Secretary Floyd for the foresight he has thus displayed, in disarming the North and equipping the South for this emergency. There is no telling the quantity of arms and munitions which were sent South from other arsenals. There is no doubt but that every man in the South who can carry a gun can now be supplied from private or public sources. The Springfield contribution alone would arm all the militia-men of Alabama and Mississippi."* Mr. Pollard, the Virginian historian of the war, alludes without any reserve to Mr. Floyd's services in this respect during the latter months of his Administration, and credits him with having transferred from Northern to Southern arsenals no fewer than 115,000 improved muskets and rifles. Of Mr. Floyd's treachery, therefore, no doubt can possibly be entertained. The statements of friend and foe alike convict him.

The removal of Major Anderson from Moultrie to Sumter not merely surprised but enraged the people of Charleston. They said it was a hostile act-the commencement of civil war; and they demanded to be led against the fort now occupied by the officer of the United States, which they believed their enthusiasm alone would enable them to take. Instead of this, however, Fort Moultrie and Castle Pinckney were occupied by the Secessionists on the 27th of December; on the 28th, the Custom House and Post Office were appropriated; and on the 30th the Government Arsenal was seized by the State militia. On the earliest of those days, the revenue-cutter William Aikin, lying in Charleston harbour, was surrendered by the officer in command. The works that had been seized were enlarged and strengthened; and, on Major Anderson sending a post-adjutant to Moultrie to inquire of the commander there by what authority he and armed men were in that fortification of the United States, he was answered, " By the authority of the Sovereign State of South Carolina, and by

Buchanan denies that he was at all influenced by the advice of Mr. Floyd. To that extent, his testimony is antagonistic to the assertions of Mr. Floyd himself, in the Richmond speech before alluded to.

* Mobile Advertiser, quoted by Lossing.

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command of her Government." South Carolina then, was now committed, not merely to Secession, but to rebellion. She had taken more than a political step; she had drawn the sword. Affecting to see in the recent act of Major Anderson a resort to war on the part of that officer, the authorities of Charleston had desperately lifted their hands against the Federal Government, had seized Federal property, and had brought all hope of compromise to an end. It was now certain that the North must prepare for a long and agonising struggle. South Carolina had commenced the evil work, and it was but too probable that the whole South would follow.

The conspirators, however, had very little reliance on one another, as commonly happens with conspirators. Mr. Trescott, the Assistant Secretary of State, though he had been doing his best for a long while to further the cause of Secession, was so much suspected that by some it was thought unsafe to trust him with any information from South Carolina. Robert Barnwell Rhett spoke of Jefferson Davis, afterwards President of the Southern Confederation, as a dishonest man and a liar. Mr. Buchanan was regarded-and perhaps not without reason-as a trimmer and a waverer, who had not courage enough to side unequivocally with either party. The man most liked appears to have been Mr. Floyd; and certainly he had many claims on the gratitude of the South. He was suspiciously mixed up with a transaction which was known as the misappropriation of the Indian Trust Fund, and which, no doubt, was intended as a means of supplying the slave-holding States with money. The Fund was created for the nominal purpose of carrying on military operations in Utah; and Floyd accepted, from the firm who had contracted for the transportation of supplies, drafts on his Department to the amount of more than two millions of dollars. The acceptances were of so questionable a nature that they could not be negotiated; and at length a clerk in the Interior Department was persuaded to exchange the State bonds composing the Indian Trust Fund for Floyd's bills. The bonds were then turned into money at New York; and it was not until the close of 1860 that the fraud was discovered. A Committee of Inquiry, appointed by the House of Representatives early in the following year, presented a report, in which Floyd's conduct was condemned, though in rather timid phraseology; and the Grand Jury of Washington indicted the offending Minister for malversation in office, complicity in the abstraction of the Indian Trust Fund, and conspiracy against the Government. But it was impossible to take

The Commissioners from South Carolina Messrs. Barnwell, Adams, and Orr-arrived at Washington on the 26th of December, and took for their Secretary Mr. W. H. Trescott, who had recently left the State Department. On the 28th they addressed a letter to the President, explaining the object of their mission. They said they were charged by the convention of the people of South

Carolina was completely that of an independent Government, as the State asserted itself to be. But this was not all. Messrs. Barnwell, Adams, and Orr, considered themselves entitled to administer reproof to the Government of the United States with respect to what had happened at Charleston. The Commissioners added that they had hoped to conduct the negotiation in such a way as to inaugurate the new relations of South Carolina

Carolina to treat with the Government of the United States "for the delivery of the forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, in the limits of South Carolina; and also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the Confederated States of which South Carolina was recently a member; and, generally, to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relation of the parties, and for the continuance of peace and amity between the Commonwealth and the Government at Washington." It will be seen that

towards the Union with mutual respect, and to secure a future of good-will and harmony, beneficial to all the parties concerned. But the withdrawal of Major Anderson to Fort Sumter had, in the opinion of the Commissioners, rendered that impossible. "We came here," they continued, "the representatives of an authority which could, at any time within the past sixty days, have taken possession of the forts in Charleston harbour, but which, upon pledges given in a manner that we cannot doubt, determined to trust to your honour, rather than to its own power. Since our arrival here, an officer of the United States, acting, as we are assured, not only without but against your