Hillsborough Recorder
August 28, 1861
Page 2
From the Columbia
(S. C.) Guardian
Evacuation of Fort Sumter—Secret
History
STATE
OF SOUTH CAROLINA
Headquarters,
Aug. 3d, 1861
I have every
reason , from information received by me in the most confidential manner, (not
forbidding publication, however,) and through one very near the most intimate
counsels of the President of the United States, to induce me to believe that
the following article was submitted, as a proof-sheet, to Mr. Lincoln and his
Cabinet; that a proclamation, in conformity with its general views, was to be
issued; and that a change in the decision of the
Cabinet was made in one night, when exactly the contrary course was
adopted. It is asserted in this article,
(which, in all probability, is a proof-sheet from a confidential New York
paper,) that if the President desired to excite and madden the whole North to a
war of extermination against slavery, and in favor of the absolute plunder and
conquest of the South, he had only to resolve that Major Anderson and his
garrison at Fort Sumter should perish, as it appears was well known would have
to be the case. Major Anderson and his
men were to be used as fuel, to be thrown in to kindle the flames of fanaticism,
and to force the Northern people into a united war, which would give the
abolition leaders absolute control over the Government and country. What must be the feelings of the civilized
world, when it is known that the President of the United States and his Cabinet did
so act, and with a view expressly to carry out this policy of exciting the
whole Northern mind.
Major Anderson had
officially informed the former Administration that he could hold Fort Sumter,
and of course, if the object of that Administration was to betray the
Government into the hands of the Secessionists, as is charged in the article,
then Major Anderson must have been a party to the treason, and if he informed
the new President, on the fourth of March, as is said to be the case, that he
could not hold the Fort, then he acted out his part fully in aiding to place
Mr. Lincoln and his Cabinet exactly where they were, and to compel them to
evacuate the fortress, or to use the garrison as victims, to be slaughtered on
the unholy altar of blind fanaticism, and mad ambition.
I know the fact
from Mr. Lincoln’s most intimate friend and accredited agent, Mr. Lamon, that the President of the United States professed a
desire to evacuate Fort Sumter, and he (Mr. Lamon)
actually wrote me, after his return to Washington, that he would be back in a
few days to aid in that purpose. Major
Anderson was induced to expect the same thing, as his notes to me prove. I know the fact that Mr. Fox, of the U. S.
Navy, after obtaining permission from me, upon the express guarantee of a
former gallant associate in the navy, to visit Major Anderson “for pacific
purposes” planned the pretended attempt to relieve and reinforce the garrison
by a fleet, and that Major Anderson protested against it. I now believe that it was all a scheme, and
that Fox’s disgraceful expedition was gotten up, in concert with Mr. Lincoln,
merely to delude the Northern public into the belief that they intended to
sustain and protect Major Anderson, when in fact, according to the article now
published for the first time, they decided to do no such thing, and acted with
the deliberate intention to let the garrison perish, that they might thereby
excite the North and rouse them to unite in this unholy and unnatural war, by
which the desperate profligate leaders of an infuriated and lawless party might
gratify their vengeance and lust of power over the ruins of their country, and
amid the blind passions of a maddened people.
The document now
published, and the peculiar circumstances, show the basest and most infamous
motives that have ever actuated the rulers of any people, except, perhaps, in
the days of the French revolution, when history shows that wholesale murder was
often planned by insurrectionists in Paris, under the deliberate guidance of
malignant leaders, whose whole objects were universal plunder and murder, in
order to exterminate one party and ride into power themselves.
A moment’s review
of the line of argument pursued in the article, will show that the policy
finally adopted in regard to Fort Sumter was intended and desired by Mr.
Lincoln and his advisors to lead to a war, not to be regulated by the rules and
usages among civilized and enlightened people, but to one of rapine, murder,
and utter extermination of the people against whom it was intended to be waged,
founded upon no principle of right, seeking not to re-establish any disputed
authority, or accomplish any other object than to gratify a lust for power and
revenge.
For the purpose of
directly proving the motives and impulses of the United States Government in
the inauguration of this war, it is also necessary to make several extracts
from the article in question, as they will serve also to direct the special
attention of the public to those portions which most vividly prove the
unhallowed purposes of President Lincoln and his advisors.
One of the chief
ends of the article seems to have been the proof of treason on the part of
President Buchanan, and through all of it runs the oft-repeated “alternative”
left them by him, of “permitting Major Anderson and his command to starve
within fifteen days, or of ignominiously abandoning it to a nest of traitors,”
etc. This “alternative” proves, above
all the rest, the purpose which they had in view when they adopted their final
policy. It is argued, and very
elaborately, too, that the purpose of President Lincoln was to “preserve
peace”—not to “make war”—“to protect the sacred Constitution” confided to his
keeping—and to gain over, by his avowedly peaceful objects, those who had
defied that “Constitution” and broken its laws.
It is asserted that President Lincoln could not suppress the “tears” of
anguish which his signing the order for the evacuation of Fort Sumter called
forth; and it is said, too, that he desired to “discharge his duty to
humanity;” and yet he has chosen to “discharge” that “duty” in the singular way
of resolving on a policy which, in his own words, he knew would “raise
throughout the mighty North a feeling of indignation, which in ninety days,
would have emancipated every slave on the continent, and driven their masters
into the sea.”
The sacrifice was
made; Anderson and his command were forced to
become liable as victims to fanaticism; Fort Sumter
was wrapt in flames; and yet, forsooth, they tell us
that the only man who could have prevented it was “resolved to discharge his
duty to humanity,” and that his purpose was “peace”—his aversion “war.” His “purpose” was changed, and he resolved to
bring on this unhallowed war. It is a
Government actuated with these feelings that we are to defend ourselves
against; it is this kind of war, then, that the people of the South are to
meet; and under these circumstances it becomes my duty to publish the article
in question for the information of the people of the Confederate States, and
the cool and unbiased contemplation of the civilized world.
A war thus
inaugurated—from such motives and under such circumstances—surely can never
meet with favor of Heaven. A people
educated and trained up to constitutional liberty can never, for any length of
time, sustain such a war.
--F.
W. PICKENS--
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ABANDONMENT
OF FORT SUMTER
Necessity Knows no
Law—There are periods in the history of nations and individuals when the
force of even this proverb is illustrated.
The law, or rather, the demands of justice, self-respect, national
honor, and the vindication of our nationality in the eyes of Europe, all demand
that we should retain possession of Fort Sumter at any and every sacrifice; and
no man in this nation is more deeply impressed with the paramount importance of
so doing this than Abraham Lincoln, the President of the United States. He feels and recognizes his duty in the
premises; but the Law of necessity steps in, puts at defiance his wishes and
his duty, and sternly forbids his attempting to hold or relieve the noble
fortress so promptly snatched from the hands of the Rebels and Traitors of
Charleston by the timely action of Major Anderson. Buchanan and his traitor Cabinet had
deliberately planned the robbing of our arsenals under the superintendence of,
and with the connivance of the miserable fellow John R. Floyd, whose portrait
now hangs so conspicuously in the Rogue’s Gallery of our city police; and we
all know that when Major Anderson took possession of Fort Sumter, Floyd
demanded its restoration to the Rebels, and Buchanan actually yielded to the
demand, until threatened with danger to his person if he ventured upon any such
act of treachery. He yielded to a stern
necessity; but in yielding he determined to accomplish by management and
finesse what he had not the courage to do openly. He accordingly refused to permit the Fort to
be reinforced as it could have been in those days, with the necessary men and
stores to enable it to hold out for a year at least against any force which
could be brought against it; and it was not until Morris Island had been
fortified, that he sanctioned the abortive attempt to succor made by the Star
of the West, and even countermanded that order before it was carried into
effect.
From Christmas
until the fourth of March, the traitors and rebels of Charleston and the Cotton
States received every countenance and support from Mr. Buchanan which could be
afforded them; and when he retired from office on the 4th inst., he
gloated over the conviction that he had fostered rebellion and treason until
they had become so rampant that they were beyond the control of his
successor. And the one great source of
his glorification was, that Fort Sumter
was without provisions, and that, of necessity, the garrison must surrender
from starvation before it would be in the power of the Republican
Administration to relieve and reinforce it.
Of course, Abraham
Lincoln could know nothing of this treason; and when in his inaugural he spoke
of occupying the public forts and collecting the revenue, he little dreamed
that his predecessor had treasonably arranged to make the abandonment of Fort Sumter
a political necessity. He was soon
apprised, however, that the treason of his predecessor had cunningly devised
for him the most serious mortification that could be inflicted, and that he had
presented to him the alternative of permitting Anderson and his command to starve or
promptly to withdraw them, and ignominiously permit the fort to fall into the
hands of the rebels. To reinforce the
garrison or to supply them with provisions, are equally impossible, because
James Buchanan and his associate traitors designedly refused to do so while it
was in their power to do it, and compelled the commandant of the Fort quietly
to permit the construction of works in his immediate vicinity and under the
range of his guns, which would effectually prevent his being relieved when an
honest man assumed the Government on the 4th of March. Buchanan’s final act of treason has been
consummated. He prevented the late Congress passing a law giving power to the
Executive to call for volunteers to occupy and recapture the public forts and
arsenals, and he designedly left Fort Sumter in a position which renders relief
physically impossible without an army of from ten to twenty thousand men, and
the employment of a naval force greater than we can command; and he and his
myrmidons now exultingly and tauntingly say to the Republican President, “Do
your worst. We have designedly withheld
from you the means of relieving and holding Fort Sumter, and we invite you to
the pleasing alternative of permitting Anderson and his command to starve
within fifteen days, or of ignominiously abandoning it to a nest of traitors
and rebels whom we have turned into existence as the only certain mode of
destroying the Republican party.”
Such are the
simple facts of the case as they are presented to the new President upon his
assuming the reins of Government; and we speak advisedly and from knowledge
when we say, that while the country has been wickedly made to believe that the
time of the Administration has been occupied with the disposal of offices, four
fifths of all the hours spent in consultation by the Cabinet have been devoted
to the consideration of the all-important question—how to save Fort Sumter and
avert from the Government the dishonor of abandoning it to the miserable
traitors who for months have been in open rebellion against the authority of
the Government? Generals Scott and Totten, and all the military and naval chiefs at Washington, have been
consulted; every plan which military science could conceive or military daring
suggest has been attentively considered and maturely weighed; with a hope at
least that the work of the traitor Buchanan was not so
complete as he and his associates supposed.
But all in vain. There stands the isolated, naked fact—Fort Sumter cannot be relieved because of the treason
of the late Administration; and Major Anderson and his command must perish by
starvation unless withdrawn.
What, then, is to
be done? Could the President leave them
to starve? Cui Bono? Would the sacrifice of a
handful of gallant men to the treason of thieves and rebels, have been grateful
to their countrymen? But, says the
indignant yet thoughtless patriot, “think of the
humiliation and dishonor of abandoning Sumter
to the Rebels!” We do not think of it,
and weep tears of blood over the humiliation this brought upon the country by
the traitor President who has just returned to Wheatland to gloat over his
consummated treason. And we are assured,
too, and do not doubt the truth of the assurance, that when Abraham Lincoln was
compelled to yield his reluctant consent to this most humiliating concession to
successful treason, he did not attempt to suppress the sorrow and tears which
it called forth. But he had no
alternatives. “Necessity knows no law!” and to save the lives of the gallant men who
have so long held Fort Sumter against an overwhelming force of heartless
traitors and wicked and unprincipled rebels, whose treason has been steeped in
fraud and theft, vulgarly known as “Southern chivalry,” the President of the
United States in the discharge of a duty to humanity, has signed the order for
the evacuation of Sumter.
Had war, not
peace, been his object—had he desired to raise throughout the mighty North a
feeling of indignation, which in ninety days would have emancipated every slave
on the continent and driven their masters into the sea, if needs be—he had only
to have said “let the garrison of Fort Sumter do their duty and perish beneath
its walls, and on the heads of the traitors and rebels of the slavery
propagandist be the consequences.” Such
a decision would have carried joy to the bosoms of Phillips and Garrison and
their fanatical associates, who so justly consider abolitionism and disunion synonymous ; but it would have brought upon the country such
scenes of horror as the mind shrinks from contemplating. Verily, the blood of the martyrs would have
been the seed of “negro emancipation.”
For every patriot soldier thus sacrificed to the revival of the African
slave trade and the establishment of a hideous slaveocracy
at the South, ten thousand negro slaves would have been emancipated, and as
many of their masters been driven into the ocean to expiate their crimes on
earth.
But Mr. Lincoln
desired to rouse no such feeling of revenge among the people of the Free States. He knew—no man knew better—that he had but to
hold on to Fort Sumter agreeably to the plainly expressed will of the people,
and leave its gallant garrison to the fate prepared for them by rebels and
traitors, to insure an uprising which would at once have wiped out slavery from
the face of the country; and with it all engaged in this atrocious rebellion
against the Government, but his purpose is Peace, not War. His object is to restore, to rebuild and to
preserve the Government, and the Constitution which enacted it; and his great
aim is, while maintaining the Constitution and enforcing the laws, to bring
back good men to their allegiance, and leave the thieves and rogues, and
braggarts who compose the great mass of the rebels, under the cognomen of
“Southern Chivalry,” to the uninterrupted enjoyment of their own precious
society and the reflection which time must awake even in them. He is mindful of his oath “registered in
Heaven,” to preserve the Constitution and enforce the laws; and he feels that
his mission is to reclaim and not extinguish; or most assuredly he could have
left Fort Sumter to its fate; and that fate would have been speedy, certain,
and absolute annihilation to the traitors now in rebellion against the
Government, and to the very existence of the institution of slavery on the
American continent. But he has been
faithful to his oath of office and to the Constitution; and by yielding to the
necessity of the case and listening to the cry of humanity, slavery has had
accorded to it its last victory over freedom and the Constitution of the United States.
The deed had been
accomplished; the sacrifice has been made; traitors and rebels are again
triumphant; and the Stars and Stripes are again to be dishonored in the sight
of the nation and of astonished Europe. The flag of the Union is to be pulled down,
and the bloody banner of pirates, freebooters, rebels, and traitors, is to be
run up and to wave triumphantly over Sumter, and be saluted from hundreds of
guns in the rebel camp amid the cheers of thousands whose senseless gasconade
and braggadocio vauntings have long since disgusted
brave men and honest citizens. And yet,
we approve the act. A traitor President
rendered it a necessity, and humanity demanded that Abraham Lincoln should
sacrifice all personal feelings, and gracefully yield to that necessity and the
deliberately planned treason upon which it is based. His countrymen will sustain him in this
discharge of an humiliating but an imperative duty;
but with him they feel that the account is now closed with treason. There is nothing now to yield to
traitors—nothing more to sacrifice in order to give to slavery and the slave
trade the odor of nationality. In
future, the President of the United
States has only laws to enforce and a
Constitution to sustain; and woe be to them who thwart
him in the performance of his duty, and to himself, if he dare to shrink from
the performance of his whole duty.
[Transcribed by Sharon Strout]
