CHAPTER II

 

SUMTER AND THE FLAG FIRED ON • THE AIM AND DESIGN OF THE LEADERS OF THE REBELLION • JUSTIFICATION OF THE COURSE OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN

 

NO President ever assumed the cares of State under more in­auspicious circumstances than Mr. Lincoln did. Seven States had already seceded from the Union and were marshalling their armies to maintain their independence at the point of the bayonet, and the arch-traitors were using all their insidious wiles to seduce the re­maining slave States from their allegiance to the Federal Govern­ment. From the Forum, Pulpit and Press was proclaimed the foulest treason, and the boast made that the "Stars and Bars" would soon float in triumph over the National Capitol. A large portion of the army had been surrendered by General Twiggs, in Texas, the remainder of it was on the Pacific coast, or scattered through the Territories of Utah and New Mexico, or stationed on our distant frontiers, while six hundred men were the entire available force which the Government was able to concentrate at Washington to secure the peaceful inauguration of the President. All the available vessels of the navy were stationed in distant seas. Many of the purest patriots despaired of the Republic, foreign nations proclaimed its doom was sealed, and "hope for a season bade the world farewell," while the hallowed light of Liberty paled before the gathering storm. But the steadfast chief heeded not the storm that swept across the land, but serene, firm and immovable, held aloft the lamp of hope, while he gathered the scattered strength of the Nation and matured his plans for its preservation.

On the 11th of April, Leroy P. Walker, rebel Secretary of War, demanded the surrender of Fort Sumter, to which Major Anderson replied, that his sense of honor and his obligations to the Government prevented a compliance. The next morning at two o'clock the rebel General Beauregard sent word to Major Anderson that if he would evacuate, he would not be fired upon, to which the Major re­-

 

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plied, that, if not otherwise ordered or provisioned, he would be forced to evacuate by noon of the 15th inst. But the peaceful possession of the fort was not what the traitors desired; they wanted blood "to fire the Southern heart."

In two hours afterwards, the batteries and fortifications in Charleston Harbor, seventeen in number, opened fire upon the fort, which was returned by Major Anderson, and kept up on both sides all day without harm on either side, excepting the dismounting of two of Anderson's guns. A slow fire was kept up all night, and re­sumed with great vigor early the next morning. At eight A.M., the officers' quarters took fire from a shell. Soon after a number of hand grenades and shells caught fire and exploded within the fort. At twelve o'clock, the whole roof of the barracks was in flames, and the magazine being in great danger, ninety barrels of gunpowder were taken out and thrown into the sea. The heat, smoke, and galling fire gradually exhausted the garrison, and nearly suffocated them. At one PM., after sustaining an attack of thirty-three hours, the fort was surrendered, the garrison being permitted to carry away the flag and all company arms and private property. A salute of fifty guns was fired, and the glorious old flag was hauled down, and the emblem of liberty and hope of the down-trodden and oppressed of the world gave place to the flag of treason.

The greatest crime that was ever committed against liberty and mankind was now consummated. Heaven itself revolted at the act, and sent the hissing missiles of death harmlessly on their course. The North was stupefied, and stood aghast at the enormity of the crime, being unable to realize that the flag of such glorious memo­ries should have been fired upon by those whom they looked upon as brothers, and whom they supposed would have given the best blood of their hearts to save from dishonor.

But let us consider for one moment what was the aim and de­sign of the rebel leaders. Already a confederate flag of fifteen stars, one star for each slave State, inclusive of Delaware and Maryland, had been flung to the breeze, and it was solemnly proclaimed that the Confederacy would never yield any portion of the territory claimed. This virtually, and in fact, included Washington. On the fatal 12th of April, 1861, while the tidings of the assault on Sumter were travelling over the wires, the rebel Secretary of War, in the presence of Jefferson Davis and his colleagues, and of five thousand hearers, declared that before the end of May "the flag which now flaunted the breeze would float over the dome of the Capitol at Washington

 

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In pursuance of this original plan of the leaders of the rebel­n, the capture of Washington has been continually had in view, t merely for the sake of its public buildings, as the capital of the Confederacy, but as the necessary preliminary to the absorption of Border States, and for the moral effect in the eyes of Europe of possessing the metropolis of the Union. In speaking of this matter, 3 Hon. Edward Everett, in his address at the consecration of the National Cemetery, at Gettysburg, says: "The occupation of the National Capital, with the seizure of the public archives and of the treaties with foreign powers was an essential feature. This was in substance, within my personal knowledge, admitted, in the winter of 1860-61, by one of the most influential leaders of the rebellion, and it was fondly thought that this object could be effected by a bold and sudden movement on the 4th of March, 1861. There is abundant proof also, that a darker project was contemplated, if not by the responsible chiefs of the rebellion, yet by nameless ruffians, willing to play a subsidiary and murderous part in the treasonable drama. It was accordingly maintained by the rebel emissaries abroad, in the circles to which they found access, that the new American minister ought not, when he arrived, to be received as the envoy of e United States, inasmuch as before that time Washington would be captured, and the Capital of the Nation, and the archives and muniments of the Government would be in the possession of the Confederates."

And what is secession but rebellion? Rebellion, like any other revolutionary act, may be morally justified by the extremity of opression. In monarchical governments revolution is frequently justifiable, as the cartridge box is the only means by which the popular opinion can be expressed. But in our country the solution of all our political differences was wisely left to the decision of the ballot box, which had heretofore served us upon every occasion, and had ever been respected.

Andrew Jackson, in his Proclamation against the Nullification Act, in December, 1832, says: "And then add, if you can, without horror and remorse, this happy Union we will dissolve; this picture of peace and prosperity we will deface; this free intercourse we will interrupt; these fertile fields we will deluge with blood; the protection of that glorious flag we renounce; the very name of Americans we discard. And for what, mistaken men, for what do you throw away these inestimable blessings? For what would you exchange your share in the advantages and honor of the Union? In the dream of separate independence --- a dream interrupted by bloody conflicts with your neighbors, and a vile dependency on a foreign power." ***

 

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"Its destroyers you cannot be. You may disturb its peace - you may interrupt the course of its prosperity - you may cloud its reputation for stability, but its tranquillity will be restored, its prosperity will return, and the stain upon its national character will be transferred and remain an eternal blot on the memory of those who caused the disorder."

"Having the fullest confidence in the justness of the legal. and constitutional opinions of my duties, which has been expressed, I rely, with equal confidence, on your undivided support in my deter­mination to execute the laws, to preserve the Union by all constitutional means, to arrest, if possible, by moderate but firm measures, the necessity of a recourse to force; and, if it be the will of Heaven, that the recurrence of its primeval curse on man for the shedding of a brother's blood should fall upon our land, that it be not called down by any offensive act on the part of the United States."

Such was the language of that sterling patriot when treason first raised its head in South Carolina.

Was Mr. Lincoln justified in his determination to maintain the Union at all hazards, or should he have submitted peaceably to its dissolution? A peaceable dissolution was impossible, except by the surrender of the National Capital and the Border States of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Missouri, all of which at the late election had gone against the South by casting their electoral votes for Mr. Bell, excepting Missouri, which went for Mr. Douglas. And more than this, all of them had sent delegates to meet those from the Northern States in a peace conference, and showed unmistakably their attachment to the Union. Delaware and Maryland refused to secede, Virginia elected Union delegates to the State Convention and refused to adopt the rebel constitution. Kentucky subsequently elected nine Union members of Congress and one secession, Tennessee had elected a majority of Union delegates to a State Convention and refused to hold a convention, and Missouri subsequently elected Union delegates to its State Convention. Could the Government withdraw its protection and support from the Union-loving people of those States and surrender its Capital to traitors who would soon become a foreign and hostile Nation? Could the Government voluntarily surrender the navigation of the Mississippi River, the great outlet of the Western States to the Gulf of Mexico? Could a great Nation submit to its political death and de­struction without an effort for self-preservation? No, God forbid it, yet Americans have argued these questions in the affirmative, but only those who were deceived themselves, or were trying to deceive others. But Mr. Lincoln, the chosen of the people, the instrument of

 

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God, was inspired with the knowledge that he held not only the destiny of the country, but of liberty throughout the world in his hand, and rose equal to the emergency.

Throughout his inaugural address, he is firm, without being provoking. The limits of concession are clearly marked out, and a conciliatory spirit is maintained. The President, while manifesting the most pacific disposition, distinctly declares he will abandon none of the rights of the Government, but will leave to others the odium of aggression. He declares secession is unconstitutional, and nothing can induce him to consent to the destruction of the Union. That he will endeavor to shun a war, that he will not be the aggressor, but that he will fulfill the duty of preserving federal property and collect federal taxes in the South. "In your hands," says Mr. Lincoln, "my dissatisfied fellow-citizens, in yours and not mine, is found the ter­rible question of civil war. The Government will not attack you; you will have no conflict, if you are not the aggressors. You have not, on your part, an oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, whilst I, on my side, am about to take the most solemn oath to maintain, to protect and defend it."

            If Mr. Lincoln had acted otherwise than he did, he would have been derelict in his duty to his God, his country and mankind, and when the intelligence of the assault upon Fort Sumter was received, the issuing of his proclamation calling for seventy-five thousand volunteers to maintain the laws of the United States over the seceding States, and admonishing the rebels to lay down their arms and quietly submit to the laws within twenty days, was but the response of the great American heart. And America's reply to the proclamation was such an uprising of free men as the world never witnessed be­fore. Wherever it was received, it produced the wildest excitement and enthusiasm, the booming gun, the pealing bell, and rattling drum, announced it throughout the land, until from the broad Atlantic it rolled across the plains and echoed over the snow-clad peaks to the Pacific.

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