Civil War History - Secession and PoliticsWas it Slavery, or was it States Rights? Perhaps it was the election of Lincoln? What were the real reasons for Southern Secession and what were the political issues in this time of war? Find your answers here in the Secession and Politics Disussion.
"Added to the natural good qualities of Mr Covey, he was a professor of religion-a pious soul-a member and class-leader in the Methodist Church. All of this added weight to his reputation as a "n------- breaker."
"It would be treason to abandon Sumter, sir! You would be impeached!"
Francis Preston Blair, Sr., in a converstation with Lincoln after he was informed by the President that the cabinet had favored giving up the fort.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
"Do you realize that you may have to fight for the place you now hold?"
Said by Horace Greeley, editor of the New York Tribune, in a conversation with newly-elected President Lincoln.
Lincoln was heard to reply to the above question, "There is no necessity for deadly strife."
From the book, The Printer and the Prince (New York: 1955), 170, by James H. Trietsch.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
"But the Union, in any event, won't be dissolved. We don't want to dissolve it, and if you attempt it, we won't let you. With the purse and sword, the army and navy and treasury in our hands and at our command, you couldn't do it. This Government would be very weak, indeed, if a majority, with a disciplined army and navy, and a well-filled treasury, could not preserve itself, when attacked by an unarmed, undisciplined, unorganized minority. All this talk about the dissolution of the Union is humbug---nothing but folly. We ``WON'T'' dissolve the Union, and you ``SHAN'T''.'' -- A. Lincoln; speech at Galena, Illinois, July 23, 1856
"The power confided in me, will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the property, and places belonging to the government, and to collect the duties and imposts; but beyond what may be necessary for these objects, there will be no invasion--no using of force against, or among the people anywhere." A. Lincoln; First Inaugural - 1861
"[t]he attempt to reinforce Sumter will provoke an attack and involve war. The very preparation for such an expedition will precipitate war at that point. I oppose beginning war at that point. I would advise against the expedition to Charleston. I would at once, at every cost, prepare for war at Pensacola and Texas. I would instruct Major Anderson to retire from Sumter.” -- William Seward, US Secretary of State
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Adjutant-General's Office, December 27, 1860.
Major ANDERSON, Fort Moultrie:
Intelligence has reached here this morning that you have abandoned Fort Moultrie, spiked your guns, burned the carriages, and gone to Fort Sumter. It is not believed, because there is no order for any such movement. Explain the meaning of this report.
Scarcely had their commissioners left, than Major Anderson waged war. No other words will describe his action. It was not a peaceful change from one fort to another; it was a hostile act in the highest sense-one only justified in the presence of a superior enemy, and in imminent peril. He abandoned his position, spiked his guns, burned his gun carriages, made preparations for the destruction of his post, and withdrew, under cover of the night, to a safer position. This was war....
R. W. BARNWELL,
J. H. ADAMS,
JAMES L. ORR,
Commissioners.
The news of Major Anderson's coup produced a sudden and unexpected change in the President's policy. While declaring that his withdrawal from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter was "without orders, and contrary to orders," he yet refused for twelve hours to take any action in the matter. For twelve hours, therefore, without any excuse, he refused to redeem his plighted word. No subsequent acts on the part of our State, no after reasons, can wipe away the stain which he suffered to rest upon his "honor as a gentleman," while this hours, big with portentous events, rolled slowly by. His Secretary of War, impatient of a delay, every moment of which he felt touched his own honor, resigned. He did so solely on the ground that the faith of the Government, solemnly pledged, was broken, if it failed promptly to undo what had been done contrary to its wishes, against its settled policy and in violation of its distinct agreement. The President accepted his resignation without comment. He did not attempt to disabuse the mind of his Secretary as to what was the true position of the Government.
WM. PORCHER MILES.
LAWRENCE M. KEITT.
Tallahassee, February 2, 1861.
GENTLEMEN OF THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES:
…Whilst President Buchanan has officially declared that he has no power to employ the military and naval forces under his control in hostility against any of the State which have dissolved their connection with the late Federal Union, yet it is apparent that he supports officers of the Army under his control in the hostile occupation of portions of the territory of this State and our sister State of South Carolina, permits his general and members of his Cabinet to set on foot military expeditions against us, re-enforce forts, order men-of-war to hover on our coast in hostile array, and has advised Congress to pass laws for the purpose of collecting revenue from imposts into our State by means of armed vessels….
Very respectfully,
M. S. PERRY.
EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,
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Your Government has not chosen to meet the undersigned in the conciliatory and peaceful spirit in which they are commissioned. Persistently wedded to those fatal theories of construction of the Federal Constitution always rejected by the statesmen of the South, and adhered to by those of the Administration school, until they have produced their natural and often predicted result of the destruction of the Union, under which we might have continued to live happily and gloriously together, had the spirit of the ancestry who framed the common Constitution animated the hearts of all their sons, you now, with a persistence untaught and uncured by the ruin which has been wrought, refuse to recognize the great fact presented to you of a completed and successful revolution; you close your eyes to the existence of the Government founded upon it, and ignore the high duties of moderation and humanity which attach to you in dealing with this great fact.
John Forsyth,
Martin J. Crawford,
A.B. Roman.
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