Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

“ [121] There stand Forts Pulaski and Jackson, at the mouth of the Savannah River. Who hears of any apprehension lest Georgia should seize them? There are Castle Pinckney and Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. Who hears of any danger to them? The whole danger then, Mr. President, arises from the presence of United States troops.” Such was the lullaby with which this arch-conspirator attempted to quiet the just suspicions of the people, that all the public property in the Slave-labor States was, in danger of seizure by disloyal men. There is ample proof that at that very time Davis and his confederates had planned the seizure of all the forts and arsenals in those States.

On the 31st of December, Mr. Wilson, of Massachusetts, offered a resolution in the Senate, asking the Secretary of War to give to that body information concerning the disposition of arms manufactured in the national armories or purchased for the use of the Government during the past year. A loyal man (Mr. Holt) was now at the head of the War Department, and correct information was looked for.

Finally, a report of the Committee on Military Affairs, of the House of Representatives, revealed some startling facts. According to that report, so early as the 29th of December, 1859, Secretary Floyd had ordered the transfer of sixty-five thousand percussion muskets, forty thousand muskets altered to percussion, and ten thousand percussion rifles, from the armory at Springfield in Massachusetts, and the arsenals at Watervliet in New York, and Watertown in Massachusetts, to the arsenals at Fayetteville in North Carolina, Charleston in South Carolina, Augusta in Georgia, Mount Vernon in Alabama, and Baton Rouge in Louisiana; and these were distributed during the spring of 1860.¹

Eleven days after the issuance of the above order by Floyd, Jefferson Davis introduced

January 9, 1860.

into the National Senate a bill “to authorize the sale of public arms to the several States and Territories, and. to regulate the appointment of Superintendents of the National Armories.” This proposition appeared, to the common observer, to be a very harmless affair. Davis reported it from the Military Committee of the Senate without amendment,

January 18.

and called it up on the 21st of February, saying, in the blandest manner, “I should like the Senate to take up a little bill which I hope will excite no discussion. It is the bill to authorize the States to purchase arms from the national armories. There are a number of volunteer companies wanting to purchase arms, but the States have not a sufficient supply.” There were vigilant men who thought they discovered a treacherous cat under this heap of innocent meal; and, on the 23d of February, when the bill was the special order for the day, Senator Fessenden, of Maine, asked for an explanation of