The Daily Dispatch: February 9, 1861., [Electronic resource]

Departure of Col. Hayne for South Carolina.

The President will probably transmit his correspondence to Congress to-day. He has somewhat retreated from the position assumed of "protecting the public property," and now rejects the demand of South Carolina on the ground that the Federal Government has exclusive jurisdiction in Fort Sumter, which is incompatible with the right of eminent domain in South Carolina.

As to selling Fort Sumter to the State of South Carolina, as suggested by Col. Hayne, the President says he would no more sell Fort Sumter to that State than he could sell the Capitol of the United States to the State of Maryland. He concludes his reply with the following emphatic declaration:

‘ "If, with all the multiplied proofs which exist of the President's anxiety for peace, and of the earnestness with which he has pursued it, the authorities of South Carolina shall assault Fort Sumter and peril the lives of the brave and loyal men shut up within its walls, and thus plunge our common country into the horrors of civil war, then upon them, and those whom they represent, will rest the responsibility."

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