The policy of the Administration.
--A six columns editorial recently appeared in the National Intelligencer, entitled the "Past, Present and Future." Telegrams from
Washington state that this article was revised by
Secretary Seward before it was published, and the letter writers seem to agree that it is an exposition, how far official they do not aver, of the policy of the Administration.--The following is an extract:
‘
"And, as in the case of the public revenues, so also in the case of the public property seized by the seceding States, we entirely disapprove the policy of attempting its recapture and occupation by military force.
The wrong committed by such seizure would not be remedied by such a proceeding, or the remedy might prove worse than the wrong.
"In regard to the retention of the forts occupied by the
United States, that is a question which is now brought down to the simple point of holding or abandoning
Fort Pickens, for we assume that
Fort Sumter will be evacuated at an early day, and
Forts Jefferson, at
Tortugas, and
Taylor, at
Key West, lying far out at sea, and being obviously of national importance, are not included in the number of the posts which the
State of Florida is entitled to claim on the ground of any necessity for her local defence.
Forts Jefferson and
Taylor were built with paramount reference to the commerce of the
United States, and should remain in the hands of the
Government which built them in the interest of its commerce.--The Key West naval coal depot and wharf, the marine hospital, the army barracks, the admiralty courts and wrecking organization, and the series of light-houses — Loggerhead,
Tortugas,
Key West, Sand Key, Sombrero, Carysfort,
Cape Florida,
Jupiter, and
Cape Canaveral — will not, we take it for granted, be abandoned to the
State, which has least interest in them and least capacity to hold and maintain them.
Let
Florida have
Fort Clinch to guard the approaches to
Fernandina; let her have the
Pensacola Navy-Yard and the triple fortifications there; let her have what concerns only local interests; but the commercial
United States cannot be justly called to surrender to uncommercial
Florida what belongs to and concerns only the commerce of the nation."
’
