July 4, 1861. |
February 1. |
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convincing the President of the feasibility of the plan, and that sound policy required that the attempt should be made, whether it should succeed or not. “It was believed,” as the President said in his Message, already referred to,
“that to abandon that position, under the circumstances, would be utterly ruinous; that the necessity under which it was done would not be fully understood; that by many it would be construed as a part of a voluntary policy; that at home it would discourage the friends of the Union, embolden its adversaries, and go far to insure to the latter a recognition abroad; that, in fact, it would be our national destruction commenced.”
Although satisfied of the feasibility and the necessity of strengthening Major Anderson, by sending him provisions and men, the President, extremely anxious for peace and reconciliation, hesitated to make any movement that might lead to collision with the insurgents.
He favored Mr. Fox's propositions, and that gentleman, with the approval of the Secretary of War and General Scott, visited Charleston harbor.
In company with Captain Hartstene, of the Navy, who had joined the insurgents, he visited Fort Sumter on the 21st of March, by permission of Governor Pickens,1 and ascertained that Major Anderson had provisions sufficient for his command until the 15th of April;2 and it was understood between them that he must surrender or evacuate the fort at noon on that day. Mr. Fox gave him no assurances, such as Judge Campbell mentioned, of relief, nor any information of a plan for that purpose.
On his return to Washington, Mr. Fox reported to the President that any attempt to succor Major Anderson must be made before the middle of April.
The President was perplexed.
He yearned for peace, if it could be had without dishonor.
The Virginia Convention was then in session, and he sent for one of the prominent members of that body, known to be a professed Union man, and assured him that if the Convention would adjourn instead of staying in session, menacing the Government, he would immediately direct Major Anderson to evacuate Sumter.
Had the Virginia politicians desired peace, this reasonable request would have been complied with.
On the contrary, this professed Virginia Unionist replied:--“The United States must instantly evacuate Fort Sumter and Fort Pickens, and give assurances that no attempts shall be made to collect revenue in Southern ports.”
This was a demand, in effect, for the President to recognize the band of conspirators at Montgomery as a government possessed of sovereign powers.
Mr. Lincoln was now satisfied that a temporizing policy would not do. He had said in a little speech to the New Jersey Legislature,
when on his way to Washington, as we have observed, “it may be necessary to put the foot down firmly.”
That necessity now presented itself;, and the President did “put the foot down firmly.”
Overruling the persistent objections of the General-in-Chief, and other military
1 On that occasion, Mr. Fox carried a letter to Governor Pickens from General Scott, in compliance with orders from the President. Pickens sent the following note to Major Anderson:--
“I have permitted Mr. Fox and Captain Hartstene to go to you under peculiar circumstances, and I deeply regret General Scott could not have been more formal to me, as you well know I have been in a peculiar position for months here, and I do this now because I confide in you as a gentleman of honor.”2 Lieutenant Norman J. Hall, one of Anderson's trusty men, furnished Mr. Fox with a memorandum of supplies in Fort Sumter.
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