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which was to smooth the path to a pacific solution, the distinguished personage alluded to [Judge Campbell] cooperating with the undersigned; and every step of that effort is recorded in writing, and now in possession of the undersigned and of their Government.
It was only when all these anxious efforts for peace had been exhausted, and it became clear that Mr. Lincoln had determined to appeal to the sword to reduce the people of the Confederate States to the will of the section or party whose President he is, that the undersigned resumed the official negotiation temporarily suspended, and sent their secretary for a reply to their note of March 12th.
But that the
Confederacy was allowed, in no respect, to suffer by this brief breathing-spell mistakenly accorded by her plenipotentiaries to the
Union--that the “peace” which we enjoyed was of an equivocal and one-sided character — will appear, not only from the close investment of menaced
Fort Sumter--with which no one was allowed to communicate, save by
Gov. Pickens's gracious permission — but by the active, aggressive hostility to Federal authority manifested throughout the
South, as evinced in the following order:
The
Commanding General learns with surprise and regret that some of our citizens are engaged in the business of furnishing supplies of fuel, water, and provisions, to the armed vessels of the
United States now occupying a threatening appearance off this harbor.
That no misunderstanding may exist upon this subject, it is announced to all concerned that this traffic is strictly forbidden ; and all such supplies which may be captured in transit to said vessels, or to
Fort Pickens, will be confiscated.
The more effectually to enforce this prohibition, no boat or vessel will be allowed to visit
Fort Pickens, or any of the
United States naval vessels, without special sanction.
Col. John H. Forney, Acting InspectorGeneral, will organize an efficient Harbor Police for the enforcement of this order.
By command of
Brigadier General
And, all through the seceded States, those
Unionists who dared to indicate their devotion to the flag of their fathers were being treated with a still more active and positive illustration of Confederate amity than was accorded to the garrison of
Sumter and the fleet off
Pensacola.
Whether
President Lincoln did or did not, for some days after his inauguration, incline to the withdrawal of
Major Anderson and his brave handful from.
closely beleaguered
Sumter, is not certain.
It
is certain that great doubt and anxiety on this point pervaded the country.
Some of the newspaper correspondents at
Washington, who were very properly and keenly on the watch for the least indication of the Presidential purpose, telegraphed, quite confidently, on the 14th, that
Sumter was to be peaceably evacuated; that
Gen. Scott had given his opinion that this was a military necessity; that the fortress was so surrounded and enveloped by Confederate forts and batteries that it could not now be reinforced, nor even provisioned, save at an enormous and unjustifiable cost of human blood; so that there was no practical alternative to its abandonment.
The new Senate, which had been convened for the 4th by
President Buchanan to act upon the nominations of his successor, remained sitting in Extra Session until the 28th; and its Democratic members — now reduced by Secession and by changes.
to a decided minority — urgently and pertinaciously demanded from the majority some declaration of the
President's purpose.
“Are we to have coercion and civil war, or concession and peace?.”
was the burden of their