LIEUTENANT SLEMMER. physically feeble, yet with the eyes of faith discerning the light of Heaven and rejoicing therein. In his exhortation, he said, that not only a patriotic but a personal interest in the great event of the past week had brought him to the city, and made him here abide until the battle had been fought. Your boys were there and mine were there, and it was right that they should be there. Still the heart had inly bled; the strong man, as well as the tender woman had quivered under the influences of natural affection, for we were not children, we knew what we were doing, and had counted the cost, and had weighed in our very souls the warfare upon which we were going. And how very marvellous had been God's doings! How unparalleled his agency. All our children had passed through the fire unhurt! Not unto us, not unto us, but unto Thy name, oh Lord, be the glory! We forbear to follow the good Bishop through the affecting application which he made of this wonderful Providence of God, but cannot pass over the strong testimony which he bore to his firm persuasion, strengthened by travel through every section of our State in the discharge of pastoral duty, that the grand movement in which our people were now engaged, was begun by them in the deepest conviction of duty to God, and after laying their case before Godand God had most signally blessed our dependence on Him. At the Cathedral of St. John and St. Finbar, Bishop Lynch alluded in happy terms to the events of the previous two days, and a Te Deum was chaunted in thanksgiving for the bloodless victory.' It was some consolation to the country to know that shortly after the attack The Battle of Fort Sumter, &c., Charleston, 1861. 119 upon Sumter, Fort Pickens was reinforced by a portion of the fleet which, it had been supposed, was destined for Charleston Harbor. That fort had been preserved for the nation by an act of gallant patriotism which ranks with the devotion of Anderson in his occupation. of Sumter. On the 12th of January when a band of lawless insurgents, led by Captain V. M. Randolph of the United States Navy, a citizen of Alabama, with the plea of a commission from the Governor of Florida, presented themselves at the Pensacola Navy Yard, and, by the connivance of the officers in command, Lieutenant E. Farrand and Lieutenant F. B. Renshaw, by whose order "the flag was hauled down amid the jeers and shouts of a drunken rabble,"* ceived its unconditional surrender, Lieutenant Adam J. Slemmer, a young officer of artillery, stationed with his company in temporary charge of the adjacent Fort McRae, spurning the treason of his associates, hastily proceeded with his command to occupy Fort Pickens, on Santa Rosa Island, facing the harbor. There, strengthening himself with a body of marines from the United States steamer Wyandotte at the station, some of the soldiers from Fort Barrancas and a few men from the Navy Yard, more scrupulous than their officers in refusing the disgraceful terms of surrender, he set the enemy at defiance till the Fort was reinforced and properly garrisoned by the Government. re Lieutenant Slemmer, to whom the country was indebted for this brilliant service of rescuing one of its most valuakle defences from armed treason, was a native of Pennsylvania, about thirty-two Report of a Select Committee to the Senate and House of Representatives. February 21, 1861. the defender of Fort Sumter-the patriot, the hero and the man." A similar medal presented the portrait of Major Slemmer |—such was his rank at the time of pre years of age. He was a graduate of West Point of the class of 1850, and had since that time served with distinction in various important positions in California, on the Coast Survey, as an instructor at sentation-with an emblematic device on the Military Academy, and in command in the harbor at Pensacola. In the attentions subsequently paid to the defenders of Sumter, the aid which he had rendered the cause at Pickens was not forgotten. The New York Chamber of Commerce, representing one of the most important interests of the nation, gracefully coupled the services of the two garrisons in the presentation to officers and men of a series of medals prepared in honor of both events. The first class Sumter medal bore on its obverse a medallion portrait of General Anderson and on the reverse "the Genius or Guardian Spirit of America arising from Fort Sumter. Wounded by the insult to the country's honor, she seizes the starry symbol of the nation and, with the flaming torch of war, calls aloud for loyal men to protect it," with the inscription, "The Chamber of Commerce, New York, honors the reverse, of "Cerberus, or the monster of war chained to Fort Pickens." By this design, the artist, Mr. Charles Muller, tells us he "endeavored to typify the forbearance of the Government and its service; a virtue strikingly shown during the defence of Fort Pickens. The initial letters U. S. on the collar of the monster indicate his owner. Amid the taunts and insults of the foe, the three-headed monster is kept chained to the fort. Impatient of restraint, yet faithful to his trust, in his captivity he can but exhibit his fierceness, impatience and defiant courage on himself. With one head he gnaws his paw, significant of the traitors in our camp; with another he glares defiantly at the foe, and with the other he sounds the charge." The inscription was, "The Chamber of Commerce, New York, honors valor, forbearance and fidelity Fort Pickens, 1861." CHAPTER VIII. PRESIDENT LINCOLN'S PROCLAMATION. THE blow was now struck which gave | borne with from the spoiled child of the to the North a cause, and to the Government a policy. Treason expressed in resolutions might be tolerated; conventions might meet and pass their ordinances they were so much harmless breath and waste paper. The resignation of officers, the pillage of property, the waste of credit, repudiation of debts, the occupation of forts and arsenals, might be Republic with the hope that its wanton or misguided malice expended, it would, under the influence of kind solicitations, return to better counsels. There were threats and defiance, fierce enough and disastrous enough, if persisted in, but in spite of the most obvious dangers, it was difficult to bring the nation to believe in their reality. It was still more difficult POSITION OF THE GOVERNMENT. 121 helpless anarchy. The last appeal only was wanting to arouse the slumbering patriotism, inspire the thoughts and fill the hearts of the people. That grand idea of loyalty, symbolized in devotion to the flag, was called forth by the cannon fired upon Sumter--that hostile voice speaking in thunder tones the declaration of the South of war against the life of the nation. The future chronicler of these events will rank the challenge and its acceptance with the most dramatic events in history. to rouse the nation to express its convic-vember and March would, it began to be tion in energetic action. The North was felt, complete the ruin of the country in sc intertwined with the South by affection and interest, by social and business ties; the political action of the two portions of the country had been so blended; there were so many complications of sophistry and prejudice; the question before the country, moreover, was so novel; that it appeared well nigh impossible that the Government could be sustained by that unanimity of the people which was needed, to give it the due authority for the preservation of its powers. Men talked and argued about these things; the clear sighted urged the necessity of action; all felt the evils of the disbanding State, but many were indisposed to apply a remedy. The sick man was every day getting worse under the expectant system. Even hope itself in the expressive and discouraging language of President Buchanan in his fast-day proclamation "seemed to have deserted the minds of men; all classes were in a state of confusion and dismay."* To the rebellion of the South was added the prospect of disintegration and revolution in other portions of the land. The constitution was derided, and the failure of the boasted American system of government, so confidently assailed in its first principle of obedience to the lawfully expressed will of the majority, openly proclaimed-loudly abroad, in no undisguis-partment on the 4th of March, was by ed intimations at home. Anything seemed to be more desirable than this fearful state of inaction, in which the elements of prosperity were vanishing, and the very foundations of civilization were sinking beneath us. A few more such months as those which intervened between No It is important to understand the position of the Government in reference to this great event, pregnant with such vast and as yet undeveloped consequences. It cannot be better unfolded than in the authoritative statement of the President himself, who, in his subsequent Message to Congress at its meeting in July, gave the following history of the transaction. The reader will find in it an explanation of the rumors current at the time of the surrender of the fort, as well as an exhibition of the principles of the Administration. "On the 5th of March, the present incumbent's first full day in office, a letter of Major Anderson, commanding at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th day of February, and received at the War De that department placed in his hands. This letter expressed the professional opinion of the writer, that reinforcements could not be thrown into that fort within the time for his relief, rendered necessary by the limited supply of provisions, and with a view of holding possession of the same, with a force of less than twenty thousand good and well disciplined men. This opinion was concurred in by all the officers of his command, and their memoranda on the subject were made enclosures of Major Anderson's letter. The whole was immediately laid before Lieutenant-General Scott, who at once concurred with Major Anderson in his opinion. On reflection, however, he took full time, consulting with other officers, both of the army and the navy, and at the end of four days came reluctantly but decidedly to the same conclusion as before. He also stated, at the same time, that no such sufficient force was then at the control of the government, or could be raised and brought to the ground within the time when the provisions in the fort would be exhausted. In a purely military point of view, this reduced the duty of the Administration in the case to the mere matter of getting the garrison safely out of the fort. ens. This order could not go by land, but must take the longer and slower route by sea. The first return news from the order was received just one week before the fall of Fort Sumter. The news itself was, that the officer commanding the Sabine, to which vessel the troops had been transferred from the Brooklyn, acting upon some quasi armistice of the late administration, and of the existence of which the present Administration, up to the time the order was despatched, had only too vague and uncertain rumors to fix attention, had refused to land the troops. To now reinforce Fort Pickens, before a crisis would be reached at Fort Sumter, was impossible,-rendered so by the near exhaustion of provisions in the latter named fort. In precaution against such a conjuncture the government had a few days before commenced preparing an expedition, as well adapted as might "It was believed, however, that to so be, to relieve Fort Sumter, which expeabandon that position, under the circum-dition was intended to be ultimately used stances, would be utterly ruinous; that the necessity under which it was to be 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 for the latter a recognition abroad; that, in fact, it would be our national destruction consummated. This could not be allowed. Starvation was not yet upon the garrison, and ere it would be reached, Fort Pickens might be reinforced. This last would be a clear indication of policy, and would better enable the country to accept the evacuation of Fort Sumter as a military necessity. An order was at once directed to be sent for the landing of the troops from the steamship Brooklyn into Fort Pick or not, according to current circumstances. The strongest anticipated case for using it was now presented; and it was resolved to send it forward. As had been intended, in this contingency it was also resolved to notify the Governor of South Carolina that he might expect an attempt would be made to provision the fort, and that if the attempt should not be resisted there would be no attempt to throw in men, arms or ammunition, without further notice, or in case of an attack upon the fort. This notice was accordingly given, whereupon the fort was attacked and bombarded to its fall, without even awaiting the arrival of the provisioning expeditiou. "It is thus seen that the assault upon and reduction of Fort Sumter was in no sense a matter of self-defence on the part of the assailants. They well knew that THE PRESIDENT'S STATEMENT. 123 question whether a constitutional republic or democracy, a government of the people by the same people, can or cannot maintain its territorial integrity against its own domestic foes. It presents the question whether discontented individuals, too few in number to control administration according to organic law, in any case, can always, upon the pretences made in this case or any other pretences, or arbitrarily, without any pretence, break up their government, and thus practically put an end to free government upon the earth. It forces us to herent and fatal weakness?' 'Must a government of necessity be too strong for the liberties of its own people, or too weak to maintain its own existence ? So viewing the issue, no choice was left but to call out the war power of the government, and so to resist the force employed for its destruction by force for its preservation." the garrison in the fort could by no possibility commit aggression upon them. They knew they were expressly notified that the giving of bread to the few brave and hungry men of the garrison was all which would on that occasion be attempted, unless themselves, by resisting so much, should provoke more. They knew that this government desired to keep the garrison in the fort, not to assail them, but merely to maintain visible possession, and thus to preserve the Union from actual and immediate dissolution, trusting, as hereinbefore stated, to time, discussion, and the ballot-box, ask, 'Is there in all republics this infor final adjustment; and they assailed and reduced the fort for precisely the reverse object,-to drive out the visible authority of the federal Union and thus force it to immediate dissolution. That this was their object the Executive well understood; and having said to them, in the inaugural address, 'You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors,' he took pains, not only to keep this declaration good, but also to keep the case so far from ingenious sophistry as that the world should not misunderstand it. By the affair at Fort Sumter, with its surrounding circumstances, that point was reached. Then and thereby the assailants of the government began the conflict of arms, without a gun in sight or in expectancy to return their fire, save only the few in the fort, sent to that harbor years before, for their own protection, and still ready to give that protection in whatever was lawful. In this act, discarding all else, they have forced upon the country the distinct issue: 'Immediate dissolution or blood.' "And this issue embraces more than the fate of these United States. It presents to the whole family of man the Such was the argument of the President and the vindication of his policy in language which was but an echo of the common sense of the people. Of all citizens who have recorded their opinions of this crisis in our affairs none, perhaps, was listened to with more interest than Edward Everett. The dis ciple of a conservative political school identified with the most conciliatory measures in all that related to legislation affecting Southern interests, in his tastes and temper always inclined to moderation, he thus, on the same day with the delivery of the Presidential Message just cited, gave expression to his views of the nature and necessity of the struggle inaugurated at Sumter. "We did," he said, "believe in peace; fondly, credulously believed that, cemented by the |