SECRETARY

HOLT'S

REJOINDER.

293

Secretary Holt's
Rejoinder.

proposal impresses the Presi- | which accompanies this, that its

dent as having assumed a most unusual form. He has, however, investigated the claim on which it professes to be based, apart from the declaration that accompanies it. And be it here remarked, that much stress has been laid upon the employment of the words 'property' and 'public property,' by the President, in his several messages. Those are the most comprehensive terms which can be used in such a connection, and, surely, when referring to a fort, or any other public establishment, they embrace the entire and undivided interest of the Government therein. The title of the United States to Fort Sumter is complete and incontestible. Were its interests in the property proprietary, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, it might probably be subjected to the exercise of the right of eminent domain. But, it has also political relations to it, of much higher and more imposing character than those of mere proprietorship. It has absolute jurisdiction over the Fort and the soil on which it stands. This jurisdiction consists in the authority to exercise exclusive legislation over the property referred to, and is therefore clearly incompatible with the claims of eminent domain now insisted on by South Carolina. This authority was not derived from any questionable revolutionary source, but from the peaceful cession of South Carolina herself, acting through her Legislature, under a provision of the United States. South Carolina can no more assert the right of eminent domain over Fort Sumter than Maryland can assert it over the District of Columbia. The political and proprietary rights of the United States, in either case, rest upon precisely the same grounds.

"The President, however, is relieved from the necessity of further pursuing this inquiry, by the fact that, whatever may be the claim of South Carolina to this Fort, he has not constitutional power to cede or surrender it. The property title in the State has been acquired by the force of public law, and can only be disposed of under the same solemn sanctions. The President, as the head of the Executive branch of the Government only, can no more sell and transfer Fort Sumter to South Carolina, than he can sell and convey the capital of the United States to Maryland, or to any other State or individual seeking to possess it. His Excellency, the Governor, is too familiar with the Constitution of the United States, and with the limitations upon the powers of the Chief Magistrate of the Government it has established, not to appreciate at once the soundness of this legal proposition.

"The question of reenforcing Fort Sumter is so fully disposed of in my letter to Senator Slidell, and others, under date of the 22d of January, a copy of

Secretary Holt's
Rejoinder.

discussion will not be renewed.
I then said: 'At the present mo-
ment it is not deemed necessary to reenforce Major
Anderson, because he makes no such request. Should
his safety, however, require reenforcements, every
effort will be made to supply them.' I can add
nothing to the explicitness of this language, which
still applies to the existing status. The right to send
forward reenforcements, when, in the judgment of
the President, the safety of the garrison requires
them, rests on the same unquestionable foundation
as the right to occupy the fortress itself. In the let-
ter of Senator Davis and others to yourself, under
date of the 15th ult., they say, We therefore think
it due from South Carolina to our States, to say no-
thing of the other Slaveholding States, that she
should, as far as she can consistently with her honor,
avoid initiating hstilities between her and the
United States or any other power,' and you now,
yourself, give the President the gratifying assurance
that South Carolina has every disposition to pre-
serve the public peace, and since he is, himself, sin-
cerely animated by the same desire it would seem
that this common and patriotic object must be of
certain attainment. It is difficult, however, to re-
concile with this assurance the declaration on your
part that it is a consideration of her (South Caro-
lina's) own dignity as a sovereignty, and the safety
of her people, prompts her to demand that this pro-
perty should not longer be used as a military post
by a Government she no longer acknowledges.'
The thought you so constantly present is, that this
occupation must lead to a collision of arms and the
prevalence of civil war. Fort Sumter is, in itself,
a military post and nothing else, and it would seem
that not so much the fact, as the purpose of its use,
should give to it a hostile or a friendly character.
This fortress is now held by the Government of the
United States for the same objects for which it has
been held from the completion of its construction.
These are national and defensive, and were a public
enemy now to attempt the capture of Charleston, or
the destruction of the commerce of its harbor, the
whole force of the batteries of this fortress would be
exerted for their protection. How the presence of
a small garrison, actuated by such a spirit as this,
can compromise the dignity or honor of South Caro-
lina, or become a source of irritation to her people,
the President is at a loss to understand. The atti-
tude of that garrison, as has been often declared,
is neither menacing, nor defiant, nor unfriendly. It
is acting under orders to stand strictly on the defen-
sive, and the Government and people of South Caro-
lina must well know that they can never receive
anght but shelter from its guns unless, in the ab-

destruction.

"The intent with which this fortress is held by the President is truthfully stated by Senator Davis, and others, in their letter to yourself of the 15th of January, in which they say: 'It is not held with any unfriendly or hostile purpose toward your State, but merely as property of the United States, which the President deems it his duty to protect and preserve, If the announcement so repeatedly made, of the President's pacific purposes in continuing the occu pation of Fort Sumter, until the question shall have been settled by competent authority, has failed to impress the Government of South Carolina, the forbearing conduct of his Administration, for the last few months, should be received as conclusive evidence of his sincerity; and if this forbearance, in

view of the circumstances which have so severely

assault, and the ardor of the troops spent it-
self in expediting the works on the islands
and in doing guard duty. To prevent reen-
forcements being thrown into Sumter was
the order, and a most unceasing vigilance
reigned over the waters and approaches.
Of the general news of
the week we may mention
the following items:

News of the week

January 27th, the Kentucky Legislature adopted, almost unanimously, the Virginia resolutions, guaranteeing the right of transit of Slaves through Free States.

January 29th, the Missouri Legislature adopted resolutions, reported from the House Committee on Federal Relations.

ton City found true bills of indictment January 30th, the Grand Jury of Washingagainst Godard Bailey, Wm. H. Russell, and John B. Floyd, as follows: Three cases against Bailey for larceny, in abstracting the bonds intrusted to his custody; one joint indictment against Bailey and Russell, for ab

tried it, be not accepted as a satisfactory pledge of the peaceful policy of this Administration toward South Carolina, then it may be safely affirmed, that neither language nor conduct can possibly furnish one. 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 autho-stracting the missing bonds: three indictrities of South Carolina shall assault Fort Sumter and peril the lives of the handful of brave and loyal men shut up within its walls, and thus plunge our country into the horrors of civil war, then upon

them and those they represent must rest the responsibility. Your obdient servant,

Col. Hayne's Reply

Col. Hayne's answer to this able document was not sent in by the President to Congress along with his message of Feb. 8th, as it came too late for transmission. The position assumed by Mr.Holt only made Gov. Pickens too glad to turn over the question of occupancy to the Southern Confederacy. No apprehensions existed in Washington of an assault by the Governor's orders. The only danger was in the rashness of the war faction, which, led by the fiery Mercury, fairly chafed under the Governor's refusal to precipitate matters. It was considered "humiliating that that offensive rag (the Stars and Stripes) should be flaunted in their faces, and that a handful of men should be permitted to insult the dignity of the State by their presence." Nevertheless, the Governor did not order the

ments against Russell, for receiving the stolen bonds, and one joint indictment against Bailey, Russell and Floyd, for conspiring together to defraud the United States Gov

ernment.*

January 30th, the North Carolina Legisla ture, after many days of debate, decided to call a State Convention.

*A dispatch from Washington, February 1st, thus stated the matter:

"It is ascertained that Mr. Floyd's whole acceptances were $6,900,000. Of these Mr. Russell and

partners retired about $3,000,000, first and last, and

can account for half a million more. It therefore

appears that at least $3,000,000 are still floating about, held by innocent parties, or were discounted by banks and individuals. Mr. Bailey, who abstract. ed the bonds from the Interior Department, has never been examined before the Committee of Investigation, and for legal reasons, which may appear hereafter. The act of 1857, which is supposed to relieve witnesses of Congressional Committees from fit of some of the parties to this mammoth robbery. prosecution, will doubtless be pleaded for the beneLawyers already maintain that the indictment against Messrs. Russell, Floyd and Bailey for a conspiracy to defraud the Government, is for a crime not known in the criminal statutes. They will all probably escape punishment."

COMPROMISE

CHAPTER XX.

IMPOSSIBLE. IVERSON'S FAREWELL. VIRGINIA'S POSITION. TEXAS SENTIMENT. VARIOUS PROPOSITIONS. THE SPEECHES OF PRYOR, STEVENS, HARRIS, WINSLOW, VAN WYCK,

CONKLING, LATHAM, HAMILTON, AND OTHERS. COCHRANE'S

IMPOST BILL. KELLOGG'S RESOLUTIONS, ETC., ETC.

Irreconcilable Differences.

IF public interest in the | tutional clause to guarantee that recognition proceedings of Congress against any future legislation-it demanded did not become intensified the division of the unsettled domain, whereby as the session advanced, it was from weari- a due proportion should forever be debarred ness of debate and not from want of import- to freedom and consecrated to slavery. To ance in the doings of both Houses. The concede the claim-to accede to the demand week under consideration-the ninth of the session-witnessed efforts of great power and significance from leading men; and, though no advance was made toward the ardently wished-for peaceful adjustment of sectional differences, it was rather from the absolutely irreconcileable nature of those divisions than from a want of the spirit of kindness and conciliation. With very few exceptions, Congressmen not only felt kindly toward each other, but strove, in their very hearts, to accomplish the peace so congenial, so desirable to all. Outward things urged them to compromise; the prosperity of the country, the happiness of the people, the hopes of the future all seemed to hang upon that word; while the truly self-sacrificing spirit of the mass of members plead with them on the floors and in the quiet of their chambers for peace, peace. That peace nor compromise grew out of their labors was owing solely to the gulf of principle which lay between the contestants. No subtle ingenuity of leaders could bridge it even with a frail tracery of meaningless words; its depths neither party would consent to fill up by the melting away of their own mountains of political and social antagonisms. The South stood ready and solicitous to treat; but it named as its terms what the Republicans could not yield without sacrificing the heart-principle of their party organization. It claimed a recognition of property in man— -it exacted a consti

were to confess the election of Mr. Lincoln to be a wrong, the Republican party to be a dangerous political organization, the Constitution to be imperfect, and the principle of a majority rule to be a fiction. At least, so reasoned the masses of the party-so felt their leaders in Congress; and, so reasoning and feeling, to have compromised upon any plan offered, would have argued an abasement of which they could not be guilty. The South had raised the standard of revolution to force the concessions demanded; therefore she would not accept less. To have accepted less would have argued defeat, at once foreign to its spirit and its principles.

Hence, though Mr. Seward offered the olive branch-though Mr. Adams poured oil upon the seething waters-though patriotic Southern men extended hands for fellowship, there swept beneath the outward sea of troubles a tide of feeling, a strength of purpose, which words were powerless to calm. The great ship of state staggered before the storm. Not even jurymasts of compromise would hold-not even staysails of resolutions would stand-not even the ponderous flukes of the Constitution anchor would grapple to make her fast. But, with a seemingly blind instinct, she drifted off the lee-shore and gained an offing, where to ride down the elements in comparative safety to her hull. Though upper-works and motive-power were gone, if the hull were left unshattered, all

United States."

Mr. Iverson, of Georgia, having received official notice of the secession of his State, passed the notice and the Ordinance of Secession up to the Secretary to be read from his desk. After the reading, the Senator announced his withdrawal from the Senate, in the following terms::

might be repaired, and the glorious creature | to Slavery than for discharging him as a freeman. once again go forth, vigorous with life and Surely the prayer of men of Massachusetts for such strength. The seemingly blind instinct that objects ought to be heeded by the Senate of the bore her from the shore, was the deep, resistless undercurrent of American Idea, which exists beneath the surface of our political organism, of our daily progress, of our conflicting popular processes, to bend all things to its superhuman agency, as if the hand of Destiny alon were the impressing power. The American Idea! Mysterious, silent, yet supreme; typified in Union and embodied in Democracy; potential against all forms, and impermeating the age with its humanising influence, it was the generator of our political being the monitor of our ways, and must ever be the preserver of our distinctive and glorious Republic.

The Senate's session of Monday (January 28th) was marked by the reception of a number of petitions from the people, presented by Seward, Wilson and Crittenden, praying for the passage of compromise resolutions. Mr. Wilson, in presenting the petition of citizens of Newburyport, made some severe reflections on the petitioners, who prayed for the speedy adoption of the Crittenden resolutions. He said:

Wilson's Satire.

"These men prayed for the adoption of the amendments to the Constitution proposed by the Senator from Kentucky, to wit: The recognition of Slavery and its protection South of latitude 30 deg. 30 min., not only in the existing Territory, but in Territory not yet conquered, purchased, or stolen; the denial of any power in Congress to abolish Slavery in the District of Columbia while it existed in Virginia, or to prohibit the transportation of slaves from one State to another, or to Territories recognizing Slavery; to pay the owner the full value of a fugitive slave when the Marshal was prevented from arresting him by intimidation, and to take from persons of African race the right of suffrage which they have possessed in Massachusetts since the Constitution, passed by the Revolutionary fathers, was adopted in 1780, and acquire territory in Africa or South America, and send at the expense of the Federal Treasury, such free negroes as the States may wish to have removed from their limits. For the adoption of these honorable and humane provisions in the Constitution beyond the power of the people ever to change, the people of the Free States would secure the immense concession of making the fee of the Commissioner no greater for remanding a man

"The paper which has just been read informs the Senate,

Iverson's Farewell.

which has already been an-
nounced to the public, that the State of Georgia, by
a solemn act of Sovereign Convention, has with-
drawn from the Federal Union. She is no longer

one of the United States of America, but has resum
ed all the powers granted by her to the Federal
Government, and asserted her independence as a
separate and sovereign State. In performing this
important and solemn act, she has been influenced
by the deliberate and firm convictions that her safe-
ty, her interest, and her honor demanded it. The
opinion of her people has been gradually tending to
this point for the last ten years, and recent events
have confirmed it; and an overwhelming majority
of the people have elected delegates to a Conven-
tion, and expressed in that election a determination
to withdraw from the Federal Union. And the Con-
vention, by a like decisive majority, has passed the
Ordinance of Secession.

"Georgia is one of six States which, in less than sixty days, have dissolved their connection with the Federal Union, and declared their separate independence. Steps are now in progsess to form a Confederacy of their own, and, in a few weeks at the furthest, a Provisional Government will be formed, giving them ample powers for their own defense, with power to enter into negotiations with other nations, to make war, to conclude peace. to form treaties, and do all other things which inde pendent nations may of right do. Provision will be made for the admission of other States to the new Union, and it is confidently believed that, within a few months, all the Southern States of the late Confederacy will be formed into a Union far more homogeneous, and, therefore, far more stable than the one now broken up. I have only to say that this action of my own State, and of her Southern neighbors and sisters, meets the approval of my well-considered and deliberate judgment, and as one of her native sons and subjects, I shall cheerfully cast my lot with her and them. And, sink or swim, live or die, I shall be of and with her and them to the last. By the secession of the Southern States, and the

64

Iverson's Farewell.

THE VIRGINIA PEACE CONVENTION.

297

Ivorson's Farewell.

But when you

You may blockade our ports and lock up our commerce. We can live if need be without commerce. shut up our commerce from the looms of Europe, we shall see whether other nations will not have something to say, and something to do, upon that subject. 'Cotton is King,' and will oblige you to raise your blockade and draw off your ships. "I know that great hopes are raised, and great efforts made to retain the Border States in the Union. But, let coercive measures be commenced against the Southern Confederacy, or any of the Seceding States, and all such hopes will vanish into thin air. The first act of Federal legislation looking to coercion, the first Federal gun fired, the first Federal ship which takes its station off a Southern port, will bring all the Southern States, including Maryland, laggard as she seems to be in the vindication of a sound independence, into obedience and alliance with their Southern sisters. And thus united, they will resist and defy all your efforts. There are also those who, surrendering all hope of preventing the destruction of the Union, recognizing the existing state of facts, yet hope to see it reconstructed. Sir, a war between the two sections will forever close the door to any such project.

formation of a Southern Confed- may have none. eracy, two great and momentous alternatives will devolve on the Federal Government. You may acquiesce in the Revolution, and acknowledge the independence of a great Confederacy, or you may make war on the seceding States, and attempt to force them back. If you acknowledge our independence, and treat us as one of the nations of the earth, you can have friendly relations and intercourse with us. You can have an equitable division of the public property, and of the existing public debt of the United States. But if you make war upon us, we will seize and hold all the public property in our borders, and in our reach, and we will never pay one dollar of the public debt, for the law of nations will extinguish all private and public obligations between the States. The first Federal gun that is fired upon the seceding Statesthe first drop of blood of any of their people shed by the Federal troops-will cancel every public and private obligation of the South which may be due either to the Federal Government or to the Northern people. We care not in what shape or form, or under what pretext you undertake coercion. We shall consider all efforts to exercise authority over us as acts of war, and shall meet and resist them accordingly. You may send armies to invade us by land, or you may send ships to blockade our ports, and destroy our trade and commerce with other nations. You may abolish our ports of entry, and, by an act of Congress, attempt to collect the Federal revenues by ships of war. You may do all or any of these, or similar acts. They will be acts of war, and so understood and considered, and in whatever shape you make war we will fight you.

"You boast of your superior numbers and strength but remember that the race is not always to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.' You have one hundred thousand fighting men. So have we. And, fighting upon our own soil, and to preserve our rights, and vindicate our honor, and defend our homes, our firesides, our wives and children from the invader, we shall not be easily conquered. You may possibly overrun us, desolate our fields, burn our dwellings, lay our cities in ruins, murder our people, and reduce us to beggary, but you cannot subdue and subjugate us to your will. Your conquest, if you gain a victory over us, will amount to but little. You will have to keep a standing army of 100,000 men, costing millions of money, only to keep us in subjection. You may whip us, but we will not stay whipped. We will rise again and again to vindicate our rights and liberty, and to throw off your oppressive and accursed yoke, and we will never cease the strife until our whole white race is extinguished, and our fair land given over to desolation. You will have ships of war-we

"I will not say that the Southern States, if let alone, even after they have formed a Southern Confederacy, will not listen to propositions of reconciliation. Let the North make them, and we will consider them. The Southern people have heretofore cherished a firm and sincere reverence and attachment to the Union, and nothing but stern necessity could have convinced them of the propriety of leaving it, or could have driven them to the alternative of separation from it; and when they shall see, if it be not too long delayed, a fraternal sense of justice and good feeling returning to the Northern mind and heart, and when they can find sufficient and reliable guarantees for their rights and equality in the Union, they may, perhaps, reconsider their action, and rejoin their former confederates.

"For myself, I am free to declare that, unless my opinion shall be greatly changed, I shall never agree to a reconstruction of the Federal Union. The Rubicon is passed, and it shall never, with my consent, be recrossed. But, in this sentiment, I may be overruled. I may safely say that nothing will satisfy them, except the recognition of equality, the safety of the institution of domestic Slavery, and the protection of their constitutional rights, for which they have been so long contending in the Union, and the denial of which has forced them to their present attitude of self-defense.

"It remains for me now only to express my grate