notice to Gov. Pickens; (3) "The war policy prevailed at that time."

Mr. Gideon Wells, Secretary of the Navy in Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet, fixes the time when "the President announced his decision that supplies should be sent to Sumter, and issued Confidential orders to that effect. All were gratified with this decision, except Mr. Seward, who still remonstrated, but preparations were immediately commenced to fit out an expedition to forward supplies." ("Lincoln and Seward," N. Y., 1874, pp.

57 and 58).

The time fixed by Mr. Wells in this letter is the 28th of March, 1861. Observe 1, that Mr. Lincoln decided to supply Fort Sumter on the 28th of March; 2, that at the same time he "issued orders to that effect;" 3, that these orders were "confidential;" 4, that "all were gratified except Seward, who still remonstrated;" and 5, that perparations were immediately commenced. And remember that it was the 8th of April when Gov. Pickens was notified-eleven days after Lincoln's decision. All this time "pacific pledges" were being made. All this time the preparations began "immediately" were being secretly performed, under "confidential orders."

Francis Newton Thorpe in "The Civil War from a Northern Standpoint" thus corroborates Gideon Wells: Lincoln exhaused information about Fort Sumter and all pertaining to the question its reinforcement involved. As the result of much negotiation and many interviews Justice Campbell of Alabama, of the United States Supreme Court, reinforced by Nelson of New York, also of the Supreme Court, strongly advised the Secretary of State against any attempt at coercion. Lincoln consented that Fort Sumter should be evacuated, also Fort Pickens' and publication of this decision was made....This was the political situation on March 28, 1861 (p. 234).

The universal verdict is that this was a true peace policy. It was strongly "advised" by two Supreme Court Judges. Therefore it had strong judicial support. One of these judges was from the North and the other from the South. It was, therefore, non-sectional as well as impartial. It was also "the result of much negotiation and many interviews." It was, therefore, well

considered.

In fact there was nothing hasty about it except

its abandonment.

If this was a true peace policy, as all admit, by what manner of argument can its very opposite be also a true peace policy? If not a peace policy it was a war policy. No logic can evade this conclusion. Who then inaugurated it?

On the next page (235) Mr. Thorpe says, in defense of Mr. Lincoln, "In truth promise to evacuate Fort Sumter had been made by Secretary Seward without Lincoln's authority," apparently forgetting that he had just said "Lincoln consented that Fort Sumter should be evacuated, also Fort Pickens, and publication of this decision was made". It is to be presumed that Gideon Wells, a member of the Lincoln Cabinet, and present in the meeting on that fatal occasion of such a momentous decision, knew more about it than does Mr. Thorpe. "All were gratified

with this decision," says Mr. Wells, except Mr. Seward, who still remonstrated."

The time has come when responsibilty should be fixed for that war which brought tears and lamentations to millions of American homes. It can not be fixed on the South. An attempt is now being made to lay the blame on poor Seward. He indeed was the medium of deception as to Lincoln's plans, but Mr. Wells tells us that Seward on that eventful occasion was the only cabinet member that opposed coercion.

But had Mr. Wells not spoken it would be impossible to disassociate the action of the President from that of his Secretary. Can any intelligent American citizen believe that the President can be relieved from responsibility for the conduct of his secretary? Is it a thinkable proposition that the man who "exhausted information about Fort Sumter and all pertaining to the question its reenforcmeent involved," was ignorant, for nearly one month, of what transpired between the Secretary and the Commissioners, and that too, through the medium of the distinguished members of the Supreme Court? Some men may be deceived for a time, but all men can not be deceived for all time.

LINCOLN'S FIRST CALL FOR TROOPS.

The mask as to the South has been thrown off. Deception and intrigue have done their work. The South's earnest desire for peace in the closing days of 1860 and in the beginning of 1861 are read in the speeches and addresses of her leading statesmen before and at the time of secession; in all the resolutions of her State Legislatures and State Conventions; in all the acts of her . Congress; in the efforts of her Peace Commissioners; in her deep sense of utter want of preparation for war; and in her consciousness that she had all to lose by war and nothing to gain. Had she sprung a Colossus Giant as a Nation full armed into the arena of world-powers, and had each of these powers extended to her the warm strong hand of friendship, it would not have been, even then, to her interest to have invited war.

But, instead, she stood alone, unarmed, a sublime spectacle in the rectitude of her conduct, awaiting the impending storm foreshadowed in Lincoln's inaugural address; in falsehood personifying truth; in treachery wearing the garb of sincerity; in an armed expedition, having "confidential orders, to reinforce Fort Sumter" in the war-rumors published throughout the North! in short, in the gradual unfolding of the plans of the Federal Government. Not the least among these was the intended surprise for the authorities, at Charleston, S. C., prevented only by a severe storm at sea, viz: The Reinforcement of Fort Sumter.

The light that is now being focussed upon the issues of the Sixties is revealing a conservative South that suffered for the principles of self-government, the principles of the Declaration of Independence; suffered with a matchless fortitude and a heroism unknown; a conservative South, the virtues of whose manhood and womanhood rival those of the palmiest days of Greece and Rome; a conservative South whose Heroic defense of her civil rights challenges the world for a parallel; a Conservative South that stood like the solid rock of Gibralter for four long years against the Northern millions, reinforced by more than

900,000 foreigners and 200,000 Southern negroes; a conservative South that by her courage and valor, having won in the Sixties, the admiration of the world, will be revered and honored for all time as no other section of earth's wide domain has ever been; a conservative South that now, in time of peace, is making a record that bids fair to equal, if not surpass, her record in war.

It is in defense of this South we write. If the North was right in inaugurating war why did she practice deception, intrigue, and falehood? These are not the friends of right, virtue, and truth. If the North was right why did she hesitate and vacillate? Hesitancy and vascillation are twin brothers of doubt and wrong. Right is the child of justice, and both the child and parent have comparatively few friends in this world. Wrong numbers her subjects by the million; right, hers by the hundred.

If the States were mere provinces the North was right. But what tongue so false to truth as to declare they were mere provinces? Did not all the fathers call them States in the full sense? The very name of the Federal Government, United States (States United) would be meaningless if the States were mere provinces. Therefore they were not provinces, but States; and the North by inaugurating the war was guilty of injustice, and treason and murder. The impartial historian of the future will so decclare. The language of fact is often severe.

We have shown that the States are States in the same sense in which Great Britain is; and hence that South Carolina was a State in the full sense. As such she ceded in trust to the Agent of all the States the ground on which Fort Sumter was built-in trust for the defence for her own soil and her own chief harbor. It is universally conceded that all cessions of sites for military purposes by the States were made in trust for the defence of the particular States so ceding the sites.

In South Carolina's case this principle applies with special force. All the streams emptying into that harbor are wholly within her borders. She alone had any distinct interest in a fortress at that point. This is what Mr. Douglas meant when he used the words we have previously quoted: "I take it for

granted that whoever permanently holds Charleston and South Carolina is entitled to the possession of Fort Sumter. Whoever holds permanently Pensacola and Florida is entitled to the possession of Fort Pickens. Whoever holds the States in whose limits these forts are placed is entitled to the forts themselves, unless there is something peculiar in the location of some particular fort that makes it important for us to hold it for the general defense of the whole country, instead of being useful for the defence of a particular city or locality."

If Douglas had been President the Constitution would not have been violated by the Federal Government, and the loyal South would not have seceded, and there would have been no war; and American blood would not have enriched American soil. Douglas knew that to have taken possession of Fort Sumter and to have attempted to hold it was as much a declaration of war as to have taken possession of the city of Charleston and to have attempted to hold it. If Lincoln did not know this it was due to his failure to have informed himself. All know that Lincoln's education was limited, and that it was acquired under great disadvantages.

When Fort Sumter fell South Carolina had been a seceded State for nearly four months. During all that time persistent attempts with two successive administrations had been made for its evacuation. We have already seen how these attempts were met by evasion, deception, prevarication and perfidy. We know that one administration agreed to maintain the status quo; and that this agreement was violated in December, 1860, when the garrison of one fort was removed to a stronger.

We know that agreement was violated again in January 1861, according to the report of Captain McGowan, Commander of the Star of the West. He concealed below the deck of the steamer four officers and two hundred men on arriving off Charleston. His report is in these words: "The soldiers were now all put below, and no one allowed on deck except our crew." It failed because of the vigilance of South Carolina.

If the South finally failed to trust the pledges of the Federal Government whose fault was it? If the South's unexampled forbearance was finally exhausted, who was to blame? Yet the