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Charleston and vicinity, liable to do military duty, was immediately called to arms.
Measures were taken to increase the strength and armament of
Fort Moultrie.
A garrison composed of the
Charleston Rifles, under Cap. tain
J. Johnson, was sent to occupy
Fort Johnson.
The erection of batteries that would command the ship-channel of the harbor, and bear heavily upon
Fort Sumter, was commenced on
Morris and
Sullivan's Islands, and a thousand negro slaves were employed in the work.
The commander of Castle Pinckney ordered that no boat should approach its wharf-head except by permission.
The city of
Charleston was placed under the protection of a military patrol.
Look-out boats scouted the outer harbor at night.
The telegraph was placed under the most rigid censorship, and
Major Anderson was denied all communication with his Government.
The
United States Sub-treasurer at
Charleston (
Pressley) was forbidden by the authorities to cash any more drafts from
Washington.
1 The National Collector of the Port (
Colcock), participating in the treasonable work, announced that all vessels from and for ports outside of
South Carolina must enter and clear at
Charleston.
The Convention, assuming supreme authority, passed an ordinance on the 1st of January, defining treason against the
State; and with a barbarous intent unknown in a long obsolete British law, and with a singular misunderstanding of its terms, they declared the punishment to be “death, without benefit of
the clergy.”
2 On that morning
they had received intelligence from the “Commissioners” at
Washington that their mission would be fruitless; and
the Rev. Mr. Du Pre, in the prayer at the opening of the
Convention, evidently believing that war was inevitable, supplicated the Almighty, saying:--“Wilt thou bring confusion and discomfiture upon our enemies, and wilt thou strengthen the hearts, nerves, and arms of our sons to meet this great fire.”
Then a bust of
John C. Calhoun, cut from pure white marble, was placed on the table before the
President, bearing a curious inscription on a piece of paper.
3
Frantic appeals were now made to the politicians of other Southern coast States to seize the forts and arsenals of the Republic within their borders.
The organs of the South Carolina conspirators begged that Fort Pickens, and the Navy Yard and fortifications on the shores of Pensacola Bay, and Forts Jefferson and Taylor, at the extremity of the Florida Peninsula, might be seized at once — also Fort Morgan, near Mobile; for a grand scheme of piracy, which was inaugurated a hundred days later, was then in embryo.
