[
285]
usurpation on the part of the
Executive to give any assurance that Congress would not exercise that power.
When this correspondence reached Charleston, Governor Pickens ordered Hayne to present the demand for the surrender of Sumter forthwith.
He did so,
in a letter of considerable length, to which
Secretary Holt gave a final answer on the 6th of February, in which, as in his reply to
Senators Fitzpatrick,
Mallory, and
Slidell, he claimed for the
Government the right to send forward re-enforcements when, in the judgment of the
President, the safety of the garrison required them — a right resting on the same foundation as the right to occupy the fort.
He denied the right of
South Carolina to the possession of the fort, and said:--“If the announcement, so repeatedly made, of the
President's pacific purpose in continuing the occupation of
Fort Sumter until the question shall be settled by competent authority, has failed to impress the government of
South Carolina, the forbearing conduct of the 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 tried it, be not accepted as a satisfactory pledge of the peaceful policy of this Administration towards
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 authorities of that State 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 common country into the horrors of civil war, then upon them and those they represent must rest the responsibility.”
Here ended the attempt of the conspirators of South Carolina to have the sovereignty of that State acknowledged by diplomatic intercourse.
It had utterLy failed.
The President refused to receive Governor Pickens's agent, excepting as “a distinguished citizen of South Carolina,” and also refused any compliance with the demands of the authorities of that State.
He had been strongly inclined to yield to these demands; but recent manifestations of public opinion convinced him that he could not do so without exciting the hot indignation of the loyal portion of the people.
Coincident with these manifestations were the strong convictions of Holt, Dix, and Attorney-General Stanton of his Cabinet.1