150 Years Ago in Charleson, South Carolina

[PetePaolillo]

Major Robert Anderson takes command of a tiny Garrison at Fort Moultrie on October 20th 1860

In October, I860, Secretary Floyd removed Colonel Gardiner from the command of the defences of Charleston harbor because he attempted to increase his supply of ammunition, and Major Robert Anderson, a native of Kentucky, was appointed to succeed him. He arrived there on the 20th, and was satisfied, by the tone of conversation and feeling in Charleston, and by the military drills going on, that a revolution was to be inaugurated there. He communicated his suspicions to Adjutant-general Cooper, a native of Duchess County, N.Y., who had married Senator Mason's sister. In that letter Anderson announced to the government the weakness of the forts in Charleston harbor, and urged the necessity of immediately strengthening them. He told the Secretary of War that Fort Moultrie headquarters, was so weak as to invite attack. "Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckuey," he said, " must be garrisoned immediately, if the government determines to keep command of this harbor."

http://books.google.com/books?pg=PA43&dq=robert+anderson+commands+Fort+Moultrie&ei=0GXITK-qL4G8lQfUmpXoAQ&ct=result&id=6SAsOUrvV7AC#v=onepage&q&f=false

[PetePaolillo]

150 Years Ago November 1, 1860

On November 1, 1860, the New York Times published a round up of articles from Southern newspapers to give a sampling of Southern attitudes towards the coming presidential election. "The Question of Disunion"

November 1, 1860
THE QUESTION OF DISUNION.; Will the South Secede? Views of Fire-eaters and Conservatives Treasonable Secret Circulars. NORTHERN AND SOUTHERN JOURNALISM.The Charleston Mercury bitterly laments the apathy of the South for lending no encouragement to newspaper enterprise. It draws in this matter, as it might draw in others, a strong contrast between the energy and activity displayed at the North and the sluggishness manifested at the South, and complains that even a journal conducted with such marked ability as the Mercury finds few supporters. We might explain this by the absence of that great middle class which cannot exist in a country where the population is divided into lords of the soil and serfs; for it is this same middle class which gives the most valuable support to Northern journals. Without such a class it would be impossible for one of our newspapers to live at the price at which it is published. But we let the Mercury give utterance to its own over-truthful remarks upon a subject so suggestive:

"How is it with Southern Presses, faithful to the rights and institutions of the South? Take the Charleston Mercury, which, for thirty-five years, has been a prominent press in the South -- what has been the fate of its editors? The first ruined -- the second barely earned a narrow subsistence -- the third injured, but sold out in time -- the fourth died a ruined man. The fifth is our humble selves, of whom we will say nothing. What paper at the North has brought to the public understanding, more ability, eloquence or fidelity, than the Charleston Mercury (we speak not of ourselves)? There have been brains and labor enough in it, to have amassed a dozen fortunes. Yet how meagre has been the patronage conferred upon it, compared with its Northern cotemporaries? How many tens of thousands of dollars due to it have been lost, uncollectable and unpaid? How many tens of thousands of dollars are now due to it -- and chiefly by the very men -- the planters -- the slaveholders of the South -- whose property and institutions -- whose liberties and lives it has labored to protect! If its principles and policy were for sale to-morrow, in Wall-street, in New-York, it could with ease realize a hundred thousand dollars. We know what we say, ELWOOD FISHER sunk a fortune of forty thousand dollars in the contest of 1850-52, by his press in Washington, in the perilous enterprise of defending the rights and institutions of the south. Are the defenders of the South by the public Press, in the greater contest of 1860, to be ELWOOD FISHERS? Let the slaveholders of the South imitate, at least, the enlightened selfishness of the people of the North, and support, with a becoming energy, those Presses which are faithful to their interests and institutions. The public Press is said to be the fourth estate in England. In this country it is the sole estate. Kings, Lords and Commons, we have none; for no man in the South recognizes in Congress, or in the Executive Administration at Washington, soon to pass into the hands of our enemies, any power for good to the South. Our cause is naked for support, at Washington or in the North; but we have the Press, and that may be all potent for our defence. It can inform and counsel our people, arouse resistance to our fierce enemies, and bring to the South deliverance and liberty.

Our readers, we trust, will pardon the disagreeable truths contained in this article, but we live in times, when ignorance and error may be ruin, and truth salvation."

A SECESSIONIST SPEAKS.

In the course of an address delivered at Anderson, (S.C.,) on the 16th, Gen. S. MCGOWAN, of Abbeville, remarked:

"That African Slavery is a peculiar institution. The world does not understand it -- their sentiment is against it, and it cannot live in any Government which is inimical to it. Slavery must be governed by slaveholders, or at least by a Government in which slaveholders have a protective voice. He took for granted that we are resolved to maintain the institution at any and all hazards.

Mr. SEWARD was egregiously mistaken, when he lately declared that we would soon give it up peaceably. Let the fanatics of the world rave and rant as they may, we have settled this question for ourselves. We declare in the face of the world, that this institution is our concern, and so help us God we mean to maintain it!! Taking this for granted, it follows that this is no Government for slaveholders, when the administration of that which should be a Common Government has passed permanently into the hands of that geographical section, which is animated by an infernal hatred of the institution.

It has been said that the election of Mr. LINCOLN will be constitutional, and therefore, there is no cause of alarm. He denied it. He said it would not be constitutional in any just sense. It is true that the outrage would be perpetrated under the forms of the Constitution; but it will not be the first time in the history of the world when oppression, in order to accomplish its purpose, has put on constitutional forms. If they can elect a President constitutionally now, they may do it four years hence, and eight years hence, and so on for all time to come. In this way the Government will have passed under the exclusive control of a geographical fanatical party and the South be literally disfranchised in their own Government. Can this perversion of the Constitution be justly claimed as constitutional. It would be preserving the form after the spirit had fled. It would be the grossest tyranny under the lifeless form of freedom. He declared that in that case, we would be taxed and governed, and goaded by a Government, in which we would, practically and in effect, have no voice. It would be another exemplification of the old principle of 'taxation without representation,' in opposition to which our forefathers incurred all the dread hazards of the revolution, and waged a bloody war for seven long years. God grant that we may never be reduced to such a condition. But, if it comes to that, he would certainly not advise acquiescence, but would rather take the war-cry, 'To your tents, O Israel!' He was ready to incur every responsibility rather than submit to such permanent ostracism in our own Government. He supposed the case of England being annexed to France, and asked whether England, with her Anglo-Saxon blood and all her hereditary hatred of France and Frenchmen, would submit to be governed by LOUIS NAPOLEON and the French Legislative Assembly, even although the was represented in that Assembly, but in a hopeless minority. He asked whether England would submit to the arrangement for a single day. He declared that he did not believe she would submit it for a single hour, but would rather fly to arms, and fight the great battles of Agicourt and Cressy. And yet, the condition of England in the case supposed, would not be so perilous or hopeless as our condition in this Government, if the administration of it passes permanently into the hands of the fanatical, sectional Black Republican Party.

He said, however, he was not disposed to give up the fight. He was for struggling to the last, with the watchword, 'the Constitution and Southern Rights, BRECKINRIDGE and LANE'"

LET THE SOUTH ARM.

We extract the following paragraph from the Montgomery (Ala.) Mail:

"The result of the election, Tuesday, in Pennsylvania, was the death-knell of the South -- or of the Union -- it is hard to determine which. If the South submit, she must calculate on ceaseless servile troubles, eternal Northern interference, laws aimed at her institutions by the Federal Government, and the gradual extinction of the supremacy of the white race. If the South submit, two years will not pass -- perhaps not one -- when the difficulty of holding and managing negroes will be so great that owners will sell at any price to be rid of them. The whole force of LINCOLN's free-negro Government will be directed to bring the white man of the South down to the level of the negro. Its ultimate purpose is the amalgamation of the two races. Hamlin, the future Vice-President, is, himself, partly of negro blood. Let the South choose.

But if the South resist -- what then? The result is obvious.

The world, the civilized world, cannot exist a day without cotton. The Governments of England, and France cannot exist without a supply of cotton for their millions of white slaves. If, then, the people of the South are not utterly enervated, debased, and ready for chains -- if they have a spark of the old manhood left -- they can, by immediate secession, place themselves in an impregnable position." * * * *

Let the South arm! -- If the Slave States intend to protect their rights of property in slaves -- if their citizens intend to resist every form of insurrectian and incendiarism which Northern hatred can inflict -- let them proceed at once to arm. There is no time for delay! 'Every breeze that blows from the North brings to our ears' intelligence of the onward march of Wide-Awakeism and free negroism!

The South must move! Submission is death; and none know it better than those who counsel it!

Strike! for your altars and your fires!

Strike! for the green graves of your sires!

God, and your native land!

Let the boys arm. Every one that can point a shotgun or revolver should have one. Let every community supply itself with munitions, and store them safely, Abolizationism is at your doors, with torch and knife in hand!"

The Richmond Whig justly remarks:
"The man who can write such abominable stuff must be crazy -- stark mad -- a for a lunatic asylum. We pity him -- from our inmost soul, we pity him."

DISUNION DENOUNCED.

A correspondent of the Richmond Whig writes from Norfolk, (Va.,) under date of the 27th:
"I notice a dispatch in the Whig, of yesterday in regard to Ex-Gov. WISE's speech and resolutions at the Princess Ann mass-meeting. There were about 800 persons present, half of whom were ladies and children -- many Bell and Everett men, but they took no part in its proceedings. The resolutions are published in, the Argus of yesterday and we leave you and your readers to make their own comments and form their own opinions. The Governor's speech was, if possible, more ultra than his resolutions. Both have struck moderate men, of all parties, with astonishment. They are decidedly revolutionary in tone and tendency.

Gen. JOHN S. MILLSON made a masterly speech here last evening in behalf of Mr. DOUGLAS. His remarks were received with great sensation amid much enthusiasm. He referred to the revolutionary protect and resolutions of Ex-Gov. WISE, as published in the Argus of yesterday. He said we have indeed fallen upon revolutionary times. He depicted in a graphic and powerful manner the workings of the scheme now set on foot in subversion of law and order -- he denounced it as one of the boldest and most startling projects ever broached in a free Government. Gen. MILLSON referred to the approaching election, and said, 'result as it might, in sixty days after it was over, there would be no Bell, Douglas or Breckinridge Party in the country -- there would be but two -- a party for the Union and one against the Union. He had sided and would battle with the former!' His remarks made a deep and powerful impression on all present, and all felt that we had reached a crisis in public affairs such as the country has, perhaps, never before witnessed. We have never witnessed more intense political excitement than is now racing in this city and the surrounding country, and never have we seen a more resolute and determined spirit than is displayed by the opponents of the Breckinridge Party -- the friends of BELL and DOUGLAS. The City of Norfolk, Portsmouth, Norfolk County and Princess Anne, will give BELL a majority of 1,200 votes!"

TREASONABLE SECRET CIRCULARS.

Secret circulars have been distributed among the faithful followers of Mr. BRECKINRIDGE in Kentucky, which the Worcester union brings to light and denounces. The title of one of these documents which has been circulating in the Sixth District is:

"The South alone should govern the South -- African Slavery should be controlled only by those who are friendly to it" --

And it is published by EVANS & COGGSWELL, of Charleston, S.C. After claiming that it is the aim of the Republican Party to achieve the extinction of Slavery, it says;

"Is it the policy of the South to wait for that event to take place, or to anticipate it by putting herself beyond the influence of their policy or the operation of their laws?"

The document answers this question thus:

"The measures proposed are secession and the formation of a new Government for ourselves. * * We think that the seceding States should nominate their own candidates for the Presidency and Vice-Presidency, limiting their choice with the eight seceding States. * * If the South can elect a President at all, then no man could be more acceptable to us than the distinguished individual nominated (at Richmond) not merely on account of his intelligence, but of his manly independence, and of his fidelity to his native South. As soon as it is ascertained in November that a Black Republican President is elected, a convention of the seceding States and of such other of the Southern States as may desire to cast lots with us, should immediately be assembled, with purposes openly declared, of forming a Constitution and organizing, a Government, * * and by the 4th of March, when Mr. LINCOLN takes his seat in the Presidential chair, the South will have the whole machinery of the Government in complete working order to prepare for our defence, or any other emergency. * * * The 'Revolution' would be complete in its full dimensions and the Southern Confederacy stand forth as one of the independent nations of the earth."

Another document of like character, partly in cipher, is in possession of Hon. GREEN ADAMS, and still another was discovered at Proctor. Owsley County. The Union remarks on this subject as follows:

"We take just now this position: that those documents, secretly distributed in these counties among Breckinridge men, and discovered by an accident, considering the notice of them, the one we have, and the one in the possession of GREEN ADAMS, and the one like it at Proctor -- all these things convince us that there is in Kentucky a regularly organized conspiracy of treason to disrupt the Government. Of course, we do not pretend to know all that is in the document in ADAMS' possession. He and HAMPTON could not read it at all. Think of this, Union men of all parties. Is there not enough in all this to carry alarm to every one? Where do not these treasonable organizations exist? If they are in Breathitt and Owsley, may they not be in Clark? May they not be in every county in the State? Who is safe? Who is true to his country? These are just now grave and serious questions. We hope our Union cotemporaries will spare no time to spread the news of these discoveries far and wide, and let the friends of the Union know in time of the treason that is hatching in our midst and all around us. Not a moment can be lost. There are men in Kentucky now plotting to subvert the Government. It is no longer in far off South Carolina. It is here at our homes."

Copies of these pamphlets have been received in this City.

WHAT GOV. PETTUS WILL DO.

The Breckinridge States Rights men of Mississippi had a large meeting at Columbus last week, and Gov. PETTUS made a speech. The tenor of his remarks led some one to ask him, if the Union should be divided, what disposition he would make of the interest he had in the Bunker Hill Monument?

He said "he would give up his interest to the North."

"And what," said his interrogator, "will you do with the South's interest in the Fourth of July?"

"We will make a new one," was the reply.

SPEECHES BY COLONELS ORR AND ASHMORE.

We learn from the Greenville (S.C.) Patriot that on Tuesday of last week Colonels ORE and ASHMORE addressed the citizens of the district in the Court House. Col. ORR had no hope of the defeat of LINCOLN, but would counsel no hasty action on the part of the State. South Carolina should not withdraw alone. He differed from others in the opinion that our Legislature should call for a Convention of the people as soon as it was ascertained that LINCOLN was elected. He thought it would be wiser and more prudent that Commissioners should be appointed to go to and consult with the other Southern States, and ascertain the course they intended to pursue under the circumstances, so that there might be a concert of action.

South Carolina has tried the experiment of sending a Commissioner to a sister Southern State when her soil was invaded, and the result of that experiment does not afford much encouragement to repeat it. At this crisis, however, although each State must in her sovereign capacity decide upon her own course of action, yet it will be doubtless thought advisable to secure in some way as much concert of action as practicable.

Col. ASHMORE also thought LINCOLN would be elected, and counseled that the State should put herself into a position of resistance, and that when the time comes she should resist to the death.

SIGNS OF THE TIMES.

Under this head the State Sights Louisianian has the following significant statement:

"A highly-respectable merchant of our city, just returned from the North and West, informs us that during his visit there he had an interview with Old ABE, the rail-splitter. Upon being asked by our informant what he would do, or what would likely be his policy in regard to the South should he be elected, the rail-splitter replied that similar interrogatories had been propounded to him by many persons, and also in writing by letter, but that he had uniformly refused to answer them, since he did not deem it politic or prudent to declare his policy in advance. He took occasion, however, to apprise our informant that he could dispel the illusion existing at the South; that he would not have to send men from the Free States to fill the offices, by assuring him that there would be found plenty of persons at the South glad enough to get them, and that he had already received four hundred letters from the Slave States begging offices, a large and considerable portion of which came from Louisiana. We beg our readers to ponder upon this, and keep a copy of this paper until after the 4th of March next, should the Illinois rail-splitter be elected, and when he makes his appointments for Louisiana, refer to this statement, and he will have an additional cue to the causes and motives of the disruption of the Democratic Party at Charleston and Baltimore. These fellows, in their applications for office, are taking time by the forelock, and are determined not to be behindhand in the race to catch the Treasury drippings. Is it any wonder, after such revelations, to hear persons in Louisiana say that LINCOLN was preferable to DOUGLAS, and more safe and reliable for the South? We think the rail-splitter showed a good deal of shrewdness when he played the Breckinridge game of silence, and refused to answer the interrogatories put to him. A mum candidate always has an advantage over one who frankly expresses his views, because his supporters, not knowing what his opinions are, have nothing to find fault with, but are compelled, as gamblers say, to go it blind."

EX-GOV. WISE'S RESOLUTIONS.

The Norfolk Herald has a long report of a Breckinridge barbecue at Princess Anne, at which Gov. WISE spoke. After detailing the crimes of which he thought the Republican Party guilty, he proceeded as follows:
"How, then, is the election of its candidate for that Chief Executive power to be viewed by us and by all? His and his rival's sentiments are both proclaimed -- they are the same -- 'the Government cannot endure half slave and half free' -- it is an 'irrepressible conflict between opposing and enduring forces -- the United States must and will, sooner or later, become a Slaveholding nation, or entirely a Free-labor nation.' These are the sentiments of the coming Black Republican triumph by such means as we have seen. What then?

1. The election of ABRAHAM LINCOLN to the Presidency will be an open and official avowal by a popular majority of the North, and of the nation, that the past aggressions of Black Republicanism are right.

2. That they are to be persisted in with great aggravation, for the future.

3. That the Slave States shall not govern themselves in respect to their own property in their own limits; but that whilst Territories are to be allowed to prohibit Slavery in their limits, the States will not be permitted to protect it in peace in theirs.

4. That the Slave States and their citizens are to be coerced to submission. And such aggression as this amounts to actual war. It is proclaimed already, and awaits only the election for the power and the means to coerce submission. The election will give it both. And it is the worse for coming in all the panoply of a mere form of right. The form is the election -- and the election will be Constitutional. That is to be the pore out of which the courage of resistance is to ooze. The form of the election may be Constitutional, but its intent and purpose is our invasion and a violent infraction of the Constitution. No matter what may be the form, the substance is aggression -- the aggression is to us -- vital!

If we submit to it we are at once subjugated, and if we intend to resist it is time we were prepared for the conflict, which we cannot repress but may repel. In view of these issues, we deliberately resolve:

1. To appoint committees of safety,' as in Revolutionary times, to consist of six persons from each magisterial district, a majority of whom for each district may act. They shall devise and control measures of policy for our safety, and for enrolling and organizing a body of "Minute Men," for whom in all respects they shall provide. And quarterly, or oftener, at such times as they appoint, the respective committees of the districts, or their representatives, shall assemble, in whole or in part, as they may direct, as a general council for the county, which shall sit under a chief of Minute Men, to be elected by the several, councils and removable at their pleasure. The Minute Men shall execute the orders of the distinct committees, and of the general council; and shall, when necessary, be provided with the proper means.

2. That it be recommended to every County in the Commonwealth to organize in the same or a similar manner, and to publish the same as we now order for notice to our friends to cooperate.

3. That the moment the election returns are made known, and it is ascertained that ABRAHAM LINCOLN is elected President of the United States, the general council of this county shall select one delegate from each district to meet such delegates as may be appointed by other counties to assemble in Convention at Richmond, to determine upon measures for protecting our own safety and honor as a people, for defending the Constitution of the United States, for saving our rights in the Union, and for obtaining the sanction of the Sovereign State of Virginia.

4. That these Proceedings be published at Norfolk and Richmond, and copies be sent to each county in the Commonwealth; and that the President and Secretary of the meeting be ordered to see this duty executed.

5. That a Committee of five be appointed by the Chair to conduct correspondence in this and other States; and a Committee of five, in each district, be also appointed to raise funds to defray any expense of printing and distribution and correspondence.

Resolved, That meetings be held in each magisterial district, within a week, for the purpose of organizing according to the first resolution.

The Herald remarks on these resolutions:

"We invoke the serious, calm consideration of every voter in Virginia and the whole country to this matter. Let the preamble and resolutions be published and sent broadcast over the country -- let it be proclaimed everywhere that the Breckinridge leaders have at least developed their plan of proceedings -- and that plan is a revolutionary one -- subversive of every principle of well-regulated Government -- of individual or public right -- of law, order, and social peace and quiet; that its tendency is to array the land in civil strife -- to divide the South from the North, and the people of the South among themselves -- for we will not believe they can be induced to sanction such proceedings or sentiments."

THE PLAN.

A dispatch from Washington to the Philadelphia Press says:

"The plan of the Seceders is to make BRECKINRIDGE President at all hazards -- i.e., if not of the whole United States, at least of a Southern Republic. Mr. BUCHANAN is initiated in that movement, and he is to make over to Mr. BRECKINRIDGE the public archives, treasury, buildings, army and navy, in the event of the success of the secession movement; for the Seceders still hope to carry all the Slave States next November. Should they not be able to do that, then they will either have to wait a little, or change the programme altogether."

FIRE-EATERS DENOUNCED.

The New-Orleans Commercial Bulletin, of the 25th, talks plainly of the Secessionists. It says:

"What have the Secessionists done for the South? Can anybody tell? What have they done for her except to foment agitation, to make politics a trade, and to call off attention from measures of industrial development which would make her really independent? We appeal to every honest, intelligent man to say whether the Union men of the South have not always been the persistent and indefatigable advocates of the development of her resources, of internal improvements, of all those measures whose tendency is to place the South upon high, independent and impregnable ground. They have advocated, with exhaustive toil and unflagging perseverance, those economic instrumentalities that never fail to make a people strong and rich, and able and willing to maintain their own liberties, and to repel all attacks, come from what quartersoever they may. What support have they had from the great body of Southern sectionalists in this great work?

What have the latter been about all the while? Why, trading in politics, abusing the North, republishing Abolition insults and slang, saving the South by passing frothy, truculent and cheap resolutions; threatening secession and disunion, and at the same time sending millions of dollars to the North to enrich and build it up. This is what they have been doing, and every honest man knows it. The advocates of Southern independence, prosperity and wealth, have not only had no support worth speaking of from the sectionalists, but they have not unfrequently encountered their opposition. The sectionalists have often ridiculed the efforts of the industrials of the South to make her really independent of the North. The former have been saving the South by cheap resolutions and windy speeches ever since we can remember. Their resolutions have been written upon Northern paper, with Northern ink and pens; the resolutionists have worn Northern clothes, have sat upon Northern chairs, and, in a word, have been giving the North the very kind of aid and comfort which it most desires, while fulminating wordy resolves against it which have only excited contempt. The people are now asked to indorse and continue this same old ding-dong, slam-banging, slam-whanging method of "saving the South," by voting for the party that has been really making the South comparatively poor, and keeping her back in her career of industrial development, moral power and political influence.

These sectional people have been in power both in the National and State Governments for many years, and they have had abundant time, therefore, to show what they can do. That they have totally failed let the present condition of the country prove. Let them now retire, and let us have a change of policy. The sectional doctors have dosed their patient and kept him in such constant irritation that they have nearly killed him. Let them be dismissed. Let the patient have a little rest and some healthy nourishment, and he will soon be on his feet again, hale and vigorous."

[Pvt_Sullivan]

Re: 150 Years Ago in Charleson, South Carolina

Ladies and Gentlemen, I've asked Pete Paolillo to help our event out by exercising his research muscles and finding historical items of note for the days leading up to the events we are going to portray during January 2011. As you can see he's found some great items that will help us get into the mind of the 'Man' and 'Woman' of the time and place for this adventure.

Pete, thanks for the help and fine research items in support of "To Prevent the Effusion of Blood".

[PetePaolillo]

November 4th 1860

Pete it is my pleasure. I am very much looking forward to this event.


On November 6, 1860, Republican Abraham Lincoln received 40% of the popular vote to northern Democrat Stephen A. Douglas' 29%, southern Democrat John C. Breckenridge's 18%, and Constitutional Union John Bell's 13%.

As Lincoln left Springfield for the nation's capitol he told those gathered at the train depot to see him off, that upon his shoulders was "a task before me greater than that which rested upon Washington." To Abraham Lincoln would fall the task of leading a divided nation during America's greatest crisis--the Civil War, a task for which in the end he would become its greatest casualty.

Roy P. Basler, Ed. The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, 9 Volumes, Farewell Address at Springfield, Illinois, February 11, 1861, Vol 4, p. 191.


My mistake I jumped the gun. Nov 4th was the Sunday before the election. My apologies. I made the change. Thanks Huck

[Huck]

Re: 150 Years Ago in Charleson, South Carolina

Wasn't the election Nov 6th?

[PetePaolillo]

Re: 150 Years Ago in Charleson, South Carolina

Wasn't the election Nov 6th?

My error was fixed, Thanks Huck

[PetePaolillo]

Nov 4th 1860

On the Sunday before the presidential election of 1860, Article in the the New York Herald regarding the newspaper favoring the disunion of America, claims made by a Black Republican:

THE NEW YORKHERALD AND THE DISUNION QUESTION.--One of our black republican contemporaries plumply arraigns the HERALD as "in favor of disunion." This is a great mistake. All our interests, in common with these of all our fellow citizens of this city, this State and this section, are safe only in the Union. Disunion would bring its disastrous consequences to us, as to all others whose fortunes and hopes are identified with preservation of the Union. Maintain the Union and the constitution, and we may lose everything. Therefore we are decidedly in favor of the Union.

But we have our apprehensions that there is danger in these disunion movements in the South. How stands the case? Southern slavery--the vital institution of the South--is, within the Union, completely at the mercy of the North. We have shown that within a few years, the Union holding good, there will probably be the overwhelming representation in Congress of twenty-eight free states, against fourteen or thirteen slave states; that Southern slavery, against this pressure, will be utterly powerless. We have argued from this that the people of the slaves States, taking the alarm, may now be in earnest in their disunion movements, and that they may seriously act upon this occasion, as "their last chance of escape from a forcible emancipation experiment which may reduce them to the bloody scenes of St. Domingo.

To escape these possible consequences from Lincoln's election, we have contended that the public safety can only be secured with his defeat. How ridiculous and contemptible, then, is this canard that the HERALD is in favor of disunion.

[PetePaolillo]

November 4, 1860

August Belmont – A Speech at Cooper Institute, New York
November 4, 1860

Fellow Citizens,—In thanking you for the honor which you have conferred upon me, I cannot refrain from addressing you a few brief remarks at this critical juncture of our political affairs.

In less than four days you will be called upon to record your votes at an election, upon the result of which depends not only the preservation of your property, and the prosperity of your native city, but also the very existence of this great and vast Republic.

Whatever the Republican leaders may say to the contrary, I fear that the election of Mr. Lincoln to the presidential chair must prove the forerunner of a dissolution of this confederacy amid all the horrors of civil strife and bloodshed.

I know that Mr. Lincoln’s friends claim for him sentiments of patriotic and conservative attachment to the Union. But of what avail can these sentiments be, even if they do exist, from the moment that he consents to become the standard-bearer of a sectional party holding principles incompatible with the sacred obligations of the Constitution, and arrayed in open and unrelenting hostility against the property and the institutions of the fairest portion of our common country.

But, my friends and fellow-laborers in the cause of the Union, with God’s blessing we must not give our opponents a chance to carry out their fair promises, or their boasting taunts.

I do not believe the great State of New York, which under the beneficent influences of our institutions has grown up to a mighty empire in herself, will ever give her casting vote in favor of fanatical sectionalism.

I will not believe that the City of New York, which owes her proud position as the first commercial emporium of the world to the blessings of our Union, can ever be unmindful of her duty to the Union. I have an abiding faith in the unflinching courage of our indomitable Democracy, which has carried its victorious banner through many a hard-fought battle. And last, though not least, my friends, I place implicit trust in the energetic co-operation of those patriotic and conservative men, the members of the time-honored Whig party, who, forgetting all past differences, and only mindful of their unwavering attachment to the Union, have united with us to fight the common enemy.

When in 1850 the hydra of sectionalism and disunion first raised her hideous head, we saw the great statesmen of the Republic lay aside all differences on minor topics of internal or foreign policy, and by one united effort crush the treasonable monster. Then the immortal Webster stood side by side with the eloquent and Union-loving Henry S. Foote; then the patriot and statesman, John Bell, fought shoulder to shoulder with the honored veteran of Democracy, Lewis Cass; and the cherished idol of the American heart, the great Henry Clay, was linked hand in hand with the unflinching and patriotic champion of the Constitution, Stephen A. Douglas.

The work then so nobly begun by our great leaders is now to be completed by the united efforts of the American people. From the snow-clad hills of the far North to the blooming savannahs of the sunny South, from the rolling waves of the Atlantic to the golden shores of our empire on the Pacific, the hopes and fears of every American patriot are centred at this moment in New York. Will you allow these hopes to be disappointed ? No ! before another week shall have passed away I trust that the mighty Empire State will have redeemed herself from Republican misrule, and preserved the Union from the calamities of a sectional administration.

[PetePaolillo]

November 5th 1860

Operations in Charleston Harbor
Fort MOULTRIE, S. C., November 5, 1860.

Col. H. K. CRAIG,
Chief of Ordnance, U. S. Army, Washington, D.C.:

COLONEL: Your communication of 1st instant, with its inclosure, in reference to placing forty muskets in the hands of the Engineer officer in charge of Fort Sumter as a precautionary measure proper to this time of excitement, is received. My views are asked on two, or rather three points:

1st. On that which forms the condition of the Secretary’s approval of the issue, namely, that I concur in its expediency;

2d. On the “propriety” of placing the arms in the hands of hired men for the purpose indicated; and,

3d. On the “expediency” of doing so.

To the first I reply that I have already said in effect, on my post return for last month, that while I do not apprehend that any attempt upon the United States works here will receive the countenance of the State or city authority, it is by some thought that a tumultuary force may be incited by the feeling of the time, and invited by the present disordered condition of the works to make such an attempt without it, and that this possibility makes it incumbent on me to provide as far I may against it, and forty additional musketeers would then be desirable.

As to the “propriety” of the issue I see no objection. The arms need not be delivered to the men selected by the Engineer officer till the occasion should actually obtain. The workmen in charge of the property are bound on principles of common law to defend it against purloiners, to say nothing of the 96th Article of War, applicable to all “persons whatsoever receiving pay from the United States.”

The “expediency” of the measure is quite another question of less obvious features.

There are one hundred and nine men at Fort Sumter, most of them laborers of foreign nativity, of whom it is prudent to be somewhat suspicious, for I am just informed that on some of them being questioned (as is the wont of the times) on the point of their proclivity in the event of secession, replied to the effect that they were indifferent, and intimated that the largest bribe would determine their action, and they can, you know, discharge themselves of their public obligations at any moment, and thus be free to choose sides.

Now, forty muskets in the hands of the faithful among them might control the rest, but certainly not on a close push from outside. The Engineer officer can, he says, keep the arms beyond the physical possibility of being taken from him by the untrustworthy, and he can cut off all communication peremptorily with citizens. Now, unless some such precaution be taken, this large body of laborers may, in the possible event in question, unrestrainedly deliver up the post and its contents on a bribe or demand. Meanwhile they cannot be removed outside of that isolated island post, which has not a foot of ground beyond the walls of the fort. In this connection I may add that at this post too (Fort Moultrie) we have about fifty laborers of like description with known secession propensities, as they are residents permanently of this quarter.

On the point of expediency, then, I am constrained to say that the only proper precaution–that which has no objection–is to fill these two companies with drilled recruits (say fifty men) at once, and send two companies from Old Point Comfort to occupy respectively Fort Sumter and Castle Pinckney.

I am, colonel, yours respectfully,

JNO. L. GARDNER,

Brevet Colonel, U. S. Army.

[Indorsement.]

ORDNANCE OFFICE, November 8, 1860.

Respectfully submitted to the Secretary of War, with the remark that as the issue of forty muskets, approved by him 31st ultimo, was contingent on the approval of Colonel Gardner, it is probable that the issue has not and will not be made without further orders.

H. K. CRAIG,
Colonel of Ordnance.

[PetePaolillo]

November 5th 1860

Governor Francis W. Pickens of South CarolinaOn November 5, 1860, a day before the election for Prersident of the United States, Governor Francis W. Pickens of South Carolina began taking affirmative steps to take South Carolina out of the Union by way of secession.

Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.

COLUMBIA, Monday, Nov. 5.

The Governor, in his message to the Legislature, recommends, in view of the probable election of LINCOLN, that they remain in session until the result is known, and that they then take such action as will prepare South Carolina to meet the emergency. He thinks the only alternative left is the secession of South Carolina from the Union. He strongly recommends such action, and declares that no power on earth can rightfully prevent it.

He also recommends that the military force of the State be reorganized, and that it be put in a position to be available at the shortest notice.

He further recommends that the services of one thousand volunteers be immediately accepted.

The message is well received by all classes. Z.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20712FC3455147493C4A9178AD95F448684F9&pagewanted=print

[PetePaolillo]

November 7th 1860

SOUTH CAROLINA.
Published: November 7, 1860Special Dispatch to the New-York Times.
BALTIMORE, Tuesday, Nov. 6.

The Legislature of South Carolina has just voted for Mr. BRECKINRIDGE as President, and for Mr. LANE as Vice-President. Z.

http://www.nytimes.com/1860/11/07/news/south-carolina.html?scp=7&sq=november+7th+1860&st=p

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The letter below was written by Horatio King Postmaster General under James Buchanan and an editorial response from the newspaper

The die is cast
Washington, November 7, 1860.

My Dear Sir,—The die is cast, and Lincoln is elected.

Shall we now fan the flame of disunion, or shall we exert our influence toward calming the already excited sentiment of the South?

What course should we, here in the District of Columbia, pursue ? Should we join hands with the disunionists and help on the storm, or should we not rather pour oil on the troubled waters ? . . .

My own will illustrate the condition of thousands in this district. With us everything depends on the Union being preserved.

What, then, was my indignation on learning that men holding office here under your administration were parading the streets here this morning with disunion cockades on their hats! and the leading article of the ‘Constitution’ to-day can have no other effect than to encourage and fan the flame of disunion, both here and at the South.

You will bear me witness that I have never intruded myself upon your counsels. But may I not, in the most respectful yet in the most earnest manner, now appeal to you—for if you are silent your enemies will, I am sure, attempt to hold you responsible for these things—to use your power in at once checking this dread spirit of disunion here in our midst?

With great respect,

Very sincerely your friend,

Horatio King.

His Excellency, James Buchanan.


The editorial article of the Constitution referred to in the preceding letter concludes as follows :

“We can understand the effect that will be produced in every Southern mind when he reads the news that he is now called on to decide for himself, his children, and his children’s children, whether he will submit tamely to the rule of one elected on account of his hostility to him and his, or whether he will make a struggle to defend his rights, his inheritance, and his honor.”

[PetePaolillo]

November 8th 1860

Below is the first entry in the favorite Civil War diary of Mary Boykin Chestnut A Diary of Dixie


CHARLESTON, S. C., November 8, 1860. - Yesterday on the train, just before we reached Fernandina, a woman called out: "That settles the hash." Tanny touched me on the shoulder and said: "Lincoln's elected." "How do you know?" "The man over there has a telegram."

The excitement was very great. Everybody was talking at the same time. One, a little more moved than the others, stood up and said despondently: "The die is cast; no more vain regrets; sad forebodings are useless; the stake is life or death." "Did you ever!" was the prevailing exclamation, and some one cried out: "Now that the black radical Republicans have the power I suppose they will Brown us all." No doubt of it.

I have always kept a journal after a fashion of my own, with dates and a line of poetry or prose, mere quotations, which I understood and no one else, and I have kept letters and extracts from the papers. From to-day forward I will tell the story in my own way. I now wish I had a chronicle of the two delightful and eventful years that have just passed. Those delights have fled and one's breath is taken away to think what events have since crowded in. Like the woman's record in her journal, we have had "earthquakes, as usual" - daily shocks.

At Fernandina I saw young men running up a Palmetto flag, and shouting a little prematurely, "South Carolina has seceded!" I was overjoyed to find Florida so sympathetic, but Tanny told me the young men were Gadsdens, Porchers, and Gourdins, names as inevitably South Carolinian as Moses and Lazarus are Jewish.

From my window I can hear a grand and mighty flow of eloquence. Bartow and a delegation from Savannah are having a supper given to them in the dining-room below. The noise of the speaking and cheering is pretty hard on a tired traveler. Suddenly I found myself listening with pleasure. Voice, tone, temper, sentiment, language, all were perfect. I sent Tanny to see who it was that spoke. He came back saying, "Mr. Alfred Huger, the old postmaster." He may not have been the wisest or wittiest man there, but he certainly made the best aftersupper speech

[PetePaolillo]

November 9th 1860

Appeared in the Charleston Mercury, November 10, 1860

The following resolution was read aloud by Mr. L.W. Spratt – a leader in the city of
Charleston – before a crowded city hall on the evening of November 9, 1860:

“Whereas it is now certain that Mr. Lincoln has been elected president of the United
States; and, whereas, That election determines the fact that the powers of this
Government have passed into the hands of a section only of this Union, and of a section
implacably hostile to our interests and our institutions: we, citizens of Charleston,
deeming it our privilege to express to the General Assembly of this State, in session now,
our hopes and wishes upon this emergency and deeming a call of a Convention to
consider of secession, a measure evidently demanded y the exigencies of this occasion:
Be it therefore Resolved, That it be urged upon the General Assembly to promptly call a
convention of the people of this State, to meet at the earliest possible moment, and sevor
our connection to the present Government.”

[PetePaolillo]

November 10th 1860

Operations in Charleston Harbor
CHARLESTON ARSENAL, S. C.,
November 10, 1860.
Col. H. K. CRAIG,
Chief of Ordnance, U. S. A., Washington, D. C. :
SIR: On the 7th instant I received an order from Colonel Gardner, commanding troops in the harbor, to issue to him all of the fixed ammunition for small-arms (percussion caps, primers, &c.) at this arsenal, such a step being advisable, in his estimation, for the better protection of the property in view of the excitement now existing in this city and State. Being allowed no discretion in the matter, his order being peremptory, I proceeded to obey it on the afternoon of the 8th. Captain Seymour having come up from Fort Moultrie, with a detachment of men and schooner, for the purpose of removing the stores, the shipment of them was interfered with by the owner of the wharf until the city authorities could be notified, and there were but three or four cart-loads on board. I considered it best that they should be reconveyed to the magazine until something definite should be determined upon, which was done. Not having heard anything further from Colonel Gardner relative to this matter, I conceive it my duty to report the facts in the case, which I respectfully submit.

Very respectfully, I am, sir, your most obedient servant,

F. C. HUMPHREYS,

Military Storekeeper Ordnance, Commanding.

[Indorsements.]

ORDNANCE OFFICE, November 13, 1860.
Respectfully referred to the Adjutant-General for the information of the Secretary of War, with the remark that I am not aware by what authority Colonel Gardner undertook to give such an order.

H. K. CRAIG,

Colonel of Ordnance.

[elcid01]

Re: 150 Years Ago in Charleson, South Carolina

Great information, thanks for posting!