The War to Enslave the States The Sun Bay Paper Page 16 Cont from pg 12 April 15, 2022 - April 21, 2022 Sumter. This ship, the "Star of the West", was turned back by fire from South Carolina artillery batteries but it proved a major embarrassment to Buchanan who wished to avoid war, as was his constitutional duty. War Party Prepares the Stage In early February, a very aggressive attack plan was presented to again reinforce Fort Sumter but Buchanan would not agree and his Cabinet declared that such a plan would constitute an act of war and would be interpreted as such by the South. On February 25th, President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy sent a three-man Peace Commission to Washington to discuss many issues including the transition of Fort Sumter from Union to Confederate hands. Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4th, 1861 as President of the United States and refused to talk with the members of the Peace Commission who were still trying to make headway in Washington. Lincoln also announced that tariffs would continue to be collected at Fort Sumter for the coffers of the Union regardless of the secession of South Carolina from the Union. Anti-Constitutional Hijacker Indeed, Lincoln even joked that any state could leave the Union so long as it continued to send tariff revenues to Washington. However, Lincoln also made it clear that, unlike previous presidents, he regarded secession to be constitutionally illegal and that he was willing to use military force to prevent or overcome any state that attempted to employ it. Thus, military coercion – the waging of war by the central government against the people and states of the South which had been rejected by the People, the Republic and the federal government prior to Lincoln’s inauguration – became the stated intention of that same United States government under its 16th President. It is important to note that though Lincoln cited the Constitution as the basis for his determination of the illegality of secession and his permitted response to it, he would later in the war, on his own initiative and without following the constitutional provisions regarding the involvement of Congress and the High Court, suspend habeas corpus, wage war on the First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech, assembly and the press, use the military to coerce elections in the North and have thousands of Northern civilians, including newspaper editors, publishers, journalists and state legislators, arrested and imprisoned for long periods without trial or even without charges being brought against them. There can be no question that Lincoln used the United States Constitution as a means by which to cloak his tyrannical reign with legitimacy! Fooling the Peace Delegation To return to the developing situation at the time: anxious, if possible to effect an amicable reconciliation between the States, the Confederate States Commissioners, addressed a note, on the 12th of March, to William H. Seward, Secretary of State, in the new Cabinet, setting forth the character and object of their mission. Mr. Seward replied to this verbally and informally, through Mr. Justice John A. Campbell, of the Supreme Court of the United States. Justice Campbell was a citizen of Alabama, in full sympathy with the Southern cause. He was therefore selected by Seward as a plausible intermediary. In this way the Commissioners were given to understand that Seward was in favor of peace and that Fort Sumter, about which the Commissioners felt the greatest concern, would be evacuated in less than ten days. This proved, however, to be a farce and a deception practiced upon the Commissioners by Seward and the Lincoln Government at Washington. They were kept in the dark regarding the intention of the federal government in relation to Fort Sumter. Not until a provisioning and reinforcing fleet dispatched from the ports of New York and Norfolk early in April had hove in sight of Fort Sumter, were they given the facts of the federal intention regarding that facility. For on March 9th, Lincoln proposed that Fort Sumter be reinforced, though his Cabinet overwhelmingly opposed this action because they believed that to do so would lead to war. Lincoln kept attempting to persuade his Cabinet to approve reinforcing Sumter, but failed again at a Cabinet meeting on March 15th . Finally, on March 29th he was able to convince the Cabinet to approve his plan, although the members knew it would lead to war. One Infamous Week in April On April 6th, Lincoln gave the order to reinforce Fort Sumter and, for all intents and purposes, the War of Secession began. The Confederate Peace Commissioners learned these facts through a notice given on the 8th of April to Gov. Pickens of South Carolina, that a fleet was then on its way to provision and reinforce Sumter. The fort was at this time commanded by Major Robert Anderson, of the U. S. Army, with a force of less than a hundred including men that Anderson had moved from Fort Moultrie. It was also falsely reported that the garrison was very short of provisions. Interestingly, on March 3rd Jefferson Davis had appointed General Pierre G. T. Beauregard as commander of Confederate forces in Charleston. In one of those odd anomalies that occurred throughout the War, Beauregard and Major Anderson were good friends. Anderson had been one of Beauregard’s instructors at West Point. Beauregard was in command of about six thousand volunteer troops, mustered to defend Charleston. Gov. Pickens informed him of the notice he had received and Beauregard telegraphed it to the authorities at Montgomery. The Secretary of War replied to Beauregard, “If you have no doubt of the authenticity of the notice of the government at Washington to supply Fort Sumter by force, demand its evacuation; and if this should be refused, proceed to reduce it.” On April 11th, General Beauregard made the demand for Sumter’s evacuation. Major Anderson replied in writing that he would not comply with the demand. Beauregard forwarded the reply to the Secretary of War at Montgomery, who returned the following response: “Do not needlessly desire to bombard Fort Sumter. If Maj. Anderson will state a reasonable specified time at which he will evacuate, and agree that, in the meantime, he will not use his guns against us, unless ours should be employed against Fort Sumter, you are authorized thus to avoid the effusion of blood. If this or its equivalent be refused, reduce the fort, as your judgment decides most practicable.” The Brilliant Propagandist In a strategy later used by the propagandists of Stalin and Hitler, Lincoln then began leaking stories to supportive Northern newspapers that the federal troops at Fort Sumter were near starvation and in desperate need of provisions. This was an outright lie and is refuted by the communications and records of Major Anderson himself. The records also reveal that the merchants in Charleston were daily selling food to the federal garrison at Fort Sumter. Nonetheless, Lincoln's ploy worked, and there was outrage in the North over the mistreatment by South Carolina of the troops at Fort Sumter. Lincoln knew that he would need Northern public opinion behind him to engage in a war with the South and that the prevailing opinion of the time was just the opposite. So, Lincoln needed a cause celebre, a perceived “criminal act” committed by the South against the Union to outrage the public and change the prevailing opinion. Therefore, he ordered a force of three warships to Charleston to reinforce Sumter with an estimated date of arrival of April 15th. This action left President Jefferson Davis in a quandary. Through reports from his own people he was aware of all this activity by Lincoln and he wanted to avoid being goaded into a position where the South fired the first shot. Of course, that’s exactly what Lincoln wanted. This is very important to understand! Legally, the aggressor in this kind of circumstance is not necessarily the side firing the first shot but the side causing the first shot to be fired. In other words, from the legal point of view, the South having been forced into a military response was not the aggressor. But the perception in the North would be just the opposite and would provide the public opinion boost that Lincoln's war plan required. I ask you to remember two later incidents whose public outcry precipitated America into a war that was not at all popular at the time: Remember the Maine! and Remember Pearl Harbor! We have come to know over time that both of these attacks against the American flag were not as simple and straightforward as was believed by the public at the time. Well, neither was the attack on Fort Sumter. Rather, it was a deep, convoluted and extremely premeditated effort to force the South to fire what were apparently the first shots of the war. By this time, the Union fleet was approaching Charleston and some of Beauregard’s batteries and forces were between it and Fort Sumter. Should it arrive while Anderson still held the fort, Beauregard knew he would be exposed to attack from the rear as well as from the front. He therefore gave Major Anderson notice that he would at an early specified hour compel him to withdraw from the fort if he did not otherwise willingly evacuate his position. Major Anderson, indicated that he was honor bound to resist. At 4:30 A.M. on April 12th, Beauregard again sent word to Anderson that the Confederate forces had no choice but to begin firing on the fort due to the efforts of the United States Government to reinforce it. Accordingly, the shore batteries opened fire on the morning of the 12th of April which fire was returned by the guns of Fort Sumter. [The following is a very telling point! -Editor] The fleet came near, but in the absence of official orders from the Government, took no part in the conflict. The bombardment lasted 32 hours at which time Major Anderson then agreed to capitulate. Cont to pg 23
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