As above indicated, the crucial point, with the group holding the
balance of power in the Convention, was the position of the Federal
Government upon the question of coercing the Cotton States. The
employment of force to compel three millions of people to submit to a
government not of their own choice, was at war with the Declaration of
Independence and repugnant to thousands of the American people North as
well as South. That the Federal Government would have been sustained in
a bald invasion of the Southern States, may well be questioned. The
situation, however, was not quite so embarrassing for the Government.
Many of these states had formally ceded to the Union jurisdiction over
parcels of land within their respective limits, upon which had been
erected forts, post offices or custom houses. These constituted coigns
of vantage, where the rights of the Federal Government were of a dignity
higher, or at least more manifest, to the popular mind, than those
rights which obtained over the whole area of the states or their
citizens. Thus in the great drama of diplomacy and play for position
which preceded the Civil War, the rights of the nation and of the states
in these forts and buildings became matters of imminent moment. When
South Carolina seceded, Fort Moultrie was occupied by Federal soldiers.
She appointed commissioners to negotiate with the authorities at
Washington for the withdrawal of the troops, and the settlement of all
questions with respect to the fort and other like properties in the
state. Later these troops were transferred by the Federal authorities to
Fort Sumter. Upon the organization of the Southern Confederacy,
commissioners from it were substituted for those appointed by South
Carolina. President Lincoln refused to recognize the Southern
Confederacy, or to treat with its representatives. Negotiations,
however, semi-official in character, were instituted, and upon the
reports which went out from these conferences men gauged the chances of
peace or war. If Fort Sumter were evacuated, the prospects of peace
would be enhanced. If the Federal Government should decide to hold the
fort, and provision and strengthen its garrison, then war would be
imminent. Upon these contingencies, stocks rose and fell, and the
friends of peace took hope or lost heart.
-----
Footnote 376:
_History of United States_, Rhodes, Vol. III, p. 462.
Footnote 377:
_The Rise and Fall of the Slave Power in America_, Wilson, Vol. III,
p. 138.
Footnote 378:
Colonel Baldwin's Interview with Mr. Lincoln, Dabney. _Southern
Historical Papers_, Vol. 1, p. 449.
Footnote 379:
_Life of Matthew F. Maury_, Corbin, p. 186.
Footnote 380:
_History of United States_, Rhodes, Vol. III, p. 345.
Footnote 381:
_Journal of the Committee of the Whole_, Virginia Convention, 1861,
pp. 31-43.
Footnote 382:
See Report of the Committee on Federal Relations, with accompanying
exhibits in the Appendix of the _Journal of the Virginia Convention_,
1861.