Continuing, the President said:
"But if, as now appears to be true, in pursuance of a purpose to drive
the United States authority from these places an unprovoked assault
has been made upon Fort Sumter, I shall hold myself at liberty to
repossess if I can like places which had been seized before the
Government was devolved upon me.
"And, in any event, I shall to the extent of my ability repel force by
force.
"In case it proves true that Fort Sumter has been assaulted as
reported, I shall perhaps cause the United States mails to be
withdrawn from all the states which claim to have seceded, believing
that the commencement of actual war against the Government justifies
and possibly demands it."[387]
What effect this reply of the President would have had upon the Virginia
Convention it is impossible to say, for on the day of its presentation
to that body came the news of his proclamation calling for an army of
seventy-five thousand men.
The proclamation recited that the laws of the United States were opposed
and their execution obstructed in the states of South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, "by combinations"
too powerful to be suppressed by the ordinary course of judicial
proceedings.
The militia thus called for was apportioned among the several states
(except the seven forming the Southern Confederacy) and their governors
were requested to furnish forthwith their respective quotas. Despite the
somewhat ambiguous character of this proclamation, men everywhere
believed that the attempt was now to be made to re-establish by force of
arms the supremacy of the National Government over the states of the
Southern Confederacy, and that to every commonwealth was presented the
solemn alternative of bearing a part for or against this movement.