THE CHARLESTON CONSPIRATORS
As President Buchanan might have foreseen, his inconsistent message
proved satisfactory to neither friend nor foe. The nation was on the
eve of rebellion and had urgent need of remedial acts, not of
temporizing theories, least of all theories which at the late
Presidential election had been rejected as errors and dangers. The
message served as a topic to initiate debate in Congress; but this
debate, resting only on the main subject long enough to cover the
Chief Magistrate's views and recommendations as a whole, with almost
unanimous expressions of dissent, and even of contempt, passed on to
words of mutual defiance and open declarations of revolutionary
purpose.
The conspirators in the Cabinet had done their work. By the official
declarations of the President of the United States, the Government had
tied its own hands--had resolved and proclaimed the duty and policy of
non-resistance to organized rebellion. Henceforth disunionists,
secessionists, nullifiers, and conspirators of every kind had but to
combine under alleged State action, and through the instrumentalities
of State Legislatures and State conventions cast off without let or
hinderance their Federal obligations by resolves and ordinances. The
semblance of a vote, a few scratches of the pen, a proclamation, and a
new flag, and at once without the existence of a corporal's squad, or
the smell of burnt powder, there would appear on the horizon of
American politics, if not a _de jure_ at least a _de facto_ State!
If there had hitherto been any doubt or hesitation in the minds of the
principal secession leaders of the South, it vanished under the
declared policy of inaction of the Federal Administration. The
President's message was a practical assurance of immunity from arrest
and prosecution for treason. It magnified their grievances,
specifically pointed out a contingent right and duty of revolution,
acknowledged that mere public sentiment might override and nullify
Federal laws, and pointedly bound up Federal authority in narrow legal
and Constitutional restrictions. It was blind as a mole to find
Federal power, but keen-eyed as a lynx to discover Federal impotence.
The leaders of secession were not slow to avail themselves of the
favorable situation. Between the date of the message and the incoming
of the new and possibly hostile Administration there intervened three
full months. It was the season of political activity--the period
during which legislatures meet, messages are written, and laws
enacted. It afforded ample time to authorize, elect, and hold State
conventions. Excitement was at fever heat in the South, and public
sentiment paralyzed, despondent, and divided at the North.
Accordingly, as if by a common impulse, the secession movement sprang
into quick activity and united effort. Within two months the States of
South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and
Texas, in the order named, by formal ordinances of conventions,
declared themselves separated from the Union. The recommendation of
Yancey's "scarlet letter" had been literally carried out; the Cotton
States were precipitated into revolution.
In this movement of secession the State of South Carolina was the
enthusiastic pioneer. At the date of the President's message she had
already provided by law for the machinery of a convention, though no
delegates had been elected. Nevertheless, her Legislature at once
plunged pell-mell into the task of making laws for the new condition
of independent sovereignty which by common consent the convention was
in a few days to declare. Questions of army and navy, postal
communication, and foreign diplomacy, for the moment eclipsed the
baser topics of estray laws or wolf-scalp bounties, and the little
would-be Congress fully justified the reported sarcasm of one of her
leading citizens that "the Palmetto State was too small for a republic
and too large for a lunatic asylum."
But, with all their outward fire and zeal for nationality, her
politicians were restrained by an undercurrent of prudence. A
revolution even under exceptional advantages is a serious thing.
[Sidenote] Speech of Mr. Magrath in the South Carolina Convention,
Dec. 19, 1860. "Annual Cyclopedia," 1861, p. 619.
Therefore the agitators of South Carolina scanned the President's
message with unconcealed eagerness. In that paradox of assertions and
denials, of purposes to act and promises to refrain, they found much
to assure them, but also something to cause doubt. "As I understand
the message of the President of the United States," explained Mr.
Magrath to the South Carolina Convention, "he affirms it as his right,
and constitutional duty, and high obligation to protect the property
of the United States within the limits of South Carolina, and to
enforce the laws of the Union within the limits of South Carolina. He
says he has no constitutional power to coerce South Carolina, while at
the same time he denies to her the right of secession. It may be, and
I apprehend it will be, Mr. President, that the attempt to coerce
South Carolina will be made under the pretense of protecting the
property of the United States within the limits of South Carolina. I
am disposed, therefore, at the very threshold to test the accuracy of
this logic, and test the conclusions of the President of the United
States."
[Sidenote] "Mr. Buchanan's Administration," p. 126.
President Buchanan had indeed declared in his message that the
Constitution gave the Federal Government no power to coerce a State.
He had further said that the laws gave him no authority to execute
civil or criminal process or suppress an insurrection with the help of
the militia, or the army and navy, "in a State where no judicial
authority exists to issue process, and where there is no marshal to
execute it, and where, even if there were such an officer, the entire
population would constitute one solid combination to resist him."
So far as mere political theories could go, this was certainly an
important concession to the conspirators. In virtue of these
doctrines, they could proceed, without danger to life and property, to
hold conventions, pass secession ordinances, resign and refuse Federal
offices, repudiate Northern debts, and effectively stop all Federal
mails at the State line. But reading another passage in this
paradoxical message of President Buchanan, they found these other
propositions and purposes, involving a flat contradiction, and which
with sufficient reason excited the apprehensions of Mr. Magrath and
his fellow-conspirators. Said the message:
"The same insuperable obstacles do not lie in the way of
executing the laws for the collection of the customs. The revenue
still continues to be collected as heretofore at the custom-house
in Charleston, and should the collector unfortunately resign, a
successor may be appointed to perform this duty."
[Sidenote] "Mr. Buchanan's Administration," p. 126.
"Then in regard to the property of the United States in South
Carolina. This has been purchased for a fair equivalent 'by the
consent of the Legislature of the State,' 'for the erection of
forts, magazines, arsenals,' etc., and over these the authority
'to exercise exclusive legislation' has been expressly granted by
the Constitution to Congress. It is not believed that any attempt
will be made to expel the United States from this property by
force; but if in this I should prove to be mistaken, the officer
in command of the forts has received orders to act strictly on
the defensive. In such a contingency the responsibility for
consequences would rightfully rest upon the heads of the
assailants."
It was, of course, in vain that Mr. Magrath and other South Carolina
constitutional expounders protested against this absurd want of logic.
It was in vain that they could demonstrate that protecting the
property of the Union was but another name for coercion; that if the
President could lawfully from another State appoint a successor to the
Federal collector, he could in the same manner appoint a successor to
the Federal judge, district attorney, and marshal; that if he could
execute the revenue laws he could execute the steamboat laws, the
postal laws, or the criminal laws; that if, with Federal bayonets, he
could stop a mob at the door of the custom-house, he could do the same
at the door of the court-room; that it would be no more offensive war
to employ a regiment to protect a bonded warehouse than a jail; a
shipping dock than a post-office; a dray-load of merchandise passing
across a street than a mail car _in transitu_ across a State; that
coercing a Charleston belle to pay the custom duties on her silk gown,
and a Palmetto orator to suffer the imposition of foreign tribute on
his champagne was in fact destroying the whole splendid theory of
exclusive State sovereignty.
It followed, therefore, that the issue was not one of constitutional
theory, but of practical administration; not of legislation, but of
war. The argument of the President's message was palpably illogical
and ridiculous, but there in black and white stood his intention to
collect the revenue and protect the public property; yonder in the bay
were Pinckney, Moultrie, and Sumter; under the flag of the Union was a
devoted band of troops and a brave officer, with orders to hold the
fort.
For the present, then, the wall of Fort Moultrie was the iron collar
around the neck of the coveted "sovereignty" of South Carolina. How to
break that fetter was the narrow, simple problem. A half-finished
inclosure of brick walls, standing in the midst of sand-hills which
gave commanding elevations, and buildings which effectually masked the
approach of an assaulting column, and containing, all told, but sixty
men to guard 1500 feet of rampart. The street rabble of Charleston
could any night clamber over the thinly defended walls, and at least a
score of companies of minute men, drilled and equipped, could be
brought by rail from the interior of the State to garrison and hold
it. But what then? That would bring Federal troops in Federal ships of
war, and in a short, quick struggle the substantial standing
preparations of the Government would overcome the extemporized
preparations of the State, and the insurrection would be hopelessly
quelled.
[Sidenote] Trescott's Narrative, Samuel Wylie Crawford, "Story of
Sumter." pp. 28-30.
To prevent reënforcement was the vital point, and this had been
clearly perceived and acted upon from the beginning. While the
preparation of President Buchanan's message was yet under discussion
the Cabinet cabal had earnestly deliberated upon the most effective
intrigue to be employed to deter the President from sending additional
troops to Charleston harbor. In pursuance of the scheme agreed upon by
them in caucus, Trescott wrote a letter to Governor Gist suggesting
that the Governor should write a letter "assuring the President that
if no reënforcements were sent, there would be no attempt upon the
forts before the meeting of the convention, and that then commissioners
would be sent to negotiate all the points of difference; that their
hands would be strengthened, the responsibility of provoking collision
would be taken from the State, and the President would probably be
relieved from the necessity of pursuing this policy." Governor Gist
acted upon the suggestion and wrote, under date of November 29, back
to Trescott (giving him liberty to show the letter to the President):
[Sidenote] Gist to Trescott, Nov. 29, 1860. Crawford, p. 31.
Although South Carolina is determined to secede from the Federal
Union very soon after her convention meets, yet the desire of her
constituted authorities is, not to do anything that will bring on
a collision before the ordinance of secession has been passed and
notice has been given to the President of the fact; and not then,
unless compelled to do so by the refusal of the President to
recognize our right to secede, by attempting to interfere with
our exports or imports, or by refusal to surrender the forts and
arsenals in our limits. I have found great difficulty in
restraining the people of Charleston from seizing the forts, and
have only been able to restrain them by the assurance that no
additional troops would be sent to the forts, or any munitions of
war.... If President Buchanan takes a course different from the
one indicated and sends on a reënforcement, the responsibility
will rest on him of lighting the torch of discord, which will
only be quenched in blood.
[Sidenote] Trescott's Narrative, Crawford, pp. 34 (line 16) and 42
(lines 13-16).
Mr. Trescott showed this letter to the President on the evening of
Sunday, December 2, and while his narrative does not mention any
expression by Mr. Buchanan of either approval or dissent, his
subsequent acts show a tacit acquiescence in Governor Gist's
propositions.
There immediately followed by the leaders in Charleston, and their
agents and spokesmen in Washington, the daily repetition of threats and
complaints (thus originated by the latter), which were continued for
nearly three and a half months. The purpose was twofold: first, by
alternately exciting the fears and hopes of the Government to induce it
to withhold reënforcement as a prudential measure of magnanimity and
conciliation; secondly, to make it a cloak to hide, as far as might be,
their own preparations for war. Had the Federal Government been in a
condition of normal health and vigor, the farce would not have been
effective for even a single day; but, with capital alarmed, with,
parties divided into factions, with three traitors in the Cabinet, and
a timid and vacillating Executive, by successive, almost imperceptible,
degrees, the farce produced a policy and the policy led to an opening
drama of civil war.
Leaving out of view anterior political doctrines and discussions, the
first false step had been taken by the Administration in its doctrine
of non-coercion, announced in the message; the second false step half
logically resulting from the first, in its refusal on the first day of
December to send Major Anderson the reënforcements he so urgently
demanded. The Charlestonians clung to the concession with a tenacity
which demonstrated their full appreciation of its value. Immediately
there began to flow in upon Mr. Buchanan and his advisers, on the one
hand magnified reports of the daily clamors of the Charleston mob, on
the other hand encouraging intimations from the Charleston authorities
that they, while adhering to their political heresies and demands, were
yet averse to disorder and bloodshed, and to this end desired and
invoked the utmost forbearance of the Government. Put in truthful
language, their request would have been, "Help us keep the peace while
we are preparing to break the law. Let the Government send no ships,
men or supplies to the forts, in order that we may without danger or
collision build batteries to take them. Armament by the Federal
sovereignty is war, armament by State authority is peace." And it will
forever remain a marvel that a President of the United States consented
to this certain process of national suicide.