Under present circumstances,
they are a standing menace which renders negotiation impossible, and, as
our recent experience shows, threatens speedily to bring to a bloody
issue questions which ought to be settled with temperance and judgment.
We have the honor, sir, to be, very respectfully, your obedient
servants,
R. W. BARNWELL,}
J. H. ADAMS, } _Commissioners_.
JAMES L. ORR, }
To the President of the United States.
_Reply of the President to the Commissioners_.
Washington City, _December_ 30, 1860.
Gentlemen: I have the honor to receive your communication of 28th inst.,
together with a copy of your "full powers from the Convention of the
People of South Carolina," authorizing you to treat with the Government
of the United States on various important subjects therein mentioned,
and also a copy of the ordinance bearing date on the 20th inst.,
declaring that "the union now subsisting between South Carolina and
other States, under the name of 'The United States of America,' is
hereby dissolved."
In answer to this communication, I have to say that my position as
President of the United States was clearly defined in the message to
Congress of the 3d instant. In that I stated that, "apart from the
execution of the laws, so far as this may be practicable, the Executive
has no authority to decide what shall be the relations between the
Federal Government and South Carolina.
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