At this gloomy period of our
history, startling events succeed each other rapidly. On the very day
(the 27th instant) that possession of these two forts was taken, the
Palmetto flag was raised over the Federal Custom-House and Post-Office
in Charleston; and on the same day every officer of the
customs--collector, naval officers, surveyor, and appraisers--resigned
their offices. And this, although it was well known, from the language
of my message, that as an executive officer I felt myself bound to
collect the revenue at the port of Charleston under the existing laws.
In the harbor of Charleston we now find three forts confronting each
other, over all of which the Federal flag floated only four days ago;
but now over two of them this flag has been supplanted, and the Palmetto
flag has been substituted in its stead. It is under all these
circumstances that I am urged immediately to withdraw the troops from
the harbor of Charleston, and am informed that, without this,
negotiation is impossible. This I can not do; this I will not do. Such
an idea was never thought of by me in any possible contingency. No
allusion to it had ever been made in any communication between myself
and any human being. But the inference is, that I am bound to withdraw
the troops from the only fort remaining in the possession of the United
States in the harbor of Charleston, because the officer then in command
of all the forts thought proper, without instructions, to change his
position from one of them to another.
Pages:
928
929
930
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952