When he
dismantled Fort Moultrie, when he burned the carriages and spiked the
guns bearing upon Fort Sumter, he put Carolina in the attitude of an
enemy of the United States; and yet he has not shown that there was any
just cause for apprehension. Vague rumors had reached him--and causeless
fear seems now to be the impelling motive of every public act--vague
rumors of an intention to take Fort Moultrie. But, sir, a soldier should
be confronted by an overpowering force before he spikes his guns and
burns his carriages. A soldier should be confronted by a public enemy
before he destroys the property of the United States lest it should fall
into the hands of such an enemy. Was that fort built to make war upon
Carolina? Was an armament put into it for such a purpose? Or was it
built for the protection of Charleston Harbor; and was it armed to make
that protection effective? If so, what right had any soldier to destroy
that armament lest it should fall into the hands of Carolina?
Some time since I presented to the Senate resolutions which embodied my
views upon this subject, drawing from the Constitution itself the data
on which I based those resolutions. I then invoked the attention of the
Senate in that form to the question as to whether garrisons should be
kept within a State against the consent of that State. Clear was I then,
as I am now, in my conclusion. No garrison should be kept within a
State, during a time of peace, if the State believes the presence of
that garrison to be either offensive or dangerous.
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