The safety of the State
requires that the position of the President should be distinctly
understood. The safety of all seceding States requires it as much as the
safety of South Carolina. If it be so, that Fort Sumter is held as
_property_, then as property, the rights, whatever they may be, of the
United States can be ascertained, and for the satisfaction of these
rights the pledge of the State of South Carolina you are" (I am)
"authorized to give. If Fort Sumter is not held as property, it is
held," say my instructions, "as a military post, and such a post within
the limits of South Carolina can not be tolerated."
You will perceive that it is upon the presumption that it is solely as
property that you continue to hold Fort Sumter that I have been selected
for the performance of the duty upon which I have entered. I do not come
as a military man to demand the surrender of a fortress, but as the
legal officer of the State, its Attorney-General, to claim for the State
the exercise of its undoubted right of eminent domain, and to pledge the
State to make good all injury to the rights of property which may arise
from the exercise of the claim.
South Carolina, as a separate, independent sovereignty, assumes the
right to take into her possession everything within her limits essential
to maintain her honor or her safety, irrespective of the question of
property, subject only to the moral duty requiring that compensation
should be made to the owner.
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