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Iron* the New Orleans Bee.
Nothing is more eoinmon thari for the
awling and excitable partisans of State
ghts to declaim Vehemently against the
on account of its alleged aggression
Tpon the South'. To hear these factions
*nd discontented extremists, it might real
ly be imagined that the people of the North
were engaged in a perpetual and systematic
elfort to bring ruin* disaster, and depopu
lation upon the South, and that this effort
liad proved perfectly successful. Truly, the
power of imagination is wonderful. Our
ultra State-rights brethren swear that we
are disgraced, humiliated, and oppressed ;
that we will soon be reduced to a condition
of vassalage and servitude to the North,
and that the then only remedy left us is to
secede, peaceably if we can, forcibly if we
must. Their pathetic pictures of Southern
grievances and suffering, of Southern wrae
and anguish j of . Southern loss and desola
fion, are such that not unfrequently those
who listen to them feel inclined to bewail
the sorrowful fate to which they are sub
jected, even-while frankly acknowledging
that they have never suspected their mis
fortunes before.
Well, it is quite possible that, to the
clear and penetrating vision of a disunion
ist, the South is a victim to an innumera
ble catalogue of calamities—all the exclu
sive result of Northern injustice, fanati
cism, and fraud j. but to most other people
these appalling evils are entirely invisible.
The friends of the U uion humbly conceive
their sight,Jo be quite as keen as that en
joyed by the secessionists ; yet. they peer
about very closely, and, even with the aid
of a ten-thousand fold magnifying micro
scope, they fail to discern the monsters
which affright the latter. Can it be that
ihey are not to he seen because they do not
exist—that the blight and mildew* which
are said to have fallen upon the South are
naught but the teeming products of the
lugubrious fancies of extremists? We
think that a moment’s reflection will go
far towards demonstrating that this is the
sole solution of the problem.
Talk about the ruin of the South ! Will
the state rights Solons please inform us at
■\\ hat period of our national existence the
South enjoyed so much of positive pros
perity as now ? Y hen were the comforts
of life more .generally diffused? When
was it easier tor the humblest classes at
the South so earn their livelihood ? When
were the agricultural resources of the South
mure lumujsany developed Y When did
the great staple of our section furnish a
more prolific yield, command more remu
neiative prices, and enrich our planters
more speedily ? It is when cotton is sell
ing at a profit of more than a hundred per
cent, upon the cost value of the produc
tion, oi when field hands are sold at fifteen
hundred or two thousand dollars apiece,
that we are deafened by dismal outcries of
poverty ami distress, storing of Northern
monopoly and Southern subjection, and,
that the gaunt and hideous specter of dis
union is invoked as our guide to an imag
inary L topia ot independence, opulence and
honor ? Is anything more needed as a
practical and unanswerable refutation of
the false and silly view of the oppression
of the South, than the story of her con
stantly progressive increase in all the ele
ments of material greatness ? Really, we
think the Jeremiahs of disunion, who are
perpetually bemoaning our sad fate, might
discover abundant elements of consolation,
if they would only take the trouble to use
their eyes and look about them;
Ay, but southern aggression, free soil,
the war upon slavery, are all insupporta
ble ; and if we do not resist at once, in the
course of a few years our domestic institu
tions will be inevitably exterminated. Such
3S language in which many fiery spirits
of the South are but too prone to indulge.
If there were much truth in this, it would
certainly behoove us to pause and provide
ioi the exigency ; but these assertions have
little foundation.in the past, and are not
likely to bsjr?alh?ed in the future. People
piate glibly of the wrongs endured by the
N>uth. What wrongs ? We know of but
one real, serious wrong, viz : tlie failure in
most of the northern States to enforce the
fugitive slave law ; and even with respect
to this, it may be pertinent to remark that
it always was enforced, under the adminis
tration of Millard Fillmore. But granting
the full forpfe of the argument—admitting
that every,yaar half a dozen attempts are
made to recover a fugitive slave, and are
thwarted W<f defeated by the abolitionists;
is this a grievance so’intolerable as to jais
iifv disunion and civil war? May it not
be fairly counterbalanced by the almost un
broken victories which the Sou t h has achie
ved tiom the inception of the slavery ques—
lion to the present time ? ‘ Why, the Mis
souri compromise was esteemed a southern
triumph, v
The reduction of the tariff in 1832, by
toe bill pi .Mr. Clay, was hailed as an im
mense victory. Jn 18JO, the passage of
■the compromise measures, adopted chiefly
hv Southern.voters, carried joy and glad
ness to Southern hearts. In 1854, the
Kansas bill, with the abrogation of the
Missouri compromise line, and the substi
tution cf thy- graiid principle of Congress
ional non-in4erye ntion,. was hailed at the
South as another legitimate object of exul
tation. In.adi.ortj.our section, by the ener
gy, comrooja-;accford, and perseverance of
ds representatives,’has generally succee
ded in having a sectional bear
ing. ihe o>mp]aint has been, not that
die North conceded top little, hut that the
South obtained too'much. We are tumble
at this moment,*to recall.a solitary enact
ment ot a positively aggressive character
to the South ever passed by the Congress
of the United States.
it therefore follows that with our section
o- country -Inrun eminently prosperous con
dition, a single law on the
Congi e.ssihaai statute book affecting our
interests inj ux.ipu^ly- r -we have no earthly
xcuse toi the clamor and, complaints in-
Ccssan ily reived liY"£ertain classes among
‘n Uat/m'lhis thus far been fertile
m olessmgs to us. and if we arc wise we
cherish ’mstJadi of striving to destroy it.
%Iu?
Gh A. Miller, TCditor.
THOM ASTON, GEORGIA.
Saturday Morning, January 19th, 1861.
Is Soutli-Caroiina in, or out of the Uu
ion!
The great English Dramatist Represents
one of his best characters when meditating
self-destruction, as “ perplexed in the ex
treme’ —whether it was better to bear his
present ills, or with a “bare bodkin” to
shuffle off this mortal coil and fly to oth
ers of which he was totally ignorant. The
reflection was worthy of the sublime vi
sions, the resplendent aspiring, the subtle
and elevated philosophy of the Prince of
Denmark. u lo be, or not to be,” was the
great question with Hamlet. —To rot in
“coldobstruction” or be confined by ribbed
ice, encircled by fierce fire or blown about
by horrid tempests ; puzzled his will, and
made him hesitate before he entered into
that bourn from w hence no traveller re
turns.
Iu “enterprises of great pith and mo
ment” it is meet in persons and nations, to
look before they leap. South-Garolina, we
think, is ahead of the music—she has leap
ed before she reached the stile and has
landed in a morass. Unlike the reflecting
Hamlet, she has made no — “pause.” —
Without deigning to consult with her sis
ter Southern States —identified with her
in laws, institutions, manners, industry?
honor and interests, she has taken up
“arms against a sea of troubles” and
thinks she will end them by her mere op
position. When she seceded the thing was
not done, when she thought it was done.—
She leveled and discharged her civil ordi
nances and her military ordnance from
Fort Morris and Moultrie and still she
(according to her own action) is in the Un
ion ! She is at this time like the bat in
the fubP, willing for a season, to flit be
tween the birds and beasts.
Chancellor Durkin, in the South-Caro
lina Convention recently said :
“I learn that Secretary Cobb has said
that the revenue of South Carolina from
the custom-house would not near pay the
expense of the custom-house for the last
quarter. 1 also learn from the best au
thority that the post offices of South Car
olina cost the Government from thirty to
forty thousand dollars per quarter, and
that the receipts have been less than $50,-
000 per annum.
Hence it seems that neither the custom
house nor the post offices in South Caroli
na pay expenses. The post offices of the
whole State yield less than $50,000 per
annum, while the expenses are about $40,-
000 per quarter,, or 1 GO,OOO per annum.
The “accursed Union,” therefore, pays
SIIO,OOO per annum, or thereabouts, for
the postal accommodation of the people of
South Carolina, more than it collects from
them.”
No w r onder that South-Carolina is still
unwilling to go out of the Union, so far as
her postal and custom house arrangements
are concerned. If we hated her as well as we
love her, we could not wish her condition
worse than the one she now occupies—
caused by the folly and madness of her own
politicians. She will find from bitter ex
perience (whether we have, or have not, a
civil war) that she owts her protection
u’om utter ruin, to the fostering care ot
that Constitution and Union which she
has spurned, dared and insulted. If there
is now ground for her complaints, she,un
der the name of Democracy, has laid their
foundation. Men covered all over with
buttons and armed with rifles, muskets and
swords will afford a poor return for an
empty treasury, extreme taxation, loss of
commerce and population, derangement in
finances and utter prostration in the whole
of her industrial pursuits. Revolutions
never go backward, (and therefore, should
never be commenced) except for causes*
sanctioned by Christianity, the laws of na
tions and to protect “in the last resort”
the natural and unalienable rights of a peo
ple truly oppressed. -
We ask again—“Is South-Carolina in,
or out, of the Union ?” Who can say ?
Her postal and revenue arrangements are
novv permitted only by the sufferance of a
government which she has virtually abol
ished.
Will Georgia, now’ in- Convention, profit
by the example of her sister ? Will she
spend thousands for arms among the “ha
ted Yankees” to tear down a Union bought
by tire treasure and cemented by the blood
of her revolutionary fathers ? Will she in
haste, destroy an edifice which has protec
ted us against the winds and colds of sev
enty-two years (a short time in the life of
nations) and compel her people to seek a
shelter against the pittiless pfltings of a
storm raised by demagogues which they
cannot now control. God forbid! We
protest against such a course of folly and
madness in the name of religion, in the
name of a civilization which is now res
pected and honored wherever our footsteps
have trod and the Stars and Stripes have
been unfurled. We protest against it, in
the name of that Liberty of w hich we as a
nation are the great exemplar, and to
whom Mexico with her chronic revolutions
—Poland with her shattered spear, Hun
gary with her broken sword, Ireland w T ith
her voiceless harp and Italy with! out
stretched arms holding an empty urn, look
to for sympathy and support. We pro
test against it lastly, because we believe if
madness novv rules the hour, that our peo
ple before one decade, will need that pro
tection and sympathy from some military
dictator or monarchal government which
w’e by example, spirit and arms are now
able to extend to the oppressed throughout
the w’orld.
Leaving South Carolina. —A gentle
man passed through this city yesterday,
with about sixty negroes, from South Car
olina. We remember that in 1832 thous
ands left that distracted State, and sought
a home in the more quiet and loyal States
of Alabama and Tennessee. We expect
to see a similar condition of things now.—
There are more in South Carolina who can
appreciate the blessings they have enjoyed
in the Union, and have too much good
sense to exchange them for any uncertain
ty-
We clip the foregoing paragraph from
the Memphis Bulletin of Saturday last. It
records a significant fact. We expect to
hear of large numbers of slaveholders flee
ing from South Carolina, if the present
state of things continues much longer.—
And, as in South Carolina, so it would be
in Virginia. Truly, no man can foresee
the ultimate result of the wild project of
secession.
“Sensation Dispatches.” —Here is one
of that sort, communicated to us by Cox,
Conductor on the Macon & Western Rail
road :
Macon, Jan. 7.—Fort Hawkins taken !
Terrible excitement! The Mule Compa
ny ordered out ! ! Armed Vessel coming
up the Ocmulgee ! The Port of Entry to
be fortified forthwith ! Glory Hallelu
jail ! ! ! —Griffin Georgian.
We learn officially that one of the out
posts, of Fort Johnson (recently vacated)
in this city, was stormed on Tuesday last.
The slaughter was terrible. One full halt
bushel of rats were incontinently slain.—
The list of the killed and missing has not
come in. All we know at present is, that
the leader of the slick-tailed array (when
last seen) was running at 2 40 with an Ir
ish terrier (armed with ten bayonets) close
at his heels.
We are happy to state that the assailed
and assailants carried themselves with the
most commendable bravery. It was cer
tainly a most (g)r£-ifying affair.
Ratibvs non catibus ct do gibus, sunt
causa magni dolorcs —in knawing, scratch
ing and running. All honor to the victors
and may their gallant conduct receive the
ratification of the whole country ! Bring
out the “Baby Walter”—beat the drum
and start the hewgaw and tom-ton. The
Ball has opened—not the cannon, musket
and rifle ball, but—
With hands all round.
The rats we’ll confound,
and give them all—Liberty or Death. We
suppose they will prefer the first—if smart.
still later.
Astounding ! I—Fort1 —Fort Perry, in Marion
county, has been taken by a gallant Cap
tain of Talbot county, at the point of the
“bagenet !” The advance section was badly
cut up by the guns of the fort, but at the
word charge ! the men rushed to the front
and all went ass as slick as melted butter.
We reckon that fort will not again “hustle
up a snake.” Wake, snakes! dag is a
breaking !
Talbotton, Ga., Jan. Bth, 1861.
At a Company meeting of “Scott Ri
fles,” held to-day, the Committee appoint
ed to draft resolutions in reference to the
death of our fellow-soldier, Noah P.
Maund, made the following report :
Once more the unerring shaft of death
has pierced our midst, and taken from us
a brother and comrade in arms. Young
in years, strong and vigorous, it would
have seemed to mortal eyes that lie would
have lived. Disease laid his heavy hand
upon him, the strong man bowed, he bowed
and died. But one short week passed, and
he who was the personification of manly
health and vigor, lies buried in the silent
tomb.
We shall never more welcome our broth
er’s coming on earth, —his place is vacant
in our ranks ; his voice shall never more
be heard to answer to the roll-call of the
Rifles. He sleeps in a soldier’s grave, but
the memory of his virtues and his kind
ness lives in the hearts of those he left be
hind.
Uesolvcd, That by the death of Noah
P. Maund, this company has lost an able
and efficient member, and an esteemed
companion.
Resolved, That we wear the usual badge
of mourning for the space of thirty days.
Resolved, That a copy of this report be
furnished to the family of the deceased,
and copies he inserted in the “Upson Pi
lot,” and “Columbus Enquirer.”
Lieut. Wimberly, I
Sergt. Phelpah, > Committee.
Private Littlle, )
The above report was adopted,
W. W. Wilson, Sec.
Hampton Roads, Jan. 15. — The sloop
of war Brooklyn arrived here this morning.
For the Upson Filot.
WHAT HAS SIN DONE P
Hear reader, clid you ever consider what
sin lias done in the worlds -You will find
it worth while to think about it, when you j
once understand what horrible dafnage it
has done ; and you will judge it hard to
love sin. Would you love any person that
would burn you, or drown you, whip you,
abuse —maltreat you, or almost starve
you to death. Do you think that you
could love such a being as that ? Sin will
cause you to be punished worse than any
one can on earth ! Wy dear friends, think
one moment. Sin cast Adam and Eve out
of Eden —brought the flood upon the old
world—caused fire to come down upon
Sodom and Gomarrow —drowned Pharaoh
and his host in the Red sea. My dear
friends, sin has done all this ; sin is the
grand cause of all the misery and sorrow
|in the world at this very day and time. —
Pain, disease and death, strifes, quarrels
and divisions, wars, fightings and battles,
envy, jealousy and malice, deceit, fraud
and cheating, violence, oppression and
robbery, selfishness, unkindness and in
gratitude—all these are the prints of sin.
Sin is the parent of them all. Sin cruci
fied the Son of God ! 0, sinner give up
sin before it is forever too late ! Life and
health are precious ; it is unknown to any
one when they will have to die. 0, be ad
i monished —turn, sinner, before it is too
late—to-morrow \ou may be in another
world. Turn from such poison as this—
and turn to Him who gave his only Son to
prepare a way for your escape from the ef
fects of the many sins you have already
committed. O, for his sake, sin no more.
Who would die for you now—or would you
die for any person P Dear sinner. I en
treat you as a friend, leave off sin ; pray
to the Lord to assist you in leaving off your
i sins, and to teach you how to pray accep
tably, and how to serve him with all your
heart, soul, mind and strength, that you
may be an every day Christian; so that
you may not serve sin one week and your
Heavenly Father the next. Don’t you feel
thankful that you are yet spared—that
you may repent of your sins before you
are called away ? “0, what would the
i spirits in prison give for one of our oppor
tunities—one of our offers of mercy ?” —
There are many who drop dead, and some
of you may be called in the same way.
There is no pleasure in serving sin, the
devil is the parent of sin—he is a foe to
you all ; he does neither clothe or feed you,
I or give you eyes to see or ears to hear, air
|to breathe or strength to move; it is the
good Lord that has done all this. Some
of you may say that you don’t sin—that
you don't drink, or swear, or gamble, yet
you are a sinner until you have a changed
heart. “Ask and it shall be given you.”—
For “whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer,
I believing, ye shall receive.” Are these
i promises not good, dear sinner ? 0 think
I one moment. Farewell for the present.
I being young, and not accustomed to
writing for the public eye and mind, feel a
j delicacy in allowing my name proper to
S appear at present, and prefer to assign my
| self Respectfully, Ac.,
F E MIN AS U A TOR.
MESSAGE OF THE PRESIDENT.
The following is the message of Presi
dent. Buchanan sent in to Congress on
i Wednesday :
To the Senate and House of Jleprcsenta
! tives :
At the opening of your present session,
I called your attention to the dangers
which threatened the existence of the
| Union. I expressed my opinion freely
concerning the original causes of these
dangers, and recommended such measures
as I believed would have the effect of tran
quillizing the country, and saving it from
the peril in which it had been needlessly
and most unfortunately involved in. Those
opinions and recommendations, I do not
propose now to repeat. My own convic-
I tions upon the whole subject remain un
changed.
The fact that a great calamity was im
pending over the nation was even at that
time acknowledged by every intelligent
! citizen. It had already made itself felt
throughout the length and breadth of the
land. The necessary consequences ot the
alarm thus produced Were most deplorable.
The imports fell off with a rapidity never
known before, except in time of war. in
the history of our foreign commerce ; the
Treasury was unexpectedly left without
the means which it had reasonably counted
upon to meet the public engagements ;
trade was paralyzed ; manufactures were
stopped, the best public securities sudden
ly sunk in the market ; every species of
property depreciated more or less ; and
thousands of poor men, who depended up
on their daily labor for their daily bread,
were turned out of employment.
I deeply regret that I am not able to
give you any information upon the state of
the Union which is more satisfactory than
what 1 was then obliged to communicate.
On the contrary, matters are still worse at
present than they then were. When Con
gress rivet, a strong hope pervaded the
whole public mind that some amicable ad
justment of the subject would speedily be
made by the Representatives of the States
and of the people which might restore
peace between the conflicting sections of
the country. That hope has been dimin
ished by every hour of delay ; and as the
prospect of a bloodless settlement lack's
away, the public distress becomes more and
more aggravated. As evidence of this, it
is ouly necessary to say that the Treasury
notes authorized by the act of 17th (sev
enteenth) December last were advertised
according to the law, and that no respon
sible bidder offered to take any considera
ble sum at par at a lower rate of interest
than twelve per cent. From these facts it ;
appears that, in a Government organized
like ours, domestic strife, or even a well
grounded fear of civil hostililies, is more j
destructive to our public and private in- !
terests than the most formidable foreign
war. |
In my annual message I expressed the
conviction, which I have long deliberately ,
held, and which recent reflection has only 1
tended to deepen and confirm, that fio
State has a right, by its own act, to secede
from the Union, or throw off its Federal
obligations at present. I also declared my
opinion to he, that if that right existed, ;
and should be exercised by any State of;
the Confederacy, the Executive depart
ment of this Government had no authority j
under the Constitution, to recognize its Va
lidity by acknowledging the independence
of such State. This left me no alternative
as the Chief Executive officer under the
Constitution of the United States, hut to
collect the public revenue and to protect
the public property, so far as this might
be practicable, under existing laws. This
is still my purpose. My province is to ex
ecute, and not to make the laws.
It belongs to Congress exclusively to re
peal, to modify, or to enlarge their provis
ions, to meet exigencies as they may occur.
I possess no dispensing power. 1 certainly
had no right to make aggressive war upon
any State; and I am perfectly satisfied
that the Constitution has wisely withheld
that power even from Congress. But the
right and duty to use military force defens
ively against those who resist the Federal
officers in the execution ot their legal func
tions, and against those who assail the
property of the Federal Government, is
clear and undeniable.
But the dangerous and hostile attitude
of the States towards each other has al
ready far transcended and cast in the shade
the ordinary Executive duties already pro
! vided for hv law, and has assumed such
vast and alarming proportions as to place
the subject entirely above and beyond Ex
ecutive control. The fact cannot be dis
guised, that we are in the midst of a great
revolution. In all its various healings,
therefore, I commend the question to Con
gress, as the only human tribunal, under
Providence, possessing the power to meet
the existing emergency. To them exclu
sively b dongs the power to declare war or
to authorize the employment of militarj
force in all cases contemplated by the Con
stitution ; and they alone possess the pow
er to remove grievances which might lead
to war, and to secure peace and Union to
this distracted country. On them, and on
them alone, rests the responsibility.
The Union is a sacred trust left by our
revolutionary fathers to their descendants,
and never did any other people inherit so
rich a legacy. It has rendered us prosper
ous in peace and triumphant in war. The
national flag has floated in glory ovt r every
sea. Under its shadow American citizens
have found protection and respect in all
lands beneath the sun. If we descend to
; considerations of purely material interests,
when, in the history of all time, has a
Confederacy been bound together by such
; strong ties of mutual interest ? Each por
tion of it is dependent on all, and all on
; each portion, for prosperity and domestic
security. Free trade throughout the whole
supplies the wants of one portion from the
productions of another, and scatters wealth
everywhere. The great planting and farm
ing States require the aid of the commer
| eial and navigating to send their produc-
I tions to domestic and foreign markets, and
! to furnish the naval power to render their
! transportation secure against all hostile at
i tacks.
Should (lie Union- perish in the midst” of
the present excitement, we have already
had a sad foretaste of the universal suffer
ing which would result from its destruc
tion. The calamity would be severe iri ev
ery portion of the Union, and would be
quite as great, to sav the least, in the
Southern as in the Northern States.
The greatest aggravation of the evil,
and that which would place us in the most
unfavorable light both before the world
and posteiitv, is, I am firmly convinced,
that the secession movement has been
chiefly based upon a misapprehension at
the South of the sentiments of a majority
in several of the Northern States.
Let the question be transferred from po
litical assemblies to the ballot-box, and
the people thetnselves would speedily re
dress the serious grievances which the
South have suffered. But, in Heaven’s
name, let the trial l>e made before we
plunge into armed conflict upon the mere
assumption that there is no other alterna
tive. Time is a great conservative power.
Let us pause at this momentous point and
afford the people, both North and South,
an opportunity for iv fleet ion. Would that
South Carolina had been convinced <>f this
truth before her precipitate action. J,
therefore appeal through you to the people
of the country to declare in their might
that the Union must and shall be preserved
by all constitutional means. I most earn
estly recommend that you devote your
selves exclusively to the question how* this
can be accomplished in peace. All other
questions when compared with this, sink
into insignificance. The present is no time
for palliations. Action, prompt, action,
is required. A delay in Congress to pre
scribe or to recommend a distinct and prac
tical proposition for conciliation may drive
; us to a point from which it will be almost
impossible to recede.
A common ground on which conciliation
and harmony can be produced is surely not
unattainable. The proposition to com
promise by letting the North have exclu
sive control of the Territory above a cer
tain line, and to give Southern institutions
protection below that line, onght to re
ceive universal approbation. In itself, in
deed, it may not be entirely satisfactory ;
but when tire alternative is between a reas
onable concession on both sides and a de
struction of the Union, it is an imputa
tion upon the patriotism of Congress to
assert that its members will hesitate for a
moment.
Even now the danger is upon ns. In
several of the States which have not yet
seceded, the forts, arsenals and magazines
of the United States have been seized.
This is by far the most serious step
which has been taken since the commence- j
nrent of the troubles. This public prop
erty has long been left without garrisons
and troops for its protection, because no
person doubted its security under the
flag of the country in any State of the
Union. ’ |
Besides, ohr stnall army has scarcely heerf
sufficient to guard our remote frontiers
against Indian insurrections. The 6eizuro
of this property, from all appearances, has
beeu purely aggressive and not in resistance
to any attempt to coerce a State or States
to remain in the F f nion.
At the beginning of these unhappy
troubles, I determined that no act of mine
should increase the excitement in either
section of the country. If the political
conflict were to end in a civil war, it was
my determined purpose not to commence
it, nor even to furnish an excuse for it by
any act of this Government. My opinion
remains unchanged, that justice as well as
sound policy requires us still to seek a
peaceful solution of the questions at issue
between the North and the South. En
tertaining this conviction, I refrained even
from sending reinforcements to Maj. An
derson, who commanded the forts in
Charleston harbor, until an absolute neces
sity for doing so should make itself appa
rent, lest it might unjustly he regarded as
a menace of militaiy coercion, and thus
furnish, if not a provocation, at least a
pretext for an outbreak on the part of
South Carolina, No necessity for these
reinforcements seemed to exist. J was as
sured by distinguished and upright gentle
-1 men of South Carolina that no attack upon
Major Anderson was intended, hut that
on the contrary, it was the desire of the
State authorities, as much as it was my
own, to avoid the fatal consequences
which must eventually follow a military
collision.
And here I deem it proper to submit for
your information copies of a communica
tion dated 28 Dec., 1860, addiessed to mo
by R. W. Barnwell, J. H. Adams, and
James L. Orr, “commissioners” from So.
Ca., and the accompanying documents and
copies of my answer thereto, dated 21st
December.
In further explanation of Major Ander
son’s removal from Ft. Moultrie to Ft.
Sumter, it is proper to state that after my
answer to tlie So. Ca. Commissioners, the
War Department received a letter from
that gallant officer, dated on the 27th
December, 1860, the day after this tnove
rnent, from which the following is an ex
tract :
“I will add, as my opinion, that many
things convinced me that the authorities of
the StaT designed to proceed to a hostile
act, (evidently referring to the orders, dated
Dec. 11, of the late Secretary of War.) —
Under this impression, I could not hesitate
that it was my solemn duty to move my
command from a fort which I probably
could not have held longer than 48 or 60
hours, to this one, where my power of
resistance is increased to a very gn at de
! groe.” .
It will be recollected that the concluding
part of these outers was in the following
terms :
“The smallness of your force will not
permit >ou y perhajs to occupy more than
one of the other forts, but an attack or a‘-
tempt to take possession of either one of
them will be regarded as an act of hostility,
and you may then put your command into
either of them which you may deem most
proper to increase its power of ns’stamv.
You are also authoiiscd to take similar
defensive steps whenever you have tangi
ble evidence of a design to proceed tu a
hostile act.”
It is said- that serious apprehensions are,
to Some extent, entertained—in which 1 do
not share—that the peace of this Distiict
may be disturbed before the 4th of March
next. In any event, it will become my
dntv to preserve it. and* this duty shall he
performed.
In conclusion, it may be permitted me
to remark, I have often warned my coun
trymen ot the dangers which now stflrotfud
us. This may be the last time J shall re
fer to the subject officially. I feel that my
duty has been faithfully, though it lYnyy ho
imperfectly, performed ; and whatever the
result may be, 1 shall carry to my grave
the consciousness that 1 at least meant
well for my country.
James Buchananv
Washington, Jan 8, 1861
[The enclosures wen* the coirespondence’
between the Commissioners and the I’nsi
dent, with the exception of the final reply
to the Commissioners already published.]
| LA T E NP KW S
- Jan. 15. —House — f Ue
army bill was debated to-day. Reagan and
Anderson of Missouri took sides with tbe
South, the hitter disapproved of the precip
itancy of the Gulf States, and favored the
calling of a border State Convention.
Santon, of Ohio, repudiated the impress
ion that it was the policy of the Republican
party to interfere with the States in which
slavery now exists, he was willing to amend
the Constitution so as to guard against any
j interference except with the consent of a
the States and admit New Mexico.
Adrian, made a conciliatory speech,
| would make concessions and’compromises,
| but would not permit secession.
Senate.—Crittenden’s Union resolution
was taken up, a conversational debate en
sued when it was laid aside for the Pacific
rail-way.—Sen. Crittenden in thrilling ac
cents endeavored to obtain action on his
resolution but they fell unheeded.
The Pacific rail-road bill was amend*.
and continued over.
NORTH CAROLINA CONVENTION
Raleigh. Jan. 15. —Senate was engaged o1 *
the Convention Bill all day—no vote vas
taken—debate mostly on details. The* 6
are no indications how it will result.
House—Resolutions on coercion
discussed all day, but split on details. ■ a f
rious ammendments were offered, and nian *
speeches made against coercion, but no v 0
was taken—some speeches were
against secession—some excitement cxis e
in the debate. , r
Fire in Newbern Court House ando
buildings.
ILLINOIS LEGISLATURE.
Springfield, Jan. 15. —Yates inaugu ra
address is the most decidedly abol
anti-secession, anti-compromise d° cU
since the crisis.