Jim Harrelson January 8, 1861, The Road to Sumter +90: “It is with extreme regret that I have just learned that additional [u] troops have been ordered to Charleston.” ~Jacob Thompson resigns his post as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior in protest. ————————————————————- The steamer “Star of the West” has been hired by U.S. President Buchanan and dispatched, with supplies and 150 reinforcements for U.S. Major Anderson at Fort Sumter without consent of the government of South Carolina. (Act of War) Jacob Thompson of Mississippi resigns his post as the U.S. Secretary of the Interior, and was the last Southern member of U.S. President James Buchanan's Cabinet. Other southern cabinet members had already resigned over Buchanan’s refusal to order the evacuation of US Major Anderson from Fort Sumter and to abide by the December 10th armistice. “It is with extreme regret that I have just learned that additional [u] troops have been ordered to Charleston. […] Under these circumstances I feel myself bound to resign my commission, as one of your constitutional advisers, into your hands.” Jacob Thompson, although sitting Secretary of the Interior in the Buchanan Cabinet, had been named as a Secession Commissioner to North Carolina by Mississippi Governor John J. Pettus, and had vigorously taken up his duties in December 1860. He finally resigned his cabinet post, citing as his reason as President Buchanan’s plan to authorize a mission to hire the “Star of the West” to resupply and reinforce Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor. His post remained vacant until President Lincoln appointed Caleb Blood Smith in March, 1861. Thompson later accepted a commission in the confederate army, served as a staff officer to Generals Beauregard and Pemberton, and was a member of the Mississippi legislature. In 1864, Jefferson Davis named him as Confederate commissioner to Canada. —————————————————————- The Evacuation of Fort Moultrie. A letter from one of the officers of Major Anderson's command thus describes leaving Fort Moultrie: ‘ Major Anderson took one of his officers aside about six P. M. on the 26th, and told him in about twenty minutes he should make the attempt to reach Fort Sumter. The attempt was a dangerous one. Two steamboats lay off the fort with troops and guns, and these boats would have run him down in a moment, had they been aware of the movement. Major Anderson left orders to fire into the Nina steamboat if she molested his men, and a 32-pounder was loaded up for that purpose.--Fort Moultrie is always surrounded by paid spies and members of the vigilance committee, but they did not interfere, and probably did not understand what the command was doing. The troops sprang into the boats and the men pulled with a will. Half way the hostile steamboat approached rapidly with a ship in tow. It was a glorious moonlight night, and very clear. The steamboat passed within a hundred yards, but probably took the boats to contain workmen returning from Fort Sumter. Sumter was reached at last in safety.--An exclamation of surprise came from the bricklayers on the wharf. One of them shouted "Hurrah for the Union." He was hurried in and made to keep quiet. In the meantime, the officers who remained in Fort Moultrie held the lanyards of the guns in their hands ready to fire upon the steamboat, if it molested the boats. The boats were sent back. The remainder of the command embarked and reached Sumter in safely, though one boat passed almost under the bow of the Nina. ———————————————————— Sources: Charles B. Dew, Apostles of Disunion: Southern Secession Commissioners and the Cause of the Civil War (Charlottesville, VA: University Press of Virginia, 2001), 27. Samuel Wylie Crawford, The Genesis of the Civil War: The Story of Sumter, 1860-1861 (New York: Charles L. Webster and Company, 1887), 181. The Daily Dispatch: January 7, 1861. Richmond Dispatch. 4 pages. by Cowardin & Hammersley. Richmond. January 7, 1861. ———————————————————— Events leading up to January 8, 1861: -80+ years of sectional tensions between northeastern and southeastern states over tariffs, states rights/popular sovereignty, federal power over new territories and most recently, the practice of chattel slavery. -1857 - Massive Financial Collapse And panic hits Northeastern banks triggered by the sinking sinking of the S.S. Central America carrying 30,000 pounds of gold destined for northern banks. -A new “Republican” political party is formed with a platform of federal control of new territories, diminishing popular sovereignty, and enforcing new tariffs “by force”, which are all usurpations of the U.S. Constitution. -The increasing federal debt has lead to a proposed drastic increase in Tariffs that disproportionately effect agricultural southern states as the 48% Morrill Tariffs. -Radical Republican Leader Thaddeus Stevens, sponsor of the Morrill Tariff, stated: “the Tariff would impoverish the southern and western states, but that was essential for advancing national greatness and the prosperity of [northern] industrial workers.” -Southeastern states have minority representation in the U.S. Congress due to the 3/5ths rule, which does not allow negro persons to be fully counted for representation. -Southeastern “Cotton states” protest tariffs, and the fact that these agricultural state are already paying ~75% to 85% of the federal budget with little to none returned in support for infrastructure. -1859 - John Brown and 18 accomplices began their illegal invasion of Virginia, and murder spree at Harper’s Ferry Virginia, financed by northeastern “abolitionists”. -November 1860, Abraham Lincoln is selected as U.S. President with a minority of the popular vote and was not even on the ballot in 10 states, with a pledge to institute the new party’s platform, by force if necessary. -The seven “cotton states” that are most impacted by the new 48% Morrill Tariffs begin secession proceedings citing historical causes, tariffs and the federal government’s usurpation of the “voluntary compact” called the U.S. Constitution. -U.S. President Buchanan begins deliberations over payment for federal properties with South Carolina representatives and is informed that garrisoning troops at Fort Sumter would be considered and act of war. -December 8th, The South Carolina Delegation delivers a written agreement or “armistice” to U.S. President Buchanan, promising not to attack the remaining forts garrisoning U.S. troops in the sovereign state of South Carolina, with the understanding that the U.S. will not attempt to reinforce them. -U.S. President Buchanan extended the December 10th “armistice” to all states considering secession. -December 12th, U.S. President Buchanan’s armistice agreement that “there would be no reinforcement coastal fortifications” was now extended to all states considering secession until March 4, 1861. -December 13th, The “Southern Manifesto” was published In Montgomery Alabama. Twenty-three House members and seven Senators from southern states make a public announcement, "a manifesto which urged secession and the organization of a Southern Confederacy." -December 16th, South Carolina legislature elects Francis Wilkinson Pickens Governor. In his inaugural address he cited the sectional election, northern states violations of the Constitution and that South Carolina will open her ports to the world and advocate free trade, (Without the U.S. 48% Morrill Tariffs) and that South Carolina “acceded to the Constitution alone, and will secede alone of necessity.” -December 17th, “Convention of the People of South Carolina”, South Carolina’s Secession Convention opens, the Convention passed a unanimous resolution to secede from its voluntary compact with the union. -December 20th, Delegates to the South Carolina Convention unanimously vote to secede by adopting 169 - 0 an "Ordinance To Dissolve the Union between the State of South Carolina and other States United with her under the Compact Entitled 'The Constitution of the United States of America.' -December 21st, Incoming U.S. President Lincoln sends a “confidential” letter to Democrat Francis P. Blair, Sr., Representative Elihu B. Washburn, and General Winfield Scott, regarding his plan to break US President Buchanan’s armistice and instigate war on American state’s immediately after inauguration. -December 23rd, South Carolina’s Rep. William Porcher Miles confirms the December 10th armistice with U.S. President Buchanan and that Fort Sumter is abandoned property In Charleston Harbor, now sits unoccupied. -December 26th, U.S. Major Robert Anderson violates U.S. President Buchanan’s December 10th armistice with South Carolina’s Representatives, and Governor, by illegally seizing Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, (Act of War) -December 28th, In response to U.S. Major Andersons illegal seizure and occupation of Fort Sumter, Cadet Riflemen and the Palmetto Guard, with a detachment of City Police, were detailed to take charge of the Arsenal in the city of Charleston, and a line of patrols was established around the walls. -December 30th, Colonial John Cunningham of the South Carolina militia was officially ordered by Governor Francis Pickens to seize control of the Charleston Arsenal. -January 1st 1861, Political Resignations Begin, Labors expose US. Maj. Anderson’s subversion, U.S. Blockade of Charleston Harbor expected (Act of War). -January 2nd, Gulf state Governors and local officials order State Guard Troops, Local Militias and Police to secure or seize coastal forts, armories, and powder magazines. -January 4th, Governor A.B. Moore ordered Alabama Militia to seize three installations in the state, the arsenal at Mount Vernon, Fort Morgan and Fort Gaines, in preparation for secession. -U.S. President Buchanan responded to Major Anderson’s breach of the “compact” or Armistice of December 10th, by justifying it as a “military necessity” to occupy Fort Sumter, and blaming possible “Mob” violence. -Rumors that the steamer “Harriet Lane”had been hired and dispatched, with supplies and 150 reinforcements for U.S. Major Anderson at Fort Sumter. (Act of War) -January 5th, A caucus of U.S. Senators from seven Southern states meet in Washington, D.C.. The Senators from South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida,
Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas discuss an orderly secession, independence and a “confederation of states.” -January 7th, U.S. Congressional Committee “on the part of the boarder states” proposes a constitutional amendment to ensure chattel slavery, and the interstate slave trade, is made “permanent and irrevocable” in all states “loyal to the union”… -January 8th, The Steamer “Star of the West” has been hired by President Buchanan to invade Charleston Harbor with 150-200 reinforcements and supplies for Fort Sumter, in violation of the December 10th Armistice. (Act of War)
