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urday night with demonstrations which have, perhaps, never been equalled in the political history of the country. Our whole community seemed to breathe freer and deeper, and upon every brow sat confidence and hope. It was as though the glorious sun had suddenly dispersed cloud and mist and vapor, and sent its illuminating rays to every heart and home. Men looked each other in the face as men should do who feel that under God their destinies are in their own hands."

Thus a "daughter of South Carolina "inflamed her sisters:"Listen, daughters of South Carolina, to the voice of a faithful sister. Should our State back out now she would be disgraced forever. Shrink now, and we are crushed forever. Then there will be no end of the trouble you fear. Abolition emissaries will be at work all over the South, inciting the negroes in every direction. Trials must come, but let them come in the right way, and all will be well. Secede, put ourselves in a state of defence; be ready for any emergency. Should the government coerce, our sister States will come to the rescue. it be so. Better perish beneath the shock than to live degraded. O women of South Carolina! Mothers, sisters, wives! do not wear the white feather now, unless, like that gallant king of old, it waves on our men to the war." *

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"Let us women of Carolina prove that the same noble spirit which visited the mothers and maidens of '76 is alive, and glowing in the spirits of their descendants. I am myself a widowed mother, but I have said to my three sons, that if any one of them shall be craven enough to desert the State now, to temporize in her councils, or be backward if her honor calls them to the field, let him never look upon my face again."†

What had transpired to produce this white heat of passion? Simply that a party was coming into power opposed to the extension of slavery over free territory. True this party had also disavowed any intention of interference with slavery in the States; but restriction was loss of power, - paralysis and death at last. The grievance of South Carolina arose wholly from slavery. She claimed the right to traffic in human beings. She believed it was a natural right, authorized by the

*Mercury, November 9, 1860.

† Charleston Mercury, November 17, 1860.

Creator of the universe, having the sanction and solemnity of the patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and Christ himself. It was a natural, moral, and scriptural right for a master to rob his brother in the Lord of his earnings during the week, commune with him on Sunday, whip him on Monday, and sell him on Tuesday. The institution being missionary in its nature, and designed to carry the Gospel to Africa, he had a right to separate husbands and wives, parents and children, break the marriage relation, and establish new alliances at will. No doubt they were sincere in their belief that the system was not only good in itself, but that it was a beneficent arrangement for the well-being of the human race. Certainly it was beneficial to the master; why should it not be to the slave? Men can be as sincerely zealous for Wrong as for Right. Eighteen hundred years ago a man zealous for the truth filled the prisons of Syria with Christians, and thought he was doing righteously in the sight of God; and human nature is the same now as then. Men and women who advocated the righteousness of slavery were scrupulous to a penny in their dealings with one another, and with colored people who were free, but the loss of freedom gave the right to commit robbery! Strange, also, the confusion and delusion of moral ideas. Society prided itself on its virtue. Men and women of Caucasian blood departing from morality found the door of society shut against them; but slavery being patriarchal it was not a crime, not even an offence against morality, for a planter to choose a Hagar from his slaves. Society placed no bar in his way, the Church no ban upon his action. Hagar could be taken into the master's household, appear in silks and satins, with Ishmael for the pet of the family, or both could be knocked off to the highest bidder in the mart, separated and sent one to the rice-swamps of Georgia and the other to the cane-brakes of Louisiana, Hagar weeping and mourning for her child, and the planter, with the price of blood in his pocket, be received in any parlor in Charleston, or made Governor of the State! There were patriarchs in the convention which carried South Carolina out of the Union, who were urged on to treason by the women of the South. Ishmael would not rise in insurrection, even if his brother Isaac and father Abraham went to

war.

Said another "daughter of South Carolina": —

"Arming the State will keep the negroes in check. They are arrant cowards, those dear dark friends of ours. [?] Some of you can remember how in '22 they would shrink away at the gleam of their master's sword as he armed for the nightly patrol, and the creaking of the horseman's saddles as they paraded the streets sent them hiding in every hole and corner.'

Isaac was eager for the fray; he burned to fight the Yankees. Hence the consummation of the treason.

* Charleston Mercury, November 9, 1860.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

SUMTER.

FORT SUMTER was evacuated by the Rebels and occupied by the Union troops on the 18th of February, 1865; but before entering upon the events of that ever-memorable morning it will give breadth and color to the picture to glance at the scenes witnessed there at the beginning and during the Rebellion.

On the 17th of December, 1860, Governor Pickens sent a strictly confidential letter to President Buchanan.

"To spare the effusion of blood," said he, "which no human power may be able to prevent, I earnestly beg your immediate consideration of all the points I call your attention to..... I would most respectfully, and from a sincere devotion to the public peace, request that you will allow me to send a small force, not exceeding twenty-five men and an officer, to take possession of Fort Sumter immediately, in order to give a feeling of safety to the community. There are no United States troops in that fort whatever, or perhaps only four or five at present, besides some additional workmen or laborers lately employed to put the guns in order. . . . . If Fort Sumter could be given to me as Governor, I think the public mind would be quieted, under a feeling of safety."

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The State seceded on the 20th. Major Anderson with a handful of men was at Fort Moultrie. "The garrison will not be strengthened. The people will obey the call for war, and take the forts," said the Charleston Mercury of the 22d.

Five days later, on the 27th, the people of Charleston looked seaward and saw Moultrie in flames, and the stars and stripes waving over Sumter. They were indignant. They considered it a breach of faith.

"Anderson has opened civil war," said the Courier.*

*Courier, December 29, 1860.

"His act must be repudiated by the government,” said the Mercury.*

"Unless you order Anderson back, I cannot, under my convictions of patriotism and honor, continue to hold office," said the Secretary of War, John B. Floyd, of Virginia. †

Charleston was intensely excited.

"Assemble the Light Infantry and the Meagher Guards at the Citadel. Arm them and take possession of Castle Pinckney. Proceed immediately to Fort Moultrie; send troops to Morris Island," were the orders of Governor Pickens to Colonel Pettigrew.

"Our line of operations embraces four points: Fort Moultrie, Castle Pinckney, Fort Johnson, and Morris Island. You are indebted to the forbearance of the enemy for the liberty of transporting the reinforcements and supplies, which you ordered at midnight, and which are to be sent to your battery now in course of erection on Morris Island. A single gun from Fort Sumter would sink your transports and destroy your troops and supplies," reported General Simmons to the Governor on the 1st of January.

It was the language of war. The United States was an enemy. The guns of Moultrie were already trained on Sumter. The battery on Morris Island was for the destruction of that fort. South Carolina had begun the war in intention and in fact. The erection of the battery was war.

On the 9th of January the same battery opened fire on the Star of the West, steaming into the harbor, bearing the United States flag.

"You are asked to surrender the fort to the constituted authorities of South Carolina," was the demand of Governor Pickens on the 11th.

"I cannot comply with your request," was the response from Anderson.

Then came the negotiations between Charleston and Washington, -the demands upon Buchanan, the shuffling and indecision of the two-faced, unprincipled politician, who had written himself down as an "Old Public Functionary." Major

* Mercury, December 29, 1860.

† Floyd's Letter to Buchanan.

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