JOHN FORSYTH,
MARTIN J. CRAWFORD,
A. B. ROMAN.
Mr. Seward in reply to the Commissioners.
Department Of State, Washington, April 10, 1861.
Messrs. Forsyth, Crawford, and Roman, having been apprised by a memorandum, which has been delivered to them, that the Secretary of State is not at liberty to hold official intercourse with them, will, it is presumed, expect no notice from him of the new communication which they have addressed to him under date of the 9th inst., beyond the simple acknowledgment of the receipt thereof, which he hereby very cheerfully gives.
Judge Campbell to Mr. Seward.
Washington City, Saturday, April 18, 1861.
Sir: On the 15th of March, ultimo, I left with Judge Crawford, one of the commissioners of the Confederate States, a note in writing, to the effect following:
"I feel entire confidence that Fort Sumter will be evacuated in the next ten days. And this measure is felt as imposing great responsibility on the Administration.
"I feel entire confidence that no measure changing the existing status prejudicially to the Southern Confederate States is at present contemplated.
"I feel an entire confidence that an immediate demand for an answer to the communication of the commissioners will be productive of evil and not of good. I do not believe that it ought, at this time, to be pressed."
The substance of this statement I communicated to you the same evening by letter. Five days elapsed, and I called with a telegram from General Beauregard, to the effect that Sumter was not evacuated, but that Major Anderson was at work making repairs.
The next day, after conversing with you, I communicated to Judge Crawford in writing that the failure to evacuate Sumter was not the result of bad faith, but was attributable to causes consistent with the intention to fulfill the engagement, and that, as regarded Pickens, I should have notice of any design to alter the existing status there. Mr. Justice Nelson was present at these conversations, three in number, and I submitted to him each of my written communications to Judge Crawford, and informed Judge Crawford that they had his (Judge Nelson's) sanction. I gave you, on the 22d of March, a substantial copy of the statement I had made on the 15th.
The 30th of March arrived, and at that time a telegram came from Governor Pickens, inquiring concerning Colonel Lamon, whose visit to Charleston he supposed had a connection with the proposed evacuation of Fort Sumter. I left that with you, and was to have an answer the following Monday (1st of April). On the 1st of April I received from you the statement in writing, "I am satisfied the Government will not undertake to supply Fort Sumter without giving notice to Governor P." The words "I am satisfied" were for me to use as expressive of confidence in the remainder of the declaration.
The proposition, as originally prepared, was, "The President may desire to supply Sumter, but will not do so," etc., and your verbal explanation was, that you did not believe any such attempt would be made, and that there was no design to reënforce Sumter.
There was a departure here from the pledges of the previous month, but, with the verbal explanation, I did not consider it a matter then to complain of. I simply stated to you that I had that assurance previously.
On the 7th of April I addressed you a letter on the subject of the alarm that the preparations by the Government had created, and asked you if the assurances I had given were well or ill-founded. In respect to Sumter, your reply was, "Faith as to Sumter fully kept—wait and see." In the morning's paper I read, "An authorized messenger from President Lincoln informed Governor Pickens and General Beauregard that provisions will be sent to Fort Sumter—peaceably, or otherwise by force." This was the 8th of April, at Charleston, the day following your last assurance, and is the last evidence of the full faith I was invited to wait for and see. In the same paper I read that intercepted dispatches disclosed the fact that Mr. Fox, who had been allowed to visit Major Anderson, on the pledge that his purpose was pacific, employed his opportunity to devise a plan for supplying the fort by force, and that this plan had been adopted by the Washington Government, and was in process of execution. My recollection of the date of Mr. Fox's visit carries it to a day in March. I learn he is a near connection of a member of the Cabinet. My connection with the commissioners and yourself was superinduced by a conversation with Justice Nelson. He informed me of your strong disposition in favor of peace, and that you were oppressed with a demand of the commissioners of the Confederate States for a reply to their first letter, and that you desired to avoid it, if possible, at that time.
I told him I might perhaps be of some service in arranging the difficulty. I came to your office entirely at his request, and without the knowledge of either of the commissioners. Your depression was obvious to both Judge Nelson and myself. I was gratified at the character of the counsels you were desirous of pursuing, and much impressed with your observation that a civil war might be prevented by the success of my mediation. You read a letter of Mr. Weed, to show how irksome and responsible the withdrawal of troops from Sumter was. A portion of my communication to Judge Crawford, on the 16th of March, was founded upon these remarks, and the pledge to evacuate Sumter is less forcible than the words you employed. These words were, "Before this letter reaches you [a proposed letter by me to President Davis], Sumter will have been evacuated." The commissioners who received those communications conclude they have been abused and overreached. The Montgomery Government hold the same opinion. The commissioners have supposed that my communications were with you, and upon the [that] hypothesis were prepared to arraign you before the country, in connection with the President. I placed a peremptory prohibition upon this, as being contrary to the terms of my communications with them. I pledged myself to them to communicate information, upon what I considered as the best authority, and they were to confide in the ability of myself, aided by Judge Nelson, to determine upon the credibility of my informant.
I think no candid man, who will read over what I have written, and considers for a moment what is going on at Sumter, but will agree that the equivocating conduct of the Administration, as measured and interpreted in connection with these promises, is the proximate cause of the great calamity.
I have a profound conviction that the telegrams of the 8th of April, of General Beauregard, and of the 10th of April, of General Walker, the Secretary of War, can be referred to nothing else than their belief that there has been systematic duplicity practiced on them through me. It is under an impressive sense of the weight of this responsibility that I submit to you these things for your explanation.
Very respectfully,
(Signed) JOHN A. CAMPBELL,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, United States.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
Judge Campbell to Mr. Secretary Seward.
Washington, April 20, 1861.
Sir: I inclose you a letter, corresponding very nearly with one I addressed to you one week ago (April 13th), to which I have not had any reply. The letter is simply one of inquiry in reference to facts concerning which, I think, I am entitled to an explanation. I have not adopted any opinion in reference to them which may not be modified by explanation; nor have I affirmed in that letter, nor do I in this, any conclusion of my own unfavorable to your integrity in the whole transaction. All that I have said and mean to say is, that an explanation is due from you to myself. I will not say what I shall do in case this request is not complied with, but I am justified in saying that I shall feel at liberty to place these letters before any person who is entitled to ask an explanation of myself.
Very respectfully,
JOHN A. CAMPBELL,
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, United States.
Hon. William H. Seward, Secretary of State.
No reply has been made to this letter, April 24, 1861.
INDEX TO VOL. I.
Abolition of African servitude; its first public agitation, 33;
activity of the propagandists, 34;
misuse of the sacred word liberty, 34.
Absurdity of the construction, attempted to be put on expressions of the Constitution, 175;
a brief analysis, 175.
Accede, discussions on the word, 136;
its former use, 137.
Adams, James H, commissioner from South Carolina to Washington, 213.
Adams, John, stumbled at the preamble of the Constitution, 121.
Adams, John Quincy, his declaration of the rights of the people of the States, 190, 191.
African servitude, its aid to the Confederacy in the war, 303;
confidence of the people in the Africans, 303.
Agreement, between Generals Harney and Price, at St. Louis, Missouri, 416.
Agricultural products, Southern, mainly for export, 302;
a change of habits in the planters required, 302;
our success largely due to African servitude, 303;
condition of the Africans, 303;
diminished every year during the war, 505.
Alabama, withdraws from the Union, 220.
All powers not delegated, etc., what does it mean? 175.
Allegiance, inconsistent ideas of, 182;
paramount to the Government, a monstrous view, 182;
the sovereign is the people, 182;
obligation to support a Constitution derived from the allegiance due to the sovereign, 183;
oath to support the Constitution based on the sovereignty of the States, 183;
the oath of military and naval officers, 183;
how false to attribute "treason" to the Southern States, 183;
an oath to support the Constitution, 183.
Amendment of the Constitution, distinct from the delegation of power, 196.
Anderson, Robert, commands forts in Charleston Harbor, 212;
instructions from the War Department of the United States, 212;
removes to Fort Sumter, 213;
acquaintance and past associations with the author, 216;
his protest against relieving Fort Sumter, 281;
the letter of protest, 282;
reply to the demand for evacuation, 286.
Annapolis, Maryland, first meeting of the commissioners to revise Articles of Confederation held there, 87;
how revision was effected, 88.
Anti-slavery and pro-slavery, terms misleading the sympathies and opinions of the world, 6.
Armories, the chief, where located, 480.
Armory at Harper's Ferry, burned by order of the United States Government, 317;
a breach of pledges, 317;
machinery and materials largely saved, 317;
removed to Richmond, 317;
and Fayetteville, North Carolina, 317;
Armorer Ball, his skill and fate, 318.
Arms and ammunition, arrangements for the purchase of, 311;
agent sent to Europe, 311;
do. sent North, 311;
letter to Admiral Semmes, 311.
Army officers choose their future place of service in disintegration of the army, 306;
act of Confederate Congress relative to, 307.
Arms within the limits of the Confederacy in 1861, 471;
do. powder, 472;
do. arsenals, 472;
cannon-foundries, 472;
the increased supply, 476.
Army, Confederate, its organization, instruction, and equipment, the first object, 303;
provisions of the first bill of Congress, 304;
its modification for twelve months' men, 304;
fifth section of the act, 304;
system of organization, 305;
acts of Congress providing for its organization, 305;
act to establish army of Confederate States, 306;
its provisions, 306;
the army belongs to the States, and its officers return to the States on its disintegration, 306;
provision securing rank to officers of the United States Army, 307;
the constitutional view, 307;
how observed, 307;
Generals appointed, 308;
efforts to increase the efficiency of, 384;
desire to employ the available force, 384;
organization of—early circumstances relating to it, 443;
the largest army in 1861 that of the Potomac, 443;
act of Congress relating to organization, 444;
the right to preserve for volunteers the character of State troops surrendered by the States, 444;
efforts to comply with the law, 444;
obstruction to its execution, 444;
correspondence, 444.
Arrest, threats of, against Senators withdrawing from Congress, 226.
Arrest and imprisonment of police authorities of Baltimore, 334.
Arsenals, contents of, in 1861, 471;
do. in Richmond, 479.
Artillery, extent of its manufacture, 473.
Assault on us, The, made by the hostile descent of the fleet to relieve Fort Sumter, 292.
Assertions, of Everett and Motley examined, 130.
Baker, Edward, Colonel, killed at Ball's Bluff, 437.
Ball, Armistead, master armorer at Harper's Ferry, 317;
his gallant services, 317;
his capacity and fidelity, 318.
Ball's Bluff, defeat of the enemy at, 437;
losses, 437.
Baltimore, manly effort of her citizens to resist the progress of the armies of invasion, 299;
occupied by United States troops, 333;
the city disarmed, 334;
arrest and imprisonment of police commissioners by General Banks, 334-5;
provost-marshal appointed, 334;
search for and seizure of arms, 335;
report of a committee of the Legislature on the arrests, 335.
Banks, Major-General, unlawful proceeding of, in Baltimore, 334.
Bargain, A, can not be broken on one side, says Webster, and still bind the other side, 167.
Barnwell, Robert W., commissioner from South Carolina to Washington, 213;
offered the place of Secretary of State under Provisional Constitution, 241.
Bartow, Colonel, killed at Manassas, 357.
Beauregard, General P. G. T., correspondence with the Confederate Government relative to Fort Sumter, 285, 286-287;
demands its evacuation; commands army at Manassas, 340;
orders troops from left to right at Manassas, 352;
his promotion, 359;
his statement of the defenses of Washington, 360;
report of the battle of Manassas, 368;
endorsement of the President, 369.
Bee, General Bernard, wounded at Manassas, 357.
Bell, John, nominated for the Presidency in 1860, 50;
offers to withdraw, 52.
Belmont, Missouri, occupied by Federal troops, 403;
afterward garrisoned by Confederate troops, 403;
Grant attempts to surprise the garrison, 403;
the battle that ensued, 404.
Benjamin, Judah P., Attorney-General under Provisional Constitution, 242.
"Bible and Sharpe's rifles," declaration of a famous preacher, 29.
"Bloodletting, A little more," the letter recommending, 249.
Bond of Union, A, necessary after the Declaration of Independence, 193;
Articles of Confederation followed, 193;
how amended, 193;
difference in the new form of government from the old one, 194;
the same principle for obtaining grants of power in both, 194;
amendments made more easy, 195.
Border States promptly accede to the proposition of Virginia for a Congress to adjust controversies, 248;
secession of the, 328.
Bonham, General, marches to Virginia with his brigade on her secession, 300;
commands brigade at Manassas, 353;
proposal that he shall pursue the enemy, 353.
Bowling Green, Kentucky, occupied by General Johnston, 406.
Breckinridge, John C., nominated for the Presidency in 1860, 50;
willing to withdraw, 52;
ex-Vice-President of United States, 399;
his address to the citizens of Kentucky, 399.
Brown, John, his raid into Virginia, 41;
how viewed, 41;
report of United States Senate committee, 41.
Brown, Mayor of Baltimore, visits with citizens President Lincoln, 332;
his report, 332.
Buchanan, President, his views and action in 1860, 54;
his objection to withdrawing the garrison from the forts in Charleston Harbor, 215;
opposed to the coercion of States, 216;
view of the cession of a site for a fort, 217;
hope to avert a collision, 217;
message to Congress, with letter of South Carolina commissioners, and his answer, 218;
his alarm at the state of affairs, 265.
Butler, Major-General B. F., occupies Baltimore with troops, 333.
Cabell, W. L., statement of field transportation at Manassas, 383.
Cabinet of the President under the Provisional Constitution, 241.
Cabinet, Mr. Lincoln's, a transaction in, 276.
Calhoun, John C., his death, 17;
remarks of Mr. Webster, 17;
anecdote, 17;
extract from his speech, "How to save the Union," 55.
California, circumstances of its admission to the Union, 16.
Campbell, J. A. P., letter relative to the views of the Provisional President, 238.
Camp Jackson surrounded by General Lyon's force, 414;
massacre at, 416.
Campbell, Judge, his statement relative to the intercourse between our commissioners and the Federal State Department, 267, 268;
his own views, 268, 269.
Capon Springs, speech of Webster at, 167.
Cass, Lewis, his "Nicholson letter," 38;
resigns as United States Secretary of State, 214;
his reason, 214.
Causes which led the Southern States into the position they held at the close of 1860, recapitulation of, 77.
Cavils, verbal, relative to the Constitution and the Articles of Confederation, 135, 136.
Centralism, its fate in the Constitutional Convention, 161.
Centreville, conflagration at, 467;
retreat from, 468.
Change of government, a question that the States had the power to decide, by virtue of the unalienable rights announced in the Declaration of Independence, 438.
Chandler, Z., his letter on a "little more bloodletting," 249.
Charleston Harbor defenses, a subject of anxiety in the secession of the State, 212;
Representatives in Congress call on the President, 212;
proposal to observe a peaceful military status, 212;
secret preparations for reënforcement by United States Government, 212;
nstructions to the commander, 212;
modified, 213;
commissioners sent by the State to treat for the delivery of the forts, 213;
change of military condition in the harbor, 213;
how regarded, 213;
interview of commissioners with President, 214;
sharp correspondence, 214.
Chesnut, James, letter on the election of Provisional President, 289.
Clark, John B., of Missouri, letter from President Davis, 427.
Clause second of Article VI of the Constitution, adduced by the friends of centralism, 149;
how magnified and perverted, 150.
Clay, C. C., letter relative to certain misstatements relative to the author, 206-208.
Clayton, Alexander M., letter relative to the election of Provisional President, 237.
Coercion of a State, views in 1850, 55;
do. 1860, 55;
declaration of the Convention that framed the Constitution, 56;
other declarations, 56;
the idea absolutely excluded, 101;
the alternative of secession, if no such right exists, 177;
the proposition before the Convention, 177;
views of the delegates, 177;
coercion military, treated with abhorrence, 179;
the right to, repudiated, 252, 253;
language of the New York press, 253;
do. of Northern speeches, 254;
do. of Thayer, 254;
remarks of Governor Seymour, 255;
do. of Chancellor Walworth, 255;
do. of the Northern press, 256;
words of Mr. Lincoln in his inaugural, 256;
views of Southern people, 257.
Columbus, Kentucky, occupation by Confederate forces, 402.
Commissioners to the United States appointed, 246;
nature of, 246;
how treated, 247;
negotiations of Judges Nelson and Campbell, 267;
statement of Judge Campbell, 268;
his views, 268;
declarations of Mr. Seward, 268;
his assurances, 269;
expectations of the commissioners and of the Confederate Government, 269;
pledge given by Federal authorities, 270;
telegram to General Beauregard, 270;
his reply, 270;
explanations of Mr. Seward, 270;
plan to reënforce and supply Sumter, 271;
proceedings for its execution by Secretary Fox, 271;
facts presented to Mr. Seward, 273;
the point of honor, 273;
further declarations of Mr. Seward, 273;
official notification from Washington to Governor Pickens and General Beauregard, 274;
letter to President Buchanan, 264;
their arrival, 264;
incidents, 265;
letter of Judge Crawford describing his reception, 265;
arrival of Mr. Forsyth—their letter to Mr. Seward, 266;
no answer received for twenty-seven days, 266;
a paper filed in the State Department, 266;
an oral answer, 266;
state of affairs relative to Fort Sumter, 266, 267;
their letters to General Beauregard, 277, 278;
failure of their mission, 296.
Commissioners from South Carolina to President Buchanan relative to the delivery of the forts in Charleston Harbor, 213.
Community independence, its origin and development, 116.
Compact, The original, causes that blighted its fair prospects, 48;
the Articles of Confederation a compact, 135;
been denied of the Constitution, 135;
denied by Webster, 135;
cavils on the words of the Constitution compared with the Articles of Confederation, 136;
the wood accede considered, 136;
use of the words "compact, accede, Confederacy," 137;
compact used by Gerry, Morris, Madison, Washington, Martin, and others, 138;
in the ratification of Massachusetts, 137;
the Constitution shown to be one by its structure, 140;
provisions, 140;
representation in the Senate, etc., 140.
Compromise measures of 1850, their origin, 14;
bear the impress of the sectional spirit, 14.
Compromise, Missouri, how constituted, 13;
votes on, 13.
Confederacies, the first local formed in New England, 115.
Confederacy, the growth of, 485;
financial system of, 485;
the state of the finances in 1862, 485.
Confederate Government, its instructions to General Beauregard relative to Fort Sumter, 284;
the correspondence, 285, 286;
aid given to Missouri, 429.
Confederation, The old, declares independence of each State, 86;
its articles, 86;
affairs, how managed, 87;
the first idea of reorganization, 87;
consequences, 87;
term applied to the articles, 88;
revision, how effected, 88;
how could it be superseded without secession? 100.
Conference of the President and generals, after the victory at Manassas, 352;
order to pursue the enemy, 353;
letter of the President respecting, 353;
answer from General Beauregard, 354, 355;
subjects considered, 356;
second do. of the President and generals, after the victory at Manassas, inquiry as to what more it was practicable to do, 360;
fortifications said to exist at Washington, 360;
subsequent reports, 360;
at variance with the information then possessed, 360;
why an advance was not contemplated to south bank of Potomac, 360;
returns to Richmond to increase army, 361;
charge of preventing the pursuit, 361.
Congress of the Confederation, its distinction from the United States Congress, 26;
language of its resolution for a revision of its articles, 88;
its recommendation, 89;
instructions to the commissioners to the Constitutional Convention by the several States, 89;
early acts of, 243;
laws of United States not inconsistent continued in force till altered, 243;
financial officers continued in office, 243;
early steps required to be taken for a settlement with United States, 244;
act relative to free navigation of the Mississippi River, 245;
coasting trade opened to foreign vessels, 245;
resolutions after the victory at Manassas, 383.
Congress, Provisional, of seceding States assembles at Montgomery, 220;
resolution to remove the seat of government to Richmond, 339.
Congress of the Confederation and that of the United States, difference between, 10, 11.
Congress, United States, decision on first abolition petition, 5;
prohibits importation of slaves, vote on the bill, 5;
its action on the petition of Indiana Territory for the suspension of the ordinance prohibiting slavery, 8;
report of the committee, 8;
future action on resolutions, 10;
has only delegated powers, 26;
action in the Senate in 1860-'61, 68;
action of its committee, 69;
failures of adjustment in the House, 70.
Connecticut, instructions to her delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 92;
her ratification of the Federal Constitution, 107.
"Constitution, The, a covenant with hell," use of the expression, 56;
signification of the word, 88;
the seventh article, a provision for secession, 101;
not established by the people in the aggregate, nor by the States in the aggregate, 101;
delegates were chosen by the States as States, and voted as States, 102;
object for which they were sent, 102;
terms used then in the same sense as now, 102;
a national Government distinctly rejected, 102;
final words of the Constitution, 102;
not adopted by the people in the aggregate, 114;
the assertion a monstrous fiction, 114;
as British colonies they did not constitute one people, 114;
confused views of Judge Story, 115;
exposition of them, 115;
some facts, 115;
local confederacies, 115;
the form of the first, 115;
its existence, 115;
assertion of Edward Everett, 116;
unsustainable, 116;
his quotations, 117;
letter of General Gage to Congress in 1774, 117;
extract, 117;
a citation from the Declaration of Independence, 118;
a palpable misconception, 118;
as united States Independence was achieved, 118;
as united States they entered into a new compact, 119;
in no single instance was the action by the people in the aggregate or as one body, 119;
facts, 119, 120;
by what authority was it ordained? 131;
denied by Webster to be a compact, 135.
Constitution, Confederate, the permanent of the Confederate States, prepared and ratified, 258;
remarks of Mr. Stephens, 258;
followed the model of the United States Constitution, 259;
some of its distinctive features, 259, 260;
term of the President's office, 259;
removals from office, 259;
admission of Cabinet officers to seats on floor of Congress, 259;
protective duties prohibited, 260;
two-thirds vote for appropriations, 260;
impeachment by State Legislature, 260;
the States make a compact for improvement of navigation, 260;
amendments obligatory by convention, 260;
provisions relative to slavery, 261;
other provisions, 261;
words of Mr. Lincoln, 262;
words of "New York Herald," 263.
Constitution, Provisional, for the Confederacy, adopted, 229;
officers elected, 230.
Constitutional Convention, the original, rejected the doctrine of the coercion of a State, 56;
conclusions drawn from the instructions of the States to their delegates, 93;
assembling of the Convention, 94;
the work takes a wider range than was contemplated, 94;
diversity of opinion among the members, 95;
Luther Martin's description of the three parties in the Convention, 95;
the equality of the States, how adjusted, 96;
plan of government of Edmund Randolph, 96;
how the word "national" was treated, 97.
Constitutional questions involved in the position of the Southern States, recapitulation of, 77.
Constitutional Union party of 1860, its principles, 51.
Constitutional Union Convention in 1860, its nominations and resolutions, 60.
Convention, the original idea of calling, 98;
its powers merely advisory, 103;
how its work was approved, 103.
Conventions, State, representatives of sovereignty, 97.
Cooper, Samuel, resigns in United States Army, 308;
his rank, 308;
appointment in the Confederate Army, 308.
Count of Paris, his travesty of history, 200, 201;
libels the memory of Major Anderson, 283.
Coxe, Tench, words relative to separate sovereignties, 128.
Crawford, Martin J., appointed commissioner to United States, 246;
commissioner to Washington arrives, 246;
describes the incidents and his reception, 265;
other proceedings, 266.