Sir:—
I have received and accepted your resignation on yesterday of the office of Secretary of the Interior.
On Monday evening, 31st December, 1860, I suspended the orders which had been issued by the War and Navy Department to send the Brooklyn with reinforcements to Fort Sumter. Of this I informed you on the same evening. I stated to you my reasons for this suspension, which you knew from its nature would be speedily removed. In consequence of your request, however, I promised that orders should not be renewed “without being previously considered and decided in cabinet.”
This promise was faithfully observed on my part. In order to carry it into effect, I called a special cabinet meeting on Wednesday, 2d January, 1861, in which the question of sending reinforcements to Fort Sumter was amply discussed both by yourself and others. The decided majority of opinions was against you. At this moment the answer of the South Carolina “commissioners” to my communication to them of the 31st December was received and read. It produced much indignation among members of the cabinet. After a further brief conversation I employed the following language: “It is now all over, and reinforcements must be sent.” Judge Black said, at the moment of my decision, that after this letter the cabinet would be unanimous, and I heard no dissenting voice. Indeed, the spirit and tone of the letter left no doubt on my mind that Fort Sumter would be immediately attacked, and hence the necessity of sending reinforcements there without delay.
Whilst you admit “that on Wednesday, January 2d, this subject was again discussed in cabinet,” you say, “but certainly no conclusion was reached, and the War Department was not justified in ordering reinforcements without something [more] than was then said.” You are certainly mistaken in alleging that no “conclusion was reached.” In this your recollection is entirely different from that of your four oldest colleagues in the cabinet. Indeed, my language was so unmistakable, that the Secretaries of War and the Navy proceeded to act upon it without any further intercourse with myself than what you heard or might have heard me say. You had been so emphatic in opposing these reinforcements, that I thought you would resign in consequence of my decision. I deeply regret that you have been mistaken in point of fact, though I firmly believe honestly mistaken. Still it is certain you have not the less been mistaken. Yours very respectfully,
James Buchanan.
[MR. THOMPSON TO THE PRESIDENT.]
Washington City, January 10, 1861.
To his Excellency, James Buchanan, President of U. S.:—
Dear Sir:—In your reply to my note of 8th inst., accepting my resignation, you are right when you say that “you (I) had been so emphatic in opposing these reinforcements that I (you) thought you (I) would resign in consequence of my decision.” I came to the cabinet on Wednesday, January 2d, with the full expectation I would resign my commission before I left your council board, and I know you do not doubt that my action would have been promptly taken, had I understood on that day that you had decided that “reinforcements must now be sent.” For more than forty days, I have regarded the display of a military force in Charleston or along the Southern coast by the United States as tantamount to war. Of this opinion you and all my colleagues of the cabinet have been frankly advised. Believing that such would be the construction of an order for additional troops, I have been anxious, and have used all legitimate means to save you and your administration from precipitating the country into an inevitable conflict, the end of which no human being could foresee. My counsels have not prevailed, troops have been sent, and I hope yet that a kind Providence may avert the consequences I have apprehended, and that peace be maintained.