The authorities seem resolved to make a stand at Fort Pickens, notwithstanding the advice of Mr. Douglass to give it up. They regard it as an important Federal fortress, as indisputably essential for national purposes as Tortugas or Key West. Although United States property has been “occupied,” the store vessels of the State seized, and the sovereignty of the seceding States successfully asserted by the appropriation of arsenals, and money, and war materials, on the part of the local authorities, the Government of Washington are content by non-recognition to reserve their own rights in face of the exercise of force majeure.
The Chevalier Bertinnati, who has been Chargé d’Affaires for the Government of King Victor Emmanuel, has been raised to the rank of Minister, and in that capacity delivered his letters of credence to the President on Wednesday. The letter addressed to the President by the King of Piedmont was couched in terms of much friendliness and sympathy, and Mr. Lincoln’s reply was equally warm. There is no display of military preparation to meet the eye either at Washington or along the road to it. General Scott, who was to have dined at the President’s Cabinet dinner last night, and who was actually in the White House for that purpose, was compelled to leave by indisposition. Any attempt to relieve Fort Sumter would unquestionably be attended with great loss of life; but most Americans readily admit that if they had a foreign force to deal with, no consideration of that kind would stay the hands of the Government. The fort stands on a sand-bank in shallow water, and batteries have been cast up on both shores effectually commanding the whole of the channels for several miles. The military activity and enterprise—I hear the skill as well—of the South have been displayed in the readiness and completeness of their preparations. In Galveston, Texas, Governor Houston, who has resigned, or been deposed, protests, it is said, against the acts of the new Government, and is likely to give them trouble. The telegraph will, however, anticipate any news of this sort which I can send you, though its intelligence should be received with many grains of salt. Some people assert that “the telegraph has caused the Secession,” and there is a strong feeling that some restrictions should be placed upon the misuse of it in disseminating false reports.
LETTER II.
WASHINGTON, April 1, 1861.
FROM all I have seen and heard, my belief is that the Southern States have gone from the Union, if not forever, at least for such time as will secure for their Government an absolute independence till it be terminated by war, or, if their opponents be right, by the certain processes of internal decay arising from inherent vices in their system, faulty organization, and want of population, vigor, and wealth. That the causes which have led to their secession now agitate the Border States most powerfully with a tendency to follow them is not to be denied by those who watch the course of events, and as these powerful neutrals oscillate to and fro, under the pressure of contending parties and passions, the Government at Washington and the authorities of the revolting States regard every motion with anxiety; the former fearful lest by word or deed they may repel them forever, the latter more disposed by active demonstrations to determine the ultimate decision in their own favor, and to attach them permanently to the Slave States by resolute declarations of principle. Whatever the results of the Morrill tariff may be, it is probable they must be endured on both sides of the Atlantic, for there is no power in the Government or in the President, as I understand, to modify its provisions, and there is a strong feeling in Mr. Lincoln’s Cabinet against the extra session, so loudly demanded in New York, and so confidently expected in some parts of the Union. Nothing but some overwhelming State necessity will overcome that opposition, and, as the magnitude of such an occasion will have to be estimated by those who are vehemently opposed to an extra Congress, it is not likely that anything can occur which will be considered of sufficient gravity by the Government at Washington to induce them to encounter the difficulties and dangers they anticipate in consequence of the convocation of an extraordinary assemblage of both Houses. Until next December, then, in all probability, the President and his Cabinet will have such control of affairs as is possible in the system of this Government, or in the circumstances, together with the far more than coördinate responsibility attached to their position as a Federal Government. It is scarcely possible for an Englishman, far less for the native of any State possessing a powerful Executive, to comprehend the limits which are assigned to the powers of the State in this country, or to the extent to which resistance to its authority can be carried by the action of the States supposed to be consenting parties to its Constitution and supporters of its jurisdiction. Take, for instance, what is occurring within a few miles of the seat of the Central Government, across the Potomac. At a certain iron-foundery guns have been cast for the United States Government, which are about to be removed to Fort Monroe, in the State of Virginia, one of the fortresses for the defence of the United States. The Legislature of Virginia sat all night last Saturday, and authorized the Governor of that State to call out the public guard in order to prevent by force, if necessary, the removal of those guns, at the same time offering to the contractor the price which he was to have received for them from the Federal Government. Again, at Mobile, where a writ of habeas corpus is sued out on behalf of the master of a vessel, who was seized because he had a cargo of small stores which he intended to sell to the United States men-of-war on observation off Pensacola, the counsel for the State of Florida resists the application on the ground that the prisoner was carrying supplies to an enemy, and that a state of war exists in consequence of the acts of the Federal Government; and the Court, without deciding on the point, discharge the prisoner, in order that it may be freed from responsibility. On the other hand, the Federal Government remits the penalties of forfeiture and fines on the vessel seized by the Custom House at New York for want of proper clearances from Southern ports. The stereotype plates with the words “Evacuation of Fort Sumter” have apparently been worn out, but it is believed on all sides that it will be abandoned by Major Anderson this week, although I heard a member of the Cabinet declare last week that no orders had been issued to that officer to evacuate it. If the opinions of some of the Northern people prevailed, the fort would be retained until it was taken by assault. The Southern Confederation, secure of Fort Sumter, are now preparing for active operations against Fort Pickens, which protects the entrance to the quondam United States Navy Yard at Pensacola, now in the possession of the troops of Florida; and certain organs of the extreme party in the South have already demanded that the forts at Tortugas and Key West, which are situated far out at sea from the coast, should be surrendered.
The Cabinet of Mr. Lincoln is understood to contain the representatives of three different courses of policy—that trinity of action which generally produces torpid and uncertain motion or complete rest. First, there are those who would, at any risk, vindicate the rights they claim for the Federal Government, and use force, even though it could only, in its most successful application, overrun the States of the South, and compel a temporary submission, without leading to the reestablishment of Federal authority, or the reincorporation of the States with the Union. Secondly, there are those, men of intellect and capacity, who, dissenting altogether from the doctrines propounded by the leaders of the revolution, and convinced that the separation will not be permanent, see the surest and safest mode of action in the total abstinence from all aggressive assertion of rights, and in a policy of laissez aller of indeterminate longitude and latitude. These statesmen believe that, like most revolutions, the secession is the work of the minority, and that a strong party of reaction exists, which will come to the front by and by, “expel the traitors,” and return triumphantly with their repentant States into the bosom of the Union. The gentlemen who hold these views have either a more accurate knowledge than the public, are better read in the signs of the times, or have more faith in the efficacy of inaction on the love of Americans for the Union, than is possessed by most of the outer world. The third party is formed of those who are inclined to take the South at their word; to cut the cord at once, believing that the loss would be a gain, and that the Southern Confederation would inflict on itself a most signal retribution for what they consider as the crime of breaking up the Union. Practically, so far as I have gone, I have failed to meet many people who really exhibited any passionate attachment to the Union for its own sake, or who pretended to be animated by any strong feelings of regard or admiration for the Government of the United States in itself. The word “Constitution” is forever ringing in one’s ears, its “principles” and its authority are continually appealed to, but the end is no nearer. The other day I bought the whole Constitution of the United States, neatly printed, for three halfpence. But the only conclusion I could draw was, that it was better for States not to have Constitutions which could be bought at such very moderate prices. It is rather an inopportune moment for the Professor of the Harvard Law School to send forth his lecture on the Constitution of the United States, and on the differences between it and that of Great Britain. Just as the learned gentleman is glorying in the supremacy of the Judicial body of the United States over Congress, Presidents, and Legislatures, the course of events exhibits that Supreme Court as a mere nullity in the body politic, unable to take cognizance, or unwilling to act in regard to matters which are tearing the Constitution into atoms. No one thinks of appealing to it, or invoking its decision. And, after all, if the Court were to decide, what would be the use of its judgment, if one or other of the two great parties resisted it? The ultima ratio would be the only means by which the decision could be enforced. In the very midst of the hymns which are offered up around the shrines of the Constitution, whether old or mended, all celebrating the powers of the great priestess of the mysteries, there are heretic voices to be heard, which, in addition to other matters, deny that the Supreme Court was ever intended by the Constitution to exercise the sole and signal right of interpreting the Constitution, that it is competent to do so, or that it would be safe to give it the power. Its powers are judicial, not political, and Mr. Calhoun on that very point said:
“Let it never be forgotten, that if we should absurdly attribute to the Supreme Court the exclusive right of construing the Constitution, there would be, in fact, between the sovereign and subject under such a Government no Constitution, or at least nothing deserving the name, or serving the legitimate object of so sacred an instrument.”
The argument revolves in a circle; it ends nowhere, and there seems no solution except such as concession or a sword cut may give.
There are at present in Washington two of the three unrecognized Ministers Plenipotentiary of the Southern Government, Mr. Roman and Mr. Crawford. Judging from the tone of these gentlemen, all idea of returning to the Union, under any circumstances whatever, has been utterly abandoned. Mr. Forsyth, the third of the Commissioners, who is at present engaged in adjusting certain business of a very important character at New York, is expected back in a few days, and it will then be seen whether the Commissioners consent to walk up and down in the salles des pas perdus any longer. They are armed with full powers on all questions which can come up for settlement. The Government has refused to receive them, or to take any official notice of them whatever; but there is reason to believe that certain propositions and negotiations have been laid before Mr. Seward in a private and unofficial manner, to which no reply of a definite character has been given. Before this letter reaches you, Mr. Yancey, Mr. Mann, and Mr. Rort will have arrived in Europe to try the temper of the Governments of England and France in reference to the recognition of the Southern States. Both parties have been somewhat startled by the intelligence of an active movement of Spain to gain political ascendancy in St. Domingo; and the news that France and England are sending a combined fleet to these shores, though coming in a very questionable shape, has excited uneasy feeling and some recrimination.
If the Congress is reassembled, there is much reason to fear an open rupture; if not, another solution may be arrived at. It is unfortunate for the Government that General Scott is suffering at this moment from the infirmities of age, and the effect of the great demands made upon his strength. Mr. Lincoln gave a dinner to his Cabinet on Thursday last, the first of the season, in honor principally of General Scott; but the veteran General, who had entered the White House, was obliged to leave before dinner was served. There has been a great emigration of candidates and office-hunters from this since I last wrote, some contented, many more grumbling. It is asserted that there never has been such a clean sweep of office-holders since the practice was introduced by General Jackson. If I am rightly informed, the President has the patronage of one hundred and forty thousand places, great and small—some very small.