[The following takes place during the rising tensions that would soon lead to the American Civil War, and details the South Carolinian response to the movement of Federal troops to the coastal Fort Sumter in the middle of the night, which was technically unsanctioned and seen as an act of war by many in South Carolina at the time.]
The following day [President] Buchanan met with his cabinet. The discussion was rolling back and forth, leading nowhere, when the commissioners’ reply arrived. It was as though an unpleasant odor had entered the room. The reply was pompous and insulting. Even as feckless as Buchanan had been lately, he was affronted by its tone. The document reviewed how conciliatory the president had been heretofore about the garrison, returning the muskets to the arsenal, for example. Yet now, with the garrison moved to Sumter, when “Major Anderson waged war,” Buchanan had refused to disavow the action and order him out of that fort, even though the move was “a hostile act in the highest sense.” By doing nothing about this, “you have probably rendered civil war inevitable.” The commissioners added: “Be it so. If you choose to force this issue upon us, the State of South Carolina will accept it.”
Rather than reply to the message, James Buchanan chose a useful diplomatic tool; he simply returned it with an attached note that he declined to receive it.
Source:
Detzer, David. “The Wolf at the Door.” Allegiance: Fort Sumter, Charleston, and the Beginning of the Civil War. New York: Harcourt, 2002. 143-44. Print.
Original Source Listed:
Buchanan, Mr. Buchanan’s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, pp. 120-25.
Further Reading:
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