Sumpter - the fort on everyone's mind
A few days ago Civil War Daily Gazette published a good article about President Lincoln determining the pros and cons of abandoning Fort Sumter. One of the arguments against giving up the fort was
“The danger of demoralizing the Republican Party” because of timidity or “want of pluck”
A letter to the editor published in The New-York Times on March 19, 1861 tends to validate this concern (The New York Times Archive):
A Protest.
To the Editor of the New-York Times:
I protest against evacuating Fort Sumpter, because such withdrawal will degrade us in the eyes of the whole world. It will deaden all respect we have for our Government; it will put a premium on Rebellion; it will discourage our officers and soldiers from doing their duty; it will encourage other States to join those now in rebellion; it will weaken the Government; it will beget a spirit of anarchy among the people; it will give the opponents of the Administration strong grounds on which to go before the people in the coming election, on the score of cowardice and imbecility; it will destroy all regard for the Federal Union, as this act admits that the Union cannot protect its forts against the acts of rebels; it will give the compromisers, the concessionists and the threateners all the encouragement they want. I protest against this withdrawal as a full and complete backing down from the Inaugural, (which is but one week old,) wherein the President declared that “The power confided to him will be used to hold, occupy and possess the property and places belonging to the Government.”
General Beauregard: menacing Fort Sumter
I protest against this withdrawal again as farther stultifying the Inaugural, inasmuch as such withdrawal allows the minority to rule the majority, which the Inaugnral says leads to “anarchy and despotism,” and that the rule of the minority is wholly inadmissible.
I protest against such withdrawal because it further stultifies the Inaugural wherein the President says (only one week since) that he considers the “Union unbroken,” and that he will take care that the laws of the Union be faithfully executed in all of the States.” Now if the Union is still unbroken, South Carolina is still in the Confederacy, and if so, to evacuate Sumpter, and allow an illegal combination of persons to occupy it, is to yield up “the property and places” of the Government, against which I protest.
A NINTH WARD REPUBLICAN. …
The Times of the early 1860s definitely seems to be a pro-Republican paper. After the letter an editorialist for the newspaper basically says, “Not to worry!”, but Lincoln might not have enough resources to hold Sumter indefinitely if the rebels try to starve out the fort or use active siege operations. And the Buchanan administration and Congress have hindered President Lincoln as well:
'How Do You Solve a Problem Like Ft. Sumter?': advice from Seward to Lincoln 3-15-1861
We think it not improbable that the President may find himself unable, under existing laws, to command a force sufficient to reinforce Fort Sumpter, with either men or provisions, if he acts upon the opinions of the Military Generals to whom he is bound to defer. This may render it impossible to hold the fort permanently, but it does not compel its immediate surrender. If the Charlestonians attack it, every possible effort will undoubtedly be made to repel them — and we presume with success. If, on the other hand, they content themselves with cutting off supplies, they will probably be able to compel a surrender sooner or later. Against such contingencies it is not always possible to provide: — and the efforts of the last Administration to cripple the Government, and the refusal of Congress to pass laws to strengthen the hands of the Executive, may render it impossible for the President to do everything which both he and the country deem desirable.
Nowaday we talk about a politician’s “political base”. It seems that both Lincoln and Jefferson Davis had to be concerned about their political bases in Spring 1861.
Fort Moultrie 1861: one of the threats to Sumpter
