to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
On a cold
and cloudy day in March of eighteen sixty-one, Abraham Lincoln became the
sixteenth president of the United States. In his inaugural speech, the new
president announced the policy that he would follow toward the southern states
that had left the Union.
said no state had a legal right to secede -- the Union could not be broken. He
said he would enforce federal laws in every state. And he promised not to
surrender any federal property in the states that seceded. Lincoln said if
force was necessary to protect the Union, then force would be used. His policy
was soon tested.
in our series, Jack Weitzel and Jack Moyles discuss the dispute over the
federal base that was being built at Fort Sumter.
second day as president, Lincoln received some bad news from Fort Sumter at
Charleston, South Carolina. Major Robert Anderson, the commander of the small
United States force at Sumter, wrote that his food supplies were low. At most,
said Anderson, there was enough food for forty days. Unless he and his men
received more supplies, they would have to leave the fort.
wanted to keep Fort Sumter. It was one of the few United States forts in the
south still held by federal forces. And he had promised not to give up any
federal property in the states that seceded.
getting food to Fort Sumter would be a very difficult job. The fort was built
on an island in Charleston Harbor. It was surrounded by southern artillery.
Southern gunboats guarded the port.
supplies to Anderson and his men, a ship would have to fight its way to Sumter.
Such a battle was sure to begin a bitter civil war. There also was the danger
that fighting would cause slave states still in the Union to secede and join
the southern Confederacy.
The Army chief, General [Winfield] Scott, warned Lincoln that it was too late to get
supplies to Fort Sumter. He said southern defenses around the fort were so
strong that a major military effort would be necessary. He said it would take
months to prepare the warships and soldiers for such an effort. Major Anderson
and his men at Sumter, he said, could not wait that long.
another plan, however, that might work. It was proposed to Lincoln by Captain
Gustavus Fox of the Navy Department.
Fox said soldiers and supplies could be sent down to Charleston in ships.
Outside the entrance to the harbor, on a dark night, they could be put into
small boats and pulled by tugs to the fort. Fox said a few warships could be
sent to prevent southern gunboats from interfering.
liked this plan. He asked his cabinet for advice. If it were possible to send
supplies to Sumter, he asked, would it be wise to do so?
General [Montgomery] Blair was the only member of the cabinet to answer 'yes'.
Treasury Secretary [Salmon] Chase was for the plan only if Lincoln was sure it
would not mean war. Secretary of State [William] Seward and the others opposed
it. They said it would be better to withdraw Major Anderson and his men. They
felt that now was not the time to start a civil war.
opposition in the cabinet caused Lincoln to postpone action on the Fox plan.
But he sent two men separately to Charleston to get him information on the
situation there. One was Captain Fox. The other was a close friend, Ward Lamon.
Fox met with Governor [Francis] Pickens. He explained that he wished to talk
with Major Anderson, not to give him orders, but to find out what the situation
really was. Governor Pickens agreed. A Confederate boat carried Fox to Sumter.
Anderson told Fox that the last of the food would be gone on April fifteenth.
went to Charleston after Fox returned to Washington. He, too, met with Governor
Pickens and Major Anderson. The South Carolina Governor asked Lamon to give
Lincoln this message:
can prevent war except a decision by the President of the United States to accept
the secession of the South. If an attempt is made to put more men in Fort
Sumter, a war cry will be sounded from every hilltop and valley in the South."
reported to Lincoln that the arrival of even a boat load of food at Sumter
would lead to fighting.
At the end
of March, Lincoln held another cabinet meeting and again asked what should be
done about Fort Sumter. Should an attempt be made to get supplies to Major
Anderson? This time, three members of the cabinet voted 'yes' and three voted
meeting ended, Lincoln wrote an order for the Secretary of War. He told him to
prepare to move men and supplies by sea to Fort Sumter. He said they should be
ready to sail as early as April sixth -- only one week away.
fourth, Lincoln called Captain Fox to the White House. He told him that the
government was ready to take supplies to Fort Sumter. He said Fox would lead
showed Fox a message he was sending to Governor Pickens in South Carolina. It read: "This is to inform you that an
attempt will be made to supply Fort Sumter with food only. If this attempt is not opposed, no effort
will be made to throw in men, arms or ammunition."
Pickens received the message on April Eight.
He immediately sent it by telegraph to Confederate President Jefferson
Davis at Montgomery, Alabama.
called a meeting of his cabinet to discuss what should be done. He asked if Fort Sumter should be seized
before supplies could arrive.
United States Senator Robert Toombs of Georgia was the Confederate secretary of
state. He told Davis, "Firing upon that
fort will begin a civil war greater than any the world has ever seen. I cannot advise you."
Later in the meeting, Toombs urged Davis not
to attack the fort.
President," he said, "at this time it is suicide -- murder -- and will
lose us every friend in the North. You will strike a hornets' nest which
extends from mountains to oceans. Millions now quiet will swarm out and sting
us to death. It is not necessary. It puts us in the wrong. It will kill
VOICE ONE :
tenth, Jefferson Davis sent his decision to the Confederate commander at Charleston,
General Pierre Beauregard. He told Beauregard to demand the surrender of Fort
Sumter. If Major Anderson refused, then the general was to destroy the fort.
surrender demand was carried to Sumter the next day by a group of Confederate
officers. They said Anderson and his men must leave the fort. But they could
take with them their weapons and property. And they were offered transportation
to any United States port they named.
rejected the demand. As he walked with the Confederate officers back to their
boat, he asked if General Beauregard would open fire on Sumter immediately. No,
they said, he would be told later when the shooting would start. Anderson then
told the southerners, "If you do not shell us to pieces, hunger will force
us out in a few days."
Beauregard informed the Confederate government in Montgomery that Anderson
refused to surrender. He also reported the major's statement that Sumter had
only enough food for a few more days.
were sent to Beauregard. Jefferson Davis said there was no need to attack the
fort if hunger would soon force the United States soldiers to leave. But he
said Anderson must say exactly when he and his men would leave. And he said
Anderson must promise not to fire on Confederate forces. If Anderson agreed to
this, then Confederate guns would remain silent.
was carried to Fort Sumter a few minutes before midnight, April eleventh.
discussed the offer with his officers and then wrote his answer. He would leave
the fort on April fifteenth if the Confederates made no hostile act against
Fort Sumter or against the United States flag. He would not leave, however, if
before then he received new orders or supplies.
not satisfy the three Confederate officers who brought Beauregard's message.
They handed Anderson a short note. It said: "We have the honor to inform
you that General Beauregard will open fire on Fort Sumter in one hour -- at
twenty minutes after four on the morning of April twelfth, eighteen sixty-one."
shook hands with Beauregard's representatives, and they left the fort. Anderson
and his officers woke their men and told them to prepare for battle.
Johnson, across the harbor, Confederate gunners also were getting ready. These
men would fire the first shot at Sumter. That explosion would signal the other
guns surrounding the fort to open fire.
Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. The narrators were Jack
Weitzel and Jack Moyles. You can find transcripts, MP3s and podcasts of our
programs, along with historical images, at voaspecialenglish.com. And you can
follow us at twitter.com/voalearnenglish. Join us again next week for THE MAKING OF A
NATION -- an American history series in VOA Special English.
This is program #96 of THE
MAKING OF A NATION