CONCILIATION FROM KENTUCKY. loyalty. Governor Magoffin seemed by Dec. this circular sent to the governors 9. of the various slave States, to have made a sincere effort toward conciliation. "COMMONWEALTH OF KENTUCKY, EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT, FRANKFORT, Dec. 9, 1860. "Entertaining the opinion that some movement should be instituted at the earliest possible moment to arrest the progress of events which seem to be rapidly hurrying the Government of the Union to dismemberment, as an initiatory step I have, with great diffidence, concluded to submit to the governors of the slave States a series of propositions, and to ask their counsel and co-operation in bringing about a settlement upon them as a basis. Should the propositions be approved, they can be submitted to the assembling legislatures and conventions of the slave States, and a convention of all of said States, or of those only approving, be called to pass upon them, and ask a general convention of all the States of the Union that may be disposed to meet us on this basis for a full conference. The present good to be accomplished would be to arrest the secession movement until the question as to whether the Union can be preserved upon fair and honorable terms can be fully tested. If there be a basis for the adjustment of our difficulties within the Union, nothing should be left undone in order to its development. To this end, it seems to me there should be a conference of the States in some form, and it appears to me the form above suggested would be most effective. I, therefore, as the governor of a 55 State having as deep a stake in the perpetuity of the Union, and at the same time as much solicitude for the maintenance of the institution of slavery as any other, would respectfully beg leave to submit for your consideration the following outline of propositions : "First. Repeal, by an amendment of the Constitution of the United States, all laws in the free States in any degree nullifying or obstructing the execution of the Fugitive Slave law. "Second. Amendments to said law to enforce its thorough execution in all the free States, providing compensation to the owner of the slave from the State which fails to deliver him up under the requirements of the law, or throws obstructions in the way of his recovery. "Third. The passage of a law by Congress compelling the governors of free States to return fugitives from justice, indicted by a grand jury in another State for stealing or enticing away a slave. "Fourth. To amend the Constitution so as to divide all the Territories belonging to the United States, or hereafter to be acquired, between the free and the slave States, say upon the line of the 37th degree of north latitude-all north of that line to come into the Union with requisite population as free States, and all south of the same to come in as slave States. "Fifth. To amend the Constitution so as to guarantee forever to all the States the free navigation of the Mississippi River. "Sixth. To alter the Constitution so "Your obedient servant, "B. MAGOFFIN." Governor Houston, of Texas, manfully resisted the progress of the secessionists of that State by refusing to convene the Legislature, and strove to check the precipitancy of South Carolina by recommending a conference of the slave States. The governor of Arkansas uttered no expression of opinion in this crisis, but it was hoped that his silence was an indication that the people were loyal to the Union. Georgia was evidently still irresolute. Alexander H. Stephens, one of her leading statesmen, now Vice-President of the Southern Confederacy, spoke eloquently in behalf of the Union, and the Dec. Legislature urged the other slave 15. States, in a circular addressed to them, not to act separately and precipitately. Even in Alabama, at a meeting held Nov. in Baldwin County, a unanimous 24. resolution was passed against secession; in Mississippi a large gathering Nov. of citizens in Vicksburg expressed 29. the belief by a resolution that there were "yet remedies within the Union ;" in Louisiana a leading journal declared Dec. that there was a "disposition to 15. move with deliberation and to try all remedies, until means of security and equality in the Union are exhausted, before the State considers the United States as a foreign government and its citizens as aliens." South Carolina had, however, treated with contempt this lingering loyalty, and gave no heed to the suggestions of the other slave States. The convention refused to listen to the commissioners of Kentucky and Virginia, and even laid upon the table the proposition of the Legislature of Georgia without reading it. South Carolina was doubtless strengthened in resolution by secret alliances and pledges of conformity on the part of the political leaders in the other slave States, and could estimate at its just value a public affectation of loyalty to the Union by men who had conspired to destroy it. In South Carolina itself the people had been long prepared for secession, and required no persuasions or threats to effect what they impatiently desired. In the other "cotton" States, however, partly from an attachment to the Union and partly from a reluctance to assume the responsibility of dissolving it, there was a hesitating disaffection which could only be quickened to rebellion by the force of example. South Carolina, though professing her willingness and boasting her ability to stand alone, did not doubt that her lead would be soon followed by her sister States. Confident in this belief, a committee of the convention at Charleston introduced the following ordinance, in which the concurrence in secession of the Dec. slaveholding States and their or- 25. ganization into a separate government, were already assumed by anticipation: FASTING AND PRAYER. "First. That the conventions of the seceding slaveholding States of the United States unite with South Carolina, and hold a convention at Montgomery, Ala., for the purpose of forming a Southern confederacy. "Second. That the said seceding States appoint, by their respective conventions or legislatures, as many delegates as they have representatives in the present Congress of the United States, to the said convention to be held at Montgomery, and that on the adoption of the constitution of the Southern confederacy, the vote shall be by States. "Third. That whenever the terms of the constitution shall be agreed upon by the said convention, the same shall be 57 submitted at as early a day as practicable to the convention and legislature of each State respectively, so as to enable them to ratify or reject the said constitution. "Fourth. That in the opinion of South Carolina, the Constitution of the United States will form a suitable basis for the confederacy of the Southern States withdrawing. "Fifth. That the South Carolina convention appoint by ballot eight delegates to represent South Carolina in the convention for the formation of a Southern confederacy. "Lastly. That one commissioner in each State be elected to call the attention of the people to this ordinance." CHAPTER VI. Energetic Action of the Convention at Charleston.-Proclamation for Fasting and Prayer by the President of the United States. Compromise Committees: their ineffectiveness.-The Senator of Georgia's opinion of them.— Despair of the Senator from Kentucky.--Feeling at the North.-Activity of South Carolina.-Resolution of Inquiry passed by the Charleston Convention in regard to the Federal Forts.-Intense interest of the Charleston people.— Description of the Forts.-Anxiety of Major Anderson.-Hopelessness of the Defence of Fort Moultrie.--A Call of Duty.-A Resolution taken.-Preparations to abandon Fort Moultrie.-Ruse.-Expedition at Night.-In possession of Fort Sumter.-Excitement in Charleston.-The abandoned Federal Forts taken possession of by the South Carolinians. The condition of Fort Moultrie described.-Seizure of Public Property.-Indignation against Major Anderson. Anderson assumes the Responsibility.-Energetic Preparations at Charleston for War.-Sympathy from the Gulf States. Feeling at the North.-The great Robbery of the Indian Trust Fund.-The supposed Criminals.-The order for the removal of Arms from Pittsburg-Excitement of the Citizens.-Relief in a Mass Meeting.-Fears at the North. The deed of Anderson hailed with enthusiasm.--Newspaper Rhetoric.-The effect at Washington.Resignation of Floyd.-A strange Correspondence.-Departure of the South Carolina Commissioners from Washington, and Correspondence. WHILE the convention at Charleston was energetically pursuing its course of independent government, the President at Washington did nothing but bewail the misfortunes of the country in a proclamation of a day to be set apart 1860. for humiliation, fasting, and prayer, and Congress continued its futile attempts at compromise. The committees of "Thirty-three" and "Thirteen," appointed to consider and report on the crisis of the country, met, adjourned, and met again "The Committee of Thirty-Three on Friday adjourned for a week, without coming to any vote, after solemnly pledging themselves to vote on all the propositions then before them that day. It is controlled by the Black Republicans, your enemies, who only seek to amuse you with delusive hope until your election, that you may defeat the friends of secession. without any result but the increased of the party and section, and, to the exconviction that conciliation was imprac- tent of my information, truly represent ticable. That there were some sincere them. efforts made by the moderate men of the South, with the desire of appeasing disunion, may be believed, but that the representatives of the extreme opinions of the cotton States had, if the wish for, not the least expectation of, their success, Dec. may be inferred from this telegram 23. dispatched to his constituents by the United States senator from Georgia: "I came here to secure your constitutional rights, and to demonstrate to you that you can get no guarantee for those rights from your Northern confederates. "The whole subject was referred to a committee of thirteen in the Senate. I was appointed on the committee, and accepted the trust. I submitted I submitted propositions which, so far from receiving a decided support from a single member of the Republican party of the committee, were all treated with derision or contempt. A vote was then taken in the committee on amendments to the Constitution, proposed by Hon. J. J. Crittenden, and each and all of them were voted against, unanimously, by the Black Republican members of the committee. "In addition to these facts, a majority of the Black Republican members of the committee declared distinctly that they had no guarantees to offer, which was silently acquiesced in by the other members. "If you are deceived by them, it shall not be my fault. I have put the test fairly and frankly. It is decisive against you now. I tell you, upon the faith of a true man, that all further looking to the North for security for your constitutional rights in the Union ought to be instantly abandoned. "It is fraught with nothing but ruin to yourselves and to your posterity. Secession, by the 4th day of March next, should be thundered from the ballot-box by the unanimous voice of Georgia on the 2d day of January next. Such a voice will be your best guarantee for liberty, tranquility, and glory. "R. TOOMBS." The venerable Crittenden, of Kentucky, whose fidelity to the Union was beyond peradventure, even despaired, and seeing no prospect in congressional action of an accommodation, exclaimed, that it was the darkest day of his lifethat he was overwhelmed with solicitude for the country, and that nothing but the "The Black Republican members of affection of the people for the Union this committee are representative men could restore peace. | In the mean THE CHARLESTON FORTS. while, the people of the North remained in a state between fear and hope. The timid gave expression to their alarms in "union meetings," and petitions counselling concession; while the hopeful deluded themselves with the supposed strength of the loyal men in the South. A few contemplated the possibility of war, but most fondly believed that the country would be spared its horrors. South Carolina, however, though secured for the present by the pledges of President Buchanan and the corrupt connivance of his cabinet, was yet distrustful of the future, and began to prepare for its possible dangers. A resoDec. lution was offered in the conven26. tion at Charleston that the governor be requested to communicate in secret session any information he might possess in regard to the condition of forts Moultrie and Sumter, and Castle Pinckney, the number of guns in each, the number of workmen and kind of labor employed, the number of soldiers in each, and what additions, if any, had been made since the 20th of December; also, whether any assurance had been given that the forts would not be reinforced, and if so, to what extent; also, what police or other regulations had been made, if any, in reference to the defences of the harbor of Charleston, the coast, and the State. At the same time the condition of these forts and their capability of defence became a subject of intense interest to the people of South Carolina, who were evidently determined upon possessing themselves of them. A minute survey of the 59 works was made and published, in which the efforts in progress to improve their strength were studiously detailed and exaggerated, with the view of exciting the impatient ardor of the South Carolinians to wrest them from the Federal Government. This account, as it conveys a tolerably accurate idea of the forts in the harbor of Charleston, is here given as published in the Charleston Mercury : "Fort Moultrie is an inclosed water battery, having a front on the south, or water side, of about 300 feet, and a depth of about 240 feet. It is built with salient and re-entering angles on all sides, and is admirably adapted for defence, either from the attack of a storming party or by regular approaches. "The outer and inner walls are of brick, capped with stone, and filled in with earth, making a solid wall 15 or 16 feet in thickness. The work now in progress consists in cleaning the sand from the walls of the fort; ditching it around the entire circumference, and erecting a glacis; closing up the postern gates in the east and west walls, and, instead, cutting sally-ports which lead into strong outworks on the southeast and southwest angles, in which twelvepounder howitzer guns will be placed, enabling the garrison to sweep the ditch on three sides with grape and canister. The northwest angle of the fort has also been strengthened by a bastionette to sustain the weight of a heavy gun which will command the main street of the island. The main entrance has also been better secured, and a trap-door, |