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150 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office and began his first term as the 16th president.
In his inaugural address, Lincoln made the pledge that it would not be the Federal government which fired the first shot of any war, and told the South that if blood was to be shed, it would have to begin with them:
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In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-countrymen, and not in mine, is the momentous issue of civil war. The Government will not assail you. You can have no conflict without being yourselves the aggressors. You have no oath registered in heaven to destroy the Government, while I shall have the most solemn one to "preserve, protect, and defend it."
Lincoln restated his promise that he had no intention of interfering with slavery where it existed. He advanced a legalistic, and confusing, argument concerning the duty of Northerners to cooperate with the Fugitive Slave Act.
With far greater clarity, he presented the Federal position on the legality of secession:
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Again: If the United States be not a government proper, but an association of States in the nature of contract merely, can it, as a contract, be peaceably unmade by less than all the parties who made it?
In short, if a right to secession existed, it still required an action by all the States acting in their Federal capacity, not just the declaration of individual states.
Lincoln found the poet within him with his closing remark:
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I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
150 years ago today, Abraham Lincoln took the oath of office and began his first term as the 16th president.
In his inaugural address, Lincoln made the pledge that it would not be the Federal government which fired the first shot of any war, and told the South that if blood was to be shed, it would have to begin with them:
Lincoln restated his promise that he had no intention of interfering with slavery where it existed. He advanced a legalistic, and confusing, argument concerning the duty of Northerners to cooperate with the Fugitive Slave Act.
With far greater clarity, he presented the Federal position on the legality of secession:
In short, if a right to secession existed, it still required an action by all the States acting in their Federal capacity, not just the declaration of individual states.
Lincoln found the poet within him with his closing remark:
Only because he believed that it was within his power to abolish slavery, instead he (and most other Americans) felt that slavery could and would only be abolished through limiting it's expansion.
On his first full day in office, the crisis which Lincoln hoped to avert, grew more severe and gained a timetable. A message arrived at the White House from Major Anderson, commanding Fort Sumter. Anderson informed the president that he had but six weeks of food left for his garrison. So, having the day before announced to the South that they would have to fire the first shot, Lincoln was now faced with the reality of either having to attempt a resupply of the installation, or allowing Anderson to surrender when his commissary was exhausted. The former was certain to provoke that first shot, the latter flew squarely in the face of Lincoln's announced determination to maintain control of Federal property in the South.
Also on this day 150 years ago, the Conferacy introduced its first flag. This was the "Stars and Bars" which was not the more familiar blue starred X on red battle flag, but one which looked a great deal like the US flag, with just seven stars set in the blue portion, and three broad stripes rather than thirteen. File:CSA FLAG 4.3.1861-21.5.1861.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This design had to be jettisoned after causing frequent confusion at First Bull Run. It was difficult to distinguish from the US flag at a distance, and when no wind was causing to to wave, it was indistinguishable.
The CSA wound up going through a number of designs before finally making the X striped official.
An interesting story for a little global perspective St. Petersburg, Russia, March 3, 1861 Four thousand miles from where President-elect Abraham Lincoln was counting down the final hours before his inauguration, the leader of a very different nation prepared for the most momentous day of his reign. Czar Alexander II rose before dawn and, dressed in his favorite cherry-red dressing gown, stood contemplatively by the window, watching the pale light grow in the square outside the Winter Palace. This morning he would set 23 million of his subjects free. The Other Emancipation Proclamation - NYTimes.com
Newspapers across the nation were devoted to reactions to President Lincoln's inaugural address. Unsurprisingly, it was well received in the North, and widely condemned in the South. A common Southern opinion was that the speech amounted to a declaration of war.
It would certainly seem that the Confederate government shared that latter view. 150 years ago today, the CSA Congress passed a measure authorizing President Davis to enroll 100,000 volunteers for the Confederate army, enlistments were to be for one year.
150 years ago today, Salmon P. Chase was appointed Secretary of the Treasury. Chase was from Ohio, had been its Senator and then Governor, and as with Lincoln's Secretary of State, William Seward, Chase had been a major rival for the GOP nomination.
If everyone in the North, or even just every Republican had been like Chase, then all Southern propaganda would have been rendered valid. Chase was what the secessionists claimed Lincoln was, a diehard enemy of slave power. He had been among the founders of the Free Soil Party, as an attorney he specialized in defending those charged with violating the Fugitive Slave Act. Chase also was a strong advocate of other Republican programs and a champion of Federal Power. Had Chase rather than Lincoln won the 1860 election, it is likely that secession would have come about even faster.
It was under Chase that the Federal government first issued paper currency, the "Greenback Dollar." Chase designed the currency himself, and had his own picture placed on the notes.
While Chase was a capable Secretary of the Treasury, he never lost his presidential ambitions and in 1864, had become a liability for Lincoln. The president deftly removed Chase as a rival for the nomination by appointing him to the Supreme Court as the Chief Justice. He served until his death in 1873.
On this day, President Lincoln convened his full cabinet to discuss the Fort Sumter situation. Lincoln revealed that Major Anderson's supplies would be exhausted within six weeks, and that the General Scott had estimated that a relief force of 20,000 men would be needed to prevent the Fort from falling. (At this time the entire US army consisted of about 16,000 men, scattered widely, mostly in frontier postings.)
Realizing that they had no military option, the discussion turned to whether or not to attempt a resupply and/or reinforcement of the Fort, if so, by what means, and what would be the probable CSA reaction?
The latter had been determined that very day. General P.G.T. Beauregard received orders from Montgomery. He was commanded to prevent any attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, "at all hazards."
150 years ago today, three peace commissioners from the CSA sought an audience with Secretary of State William Seward to discuss a blood free separation of the nations. Seward declined to see them, to do so would be to recognize their status as diplomats from a foreign nation. Instead he dispatched Supreme Court Justice, John Campbell to deliver a message to them. Seward promised that no attempt would be made to resupply or reinforce Fort Sumter without advance notice to South Carolina. The message was framed in such a way, deliberately so, that the commissioners were given the idea that Sumter was going to be evacuated in a few days.
This was Seward overstepping his authority. Lincoln and his cabinet were still divided and undecided as to what steps would be taken. Seward, who had been the front runner for the Republican nomination, and who was still perplexed by how he was beaten by the Illinois rube, viewed himself as something of a mentor for the inexperienced, unsophisticated Lincoln. He was seeing himself as the real president, guiding Lincoln to the right decisions. Seward had decided that Sumter would have to be evacuated, and simply assumed that Lincoln would go along with whatever he advised. He of course terribly underestimated the President, quickly learned that Lincoln could not be steered or manipulated, and ultimately came to admire him as a great man.
Seward's hubris in acting beyond his office, resulted in a propaganda victory for the South. When a resupply mission was later announced, they were able to claim they had been betrayed, that the Lincoln administration had promised an evacuation and instead were being provocative.
The effects of Seward's "hint" that Sumter was to be evacuated are evidenced immediately. The Confederate commissioners quickly spread the word and 150 years ago today, this editorial appeared in the Richmand Dispatch:
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We are truly delighted to believe that, in order to save the garrison of Fort Sumter from the certain starvation which stared them in the face, with no possibility of obtaining supplies or being reinforced, Lincoln has ordered the fort to be given up to its rightful owner, the State of South Carolina.
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