Reports of the Select Committee of Five, on the Following Subjects, Volume 4 |
Common terms and phrases
acknowledge act of hostility action annual message arrival in Washington arsenals assumed assurance attitude Barnwell character citizens civil Colonel Hayne commissioners to treat committee communicate to Congress consideration Constitution contemplated correspondence demand dent destruction dignity diplomatic intercourse duty effort enforce the laws engaged entertained epistolary executive department executive officer exercise express federal authority federal government federal Union flag dishonored force of arms formal agreement Fort Moultrie Fort Sumter forts furnishes government of South harbor of Charleston hostility towards South independent insulted JAMES BUCHANAN justified maintain Major Anderson mand ment message to Congress MINORITY REPORT mission Moultrie negotiations official ordinance of secession political position President President's prudence public peace public property re-enforcements rebellion rebellious rebels and traitors recognition recognize referred regard relations representatives in Congress repudiating respect revolutionary government revolutionary movement right of secession Secretary of War South Carolina special envoy Sumter surrender tions treason United whole power whole question
Popular passages
Page 9 - Apart from the execution of the laws, so far as this may be practicable, the Executive has no authority to decide what shall be the relations between the federal government and South Carolina. He has been invested with no such discretion. He possesses no power to change the relations heretofore existing between them, much less to acknowledge the independence of that State.
Page 1 - authorized and empowered to treat with the Government of the United States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, within the limits of South Carolina, and also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the confederated States of which South Carolina was recently a member...
Page 8 - ... laws. In conclusion, the committee recommend the adoption of the following resolution: Resolved, That in the opinion of this House the...
Page 2 - And, in conclusion, we would urge upon you the immediate withdrawal of the troops from the harbor of Charleston. Under present circumstances they are a standing menace which renders negotiation impossible, and, as our recent experience shows, threatens speedily to bring to a bloody issue questions which ought to be settled with temperance and judgment.
Page 5 - Charleston, previously to the action of the convention, and, we hope and believe, not until an offer has been made, through an accredited representative, to negotiate for an amicable arrangement of all matters between the State and the Federal Government, provided that no reinforcements shall be sent into those forts, and their relative military status shall remain as at present.
Page 11 - ... bound to protect the public property, so far as this may be practicable ; and it would be a manifest violation of his duty to place himself under engagements that he would not perform this duty either for an indefinite or a limited period.
Page 5 - It was, he thinks, obvious there could be no snch agrtcmmt made, and he says it was regarded in effect as the. promise of highly honorable gentlemen to exert their influence for the purpose expressed. The purpose of the President was well known not to reinforce the forts in Charleston harbor until they had been actually attacked...
Page 1 - States for the delivery of the forts, magazines, lighthouses, and other real estate, with their appurtenances, in the limits of South Carolina; and also for an apportionment of the public debt, and for a division of all other property held by the Government of the United States as agent of the Confederated States of which South Carolina was recently a member, and generally to negotiate as to all other measures and arrangements proper to be made and adopted in the existing relation of the parties,...
Page 10 - ... sovereign States. It bears no resemblance to the recognition of a foreign de facto government — involving no such responsibility. Any attempt to do this would, on his part, be a naked act of usurpation. It is, therefore, my duty to submit to Congress the whole question, in all its bearings.
Page 10 - Such is my opinion still. I could, therefore, meet you only as private gentlemen of the highest character, and was entirely willing to communicate to Congress any proposition you might have to make to that body upon the subject. Of this you were well aware. It was my earnest desire that such a disposition might be made of the whole subject by Congress, who alone possess the power, as to prevent the inauguration of a civil war between the parties in regard to the possession of the Federal forts in...