The life and public services of Abraham Lincoln ... together with his state papers, including his speeches, addresses, messages, letters, and proclamations, and the closing scenes connected with his life and death. By Henry J. Raymond. To which are added anecdotes and personal reminiscences of President Lincoln, by Frank B. Carpenter.

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THE LIFE, PUBLIC SERVICES, AND

unchanged, and that the President had declined to allow
him to issue an order, for which he had applied on the
27th, to withdraw the garrison from the harbor of Charleston. On the 29th of December, Messrs. Barnwell, Adams,
and Orr arrived at Washington, as commissioners from
the State of South Carolina, and at once opened a correspondence with President Buchanan, asking for the delivery of the forts and other government property at Charleston to the authorities of South Carolina. The President
replied on the 30th, reviewing the whole question-stating
that in removing from Fort Moultrie, Major Anderson
acted solely on his own responsibility, and that his first
impulse on hearing of it was to order him to return, but
that the occupation of the fort by South Carolina and the
seizure of the arsenal at Charleston had rendered this
impossible. The commissioners replied on the 1st of
January, 1861, insisting that the President had pledged
himself to maintain the status of affairs in Charleston
harbor previous to the removal of Major Anderson from
Fort Moultrie, and calling on him to redeem this pledge.
This communication the President returned.
On the 8th of January, the President sent a message to
Congress, calling their attention to the condition of public
affairs, declaring that while he had no right to make aggressive war upon any State, it was his right and his
duty to "use military force defensively against those who
resist the Federal officers in the execution of their legal
functions, and against those who assail the property of
the Federal Government;" but throwing the whole responsibility of meeting the extraordinary emergencies of
the occasion upon Congress. On the same day, Jacob
Thompson, of Mississippi, resigned his office as Secretary
of the Interior, because the Star of the West had been
sent on the 5th, by order of the Government. with supplies for Fort Sumter, in violation, as he alleged, of the
decision of the cabinet. On the 10th, P. F. Thomas, of
Maryland, who had replaced Howell Cobb as Secretary
of the Treasury, resigned, and was succeeded by General
John A. Dix, of New York.