Shady Hill, April 10,1861.
. . . Truly this is
a time when one may well be glad to be on the spot to study our public affairs.
Our troubles do not appear to be coming to a speedy close, and I do not know
that there has been a moment since their beginning in November, of greater
interest than the present. A collision between the forces of the United States
and those of the Confederates seems imminent.
The new
Administration in coming into power on the 4th March found every branch of the
public service in a state of disorganization. The treasury was empty, the fleet
scattered, the little army so posted that it could not at once be brought to
the points where it was needed. Everywhere was confusion, uncertainty of counsel,
and weakness, the result of the treacherous and imbecile course of Buchanan and
his Cabinet. For weeks Mr. Lincoln and his new Cabinet were necessarily engaged
in getting things into working order. They could undertake no vigorous measures
and make no display of energy; but they were quietly and actively collecting
their forces. The newspapers, puzzled by the delay, and baffled by a secrecy in
the Administration to which they had long been unaccustomed, began to complain
that the affairs of state were no better conducted than under the previous
regime, that the Cabinet had no policy, that the country was drifting to ruin.
But last week the Government showed its hand, and it became plain that it had
waited only to gather strength to act, that it had a definite policy, and that
the policy was a manly and straightforward one. Within the past four or five
days a fleet has sailed from New York, with large supplies of material and
provisions, and a considerable force of soldiers. Not yet does the public know
its destination, but there are three directions which it will take
according to circumstances. In the first place, Fort Sumter is to be
provisioned. This will be done by sending in an unarmed vessel to the fort
while the vessels of war wait outside the harbour. If she be fired upon, they
will enter and protect her, at whatever cost. I fear that we may hear to-morrow
that the South Carolinians have been mad enough to begin the attack. After
provisioning Fort Sumter, the next object is to relieve Fort Pickens in Florida
which is menaced by a large body of Southern troops. Men and provisions can be
thrown into this fort from the water, but an attack is threatened if this is
done. The third object is to garrison the frontier posts on the Texas borders,
to defend the Texans against Indians and Mexicans, and to cut off the
Confederates from making a descent upon Mexico. This is a step of prime
importance. Secession is not a valid fact so long as the boundaries of the
States declaring themselves seceded are defended by United States troops.
More vessels will
sail this week from Boston and New York. The work the Administration has
undertaken will be done. Of course we are waiting with most painful anxiety the
news from the South. It seems now as if the leaders of the Revolution were
determined to push it to the bloodiest issue. Governor Pickens of South
Carolina has been informed that Fort Sumter would be provisioned, and that the
Government desired to do it peaceably; the answer from him was the ordering out
of the reserves, the getting the batteries ready for an attack on Fort Sumter,
and the making all the preparations for a fight. One cannot but pity the poor
Southern troops; they are brave, no doubt, and are certainly full of zeal for
battle, but hardly one of them has ever seen a shot fired, none of them are
regular soldiers, many of them are men whose pursuits have hitherto been
peaceful, and many belong to the most cultivated and best Southern families.
Think of a shell bursting in the ranks of men like these, fighting for such a
cause as that for which they have engaged!
I wish I could read
you some of the extremely interesting letters which Jane has received this
winter from her friend, Miss Middleton, of Charleston. They have given us a
most vivid view of the state of feeling there, and of the misery which war,
which a single battle, would produce. But the people there are truly demented.
How is it all to
end? I believe, somehow for good. But the commercial spirit is very strong with
us at the North, and the corruption of long prosperity very manifest. We have
need of a different temper from that which prevails, before we can reap much
good from our present troubles.
Meanwhile
everything is astonishingly quiet here. No one travelling in New England would
imagine that such a revolution was going on in any part of the country. There
is less business done than common, but there is no suffering; no labourers are
turned out of employment; life everywhere runs on in its common course. . . .
SOURCE: Sara Norton
and M. A. DeWolfe Howe, Letters of Charles Eliot Norton,
Volume 1, p. 228-31
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