Abraham Lincoln, Part 2

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VOICE ONE:

THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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On a cold and cloudy day in March, eighteen-sixty-one, Abraham
Lincoln became the sixteenth president of the United States. In his
inaugural speech, the new president announced the policy he would
follow toward the southern states that had left the Union.

Lincoln said no state had a legal right to secede. He said the
Union could not be broken. He said he would enforce federal laws in
every state. And he promised not to surrender any federal property
in the states that seceded. Lincoln said if force was necessary to
protect the Union, then force would be used.

His policy was soon tested.

VOICE TWO:

On his second day as President,
Lincoln received some bad news from Fort Sumter at Charleston, South
Carolina. Major Robert Anderson, the commander of the small United
States force at Sumter, wrote that his food supplies were low. At
most, said Anderson, there was enough food for forty days. Unless he
and his men received more supplies, they would have to leave the
fort.

Lincoln wanted to keep Fort Sumter. It was one of the few United
States forts in the south still held by federal forces. And he had
promised not to give up any federal property in the states that
seceded.

VOICE ONE:

But getting food to Fort Sumter would be a very difficult job.
The fort was built on an island in Charleston Harbor. It was
surrounded by southern artillery. Southern gunboats guarded the
port.

To get supplies to Anderson and his men, a ship would have to
fight its way to Sumter. Such a battle was sure to begin a bitter
civil war. There also was the danger that fighting would cause slave
states still in the Union to secede and join the southern
Confederacy.

VOICE TWO:

The Army Chief, General [Winfield] Scott, warned Lincoln that it
was too late to get supplies to Fort Sumter. He said southern
defenses around the fort were so strong that a major military effort
would be necessary. He said it would take months to prepare the
warships and soldiers for such an effort. Major Anderson and his men
at Sumter, he said, could not wait that long.

There was another plan, however, that might work. It was proposed
to Lincoln by Captain Gustavus Fox of the Navy Department.

Captain Fox said soldiers and supplies could be sent down to
Charleston in ships. Outside the entrance to the harbor, on a dark
night, they could be put into small boats and pulled by tugs to the
fort. Fox said a few warships could be sent to prevent southern
gunboats from interfering.

VOICE ONE:

Lincoln liked this plan. He asked his cabinet for advice. If it
were possible to send supplies to Sumter, he asked, would it be wise
to do so?

Postmaster General [Montgomery] Blair was the only member of the
cabinet to answer 'yes'. Treasury Secretary [Salmon] Chase was for
the plan only if Lincoln was sure it would not mean war. Secretary
of State [William] Seward and the others opposed it. They said it
would be better to withdraw Major Anderson and his men. They felt
that now was not the time to start a civil war.

This opposition in the cabinet caused Lincoln to postpone action
on the Fox plan. But he sent two men separately to Charleston to get
him information on the situation there. One was Captain Fox. The
other was a close friend, Ward Lamon.

VOICE TWO:

In Charleston, Fox met with Governor [Francis] Pickens. He
explained that he wished to talk with Major Anderson, not to give
him orders, but to find out what the situation really was. Governor
Pickens agreed. A Confederate boat carried Fox to Sumter. Anderson
told Fox that the last of the food would be gone on April fifteenth.

Ward Lamon went to Charleston after Fox returned to Washington.
He, too, met with Governor Pickens and Major Anderson. The South
Carolina Governor asked Lamon to give Lincoln this message:

"Nothing can prevent war except a decision by the President of
the United States to accept the secession of the south. If an
attempt is made to put more men in Fort Sumter, a war cry will be
sounded from every hilltop and valley in the south."

Lamon reported to Lincoln that the arrival of even a boat load of
food at sumter would lead to fighting.

VOICE ONE:

At the end of March, Lincoln held another cabinet meeting and
again asked what should be done about Fort Sumter. Should an attempt
be made to get supplies to Major Anderson. This time, three members
of the cabinet voted 'yes' and three voted 'no'.

When the meeting ended, Lincoln wrote an order for the Secretary
of War. He told him to prepare to move men and supplies by sea to
Fort Sumter. He said they should be ready to sail as early as April
sixth -- only one week away.

VOICE TWO:

On April fourth, Lincoln called Captain Fox to the White House.
He told him that the government was ready to take supplies to Fort
Sumter. He said Fox would lead the attempt.

Later in the meeting, Toombs urged Davis not to attack the fort.

"Mr. President," he said, "at this time it is suicide -- murder
-- and will lose us every friend in the north. You will strike a
hornets' nest which extends from mountains to oceans. Millions now
quiet will swarm out and sting us to death. It is not necessary. It
puts us in the wrong. It will kill us!"

VOICE TWO:

On April tenth, Jefferson Davis sent his decision to the
Confederate commander at Charleston, General Pierre Beauregard. He
told Beauregard to demand the surrender of Fort Sumter. If Major
Anderson refused, then the general was to destroy the fort.

The surrender demand was carried to Sumter the next day by a
group of Confederate officers. They said Anderson and his men must
leave the fort. But they could take with them their weapons and
property. And they were offered transportation to any United States
port they named.

VOICE ONE:

Anderson rejected the demand. As he walked with the Confederate
officers back to their boat, he asked if General Beauregard would
open fire on Sumter immediately. No, they said, he would be told
later when the shooting would start. Anderson then told the
southerners, "If you do not shell us to pieces, hunger will force us
out in a few days."

General Beauregard informed the Confederate government in
Montgomery that Anderson refused to surrender. He also reported the
major's statement that Sumter had only enough food for a few more
days.

VOICE TWO:

New orders were sent to Beauregard. Jefferson Davis said there
was no need to attack the fort if hunger would soon force the United
States soldiers to leave. But he said Anderson must say exactly when
he and his men would leave. And he said Anderson must promise not to
fire on Confederate forces. If anderson agreed to this, then
Confederate guns would remain silent.

This offer was carried to Fort Sumter a few minutes before
midnight, April eleventh.

Anderson discussed the offer with his officers and then wrote his
answer. He would leave the fort on April fifteenth if the
Confederates made no hostile act against Fort Sumter or against the
United States flag. He would not leave, however, if before then he
received new orders or supplies.

VOICE ONE:

This did not satisfy the three confederate officers who brought
Beauregard's message. They handed Anderson a short note. It said:
"We have the honor to inform you that General Beauregard will open
fire on Fort Sumter in one hour -- at twenty minutes after four on
the morning of April twelfth, eighteen-sixty-one."

The major shook hands with Beauregard's representatives, and they
left the fort. Anderson and his officers woke their men and told
them to prepare for battle.

At Fort Johnson, across the harbor, Confederate gunners also were
getting ready. These men would fire the first shot at Sumter. That
explosion would signal the other guns surrounding the fort to open
fire.

VOICE TWO:

You have been listening to the Special English program, THE
MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrators were Jack Moyles and Jack
Weitzel. Our program was written by Frank Beardsley. THE MAKING OF A
NATION can be heard Thursdays.