Page:Reminiscences of Sixty Years in Public Affairs (Volume Two).djvu/75

Rh of April, 1861, and they were together and in private conference during the evening of the 7th of April from seven to eleven o’clock. In the conversation of that evening the President gave Mr. Botts an account of the steps that he had taken to prevent a collision in the harbor of Charleston.

Mr. Summers and Mr. Baldwin of Virginia had been delegates in the Peace Congress and they had been counted among the Union men of the State. Soon after the inauguration the President was informed that the small garrison in Fort Sumter was nearly destitute of provisions and that an attempt to add to the supply would be resisted. The President, Mr. Summers and Mr. Botts had served together as Whigs in the Thirtieth Congress and the President invited Mr. Summers by letter and by a special messenger to a conference in Washington. To this invitation no answer was given by Mr. Summers until the 5th of April, when Mr. Baldwin appeared and said that he had come upon the request of Mr. Summers. Mr. Lincoln said at once: “Ah! Mr. Baldwin, why did you not come sooner? I have been expecting you gentlemen to come to me for more than a week past. I had a most important proposition to make to you. I am afraid you have come too late. However, I will make the proposition now. We have in Fort Sumter with Major Anderson about eighty men and I learn from Major Anderson that his provisions are nearly exhausted … I have not only written to Governor Pickens, but I have sent a special messenger to say that if he will allow Major Anderson to obtain his marketing at the Charleston market, or, if he objects to allowing our people to land at Charleston, if he will have it sent to him, that I will make no effort to provision the fort, but, that if he does not do that, I will not permit these people to starve, and that I shall send provisions down,—and that if he fires on that vessel he will fire upon an unarmed vessel, loaded with nothing but bread