Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 12.djvu/294

284 upon the politicians of the South the whole responsibility of the calamities which must follow the destruction of the Union, assuring them that there could be no conflict unless they themselves should choose to begin it," and (same page, 276,) then proceeds to give the account of the bombardment of Sumter, without one single hint of the circumstances under which the Confederates opened fire.

The author ignores the efforts of Virginia to keep the peace by calling the Peace Conference— the Crittenden compromise which was a Southern peace measure— the sending by South Carolina of peace commissioners, who were promised by Mr Buchanan that "the status" in Charleston harbor should not be disturbed, but who refused to order Major Anderson back, when, in violation of the compact, he removed by night from Moultrie to Sumter— the fact that the " tar of the West" was attempting to violate again the plain terms of the compact by reinforcing and provisioning Surnter — the fact that one of the very first acts of the Confederacy was to send commissioners to Washington " to treat with the Federal authorities for a peaceful and amicable adjustment upon the principles of equity and justice, of matters pertaining to the common property and public debt " — that Mr. Seward promised that Sumter should be evacuated, and assured the commissioners that "faith as to Sumter" was "fully kept" at the very time that a powerful fleet for its reinforcement, secretly fitted out, was almost within sight of its walls — that this expedition was persisted in, notwithstanding the Confederate commissioners assured Mr. Seward that it would be regarded as " a declaration of war against the Confederate States" — and that under all of the circumstances, therefore, the firing on Sumter was as purely an act of self-defence as is to be found in all history.

4. On page 271 the author revives the old slander that secession cabinet officers of Mr. Buchanan filled Southern arsenals with arms taken from the North, and scattered the army and navy so that the South should be better prepared for war than the North.

Compare the statement given there — that " The National Government was paralized. Its navy was scattered to the most distant seas, and a great part of its cannon, rifles, and military stores were in Southern forts and arsenals, which were taken almost without exception by the authorities of the Confederate States" — with the statement in paragraph 497, pages 279-280, that the South " had begun the war with abundant supplies of money and material," [notice that the author here refers back to paragraph 484 for proof], and it seems perfectly clear that the book means to teach that secession "leaders