Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 13.djvu/488

 The Wee Nee Volunteers of Williamsburg District. 487

opinion of the arch enemy of the South, who had done more, per- haps, than any other one man to bring about the unhappy condition of the country, " that the way ward sisters should be allowed logo in peace,' ' seemed to be gaining ground at the North. Almost hourly vessels loaded with supplies and ammunition for the besiegers were allowed to pass unmolested almost within hailing distance of the sentinels on the ramparts of Fort Sumter. Batteries were allowed to be built and guns mounted immediately under control of Ander- son's guns. Some of these batteries were so formidable that, as an artillerist and engineer, he must have known that the walls of Sum- ter could not oppose to them a successful resistance. The same training which had made a soldier of him, had prepared the officers directing the operations of those who were preparing to assail him. All these were facts which seemed unanswerably to indicate that the General Government was preparing to acknowledge the right of South Carolina to resume the full exercise of her sovereignty. Scarcely a man could be found south of Mason and Dixon's line who denied this right. The hesitation and vacillation of the North plainly showed that her people were not clear in their denial of the right, or satisfied that one of the constitutional powers of the Government was to make war on a State. Never was there a people more en- tirely satisfied or thoroughly convinced of the righteousness of their cause, than were the people of South Carolina. They were very generally of the opinion that the sober second thought of their breth- ren of the North would and must bring them to see and acknowledge this right. They found it hard to believe that New England could forget that when Carolina was the pet colony of the British crown she willingly gave up all of the advantages of the Union with the mother country, to aid her sisters of the North in the struggle for common independence. The descendants of the patriots who fought at Fort Moultrie could not see why the sons of the heroes of Bunker Hill could desire their conquest, and the subversion of the government guaranted to the Palmetto State. It is not at all surprising that there should have been so many who believed that Anderson and his garrison would be withdrawn.

There were those among us, however, who did not desire a peace- able withdrawal. They said that if South Carolina is permitted to go in peace, the Southern States will not follow her. That she was too small and weak for a separate and independent nation ; that in a few years she would be knocking at the door of Congress for re- admission into the Federal Union. But that the first blood of a son