A history of the United States of America; its people and its institutions . mmissions,materials of war being confiscated, andUnited States forts and arsenals beingseized by the South, and yet PresidentBuchanan took no action. He wassurrounded by Southern advisers, andthough he did not believe in the rightof secession, he did not think he hadthe right to use force to keep any State Jefferson Davis. ... i. ./ in the Union, Compromises wereoffered in Congress, a Peace Conference was held in Wash-ington, with ex-President John Tyler as chairman, andother steps in the direction of conciliation wer
A history of the United States of America; its people and its institutions . mmissions,materials of war being confiscated, andUnited States forts and arsenals beingseized by the South, and yet PresidentBuchanan took no action. He wassurrounded by Southern advisers, andthough he did not believe in the rightof secession, he did not think he hadthe right to use force to keep any State Jefferson Davis. ... i. ./ in the Union, Compromises wereoffered in Congress, a Peace Conference was held in Wash-ington, with ex-President John Tyler as chairman, andother steps in the direction of conciliation were none of these proved acceptable, and the people anx-iously waited until the 4th of March should bring a newPresident and a new policy. When that time came the government possessed onlythree fortifications in the South,—Fort Sumter in Charles-ton harbor. Fort Pickens at Pensacola, and Key West, allthe others having been seized. Of these. Fort Sumter wasvigorously threatened, the Confederates having erectedearthworks, abundantly mounted with artillery, for its. BUCHANANS ADMINISTRATION. 347 redaction, gathered a force of several thousand men, andtaken possession of the other forts in the harbor. Mean-while, President Buchanan did nothing towards its defenceother than to send an unarmed steamer, the Star of theWest, with men and supplies. This was fired upon anddriven back. Thus the year 1861 drifted on toward thecritical date of March 4, and the coming into office of aRepublican administration. Preservation of the Union.—The problem about to besolved by the strong hand of war was not that of the abo-lition of slavery. This, the instigating cause of secession,had fallen into the background before a greater and morevital question, that of the preservation of the there be a United States or a group of two ormore republics? Should our strength be converted intoweakness, our unity into disunion, our harmony into hos-tility ? This was the problem which the
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