January 11, 1861, The New York Herald
Intelligence has reached us within the last twenty four hours of events transpiring in various quarters of the country pregnant with the most alarming symptoms of impending danger, which seem to be momentarily hurrying us towards inevitable civil war.
The news published in the morning papers yesterday that the steamship Star of the West, with United States troops for Fort Sumter, had been fired into by the South Carolina State militia at Morris Island, and was compelled to put out to sea, created the most intense excitement all over the city, until, at a late hour, it was announced by the bulletins at the newspaper offices that Mrs. McGowen, the wife of the commander of the steamer, had received a despatch from her husband stating that the Star of the West had arrived at Charleston, and that the troops were landed at the fort. Then the most buoyant feeling was manifested everywhere, and people began to feel that a terrible calamity had been averted.
But subsequent intelligence from Charleston changed all this feeling to one of alarm and consternation, for it confirmed the truth of the first despatch – the steamer had been fired into, and the troops of the government had not been landed at Fort Sumter. As this intelligence spread on the wings of the telegraph throughout the country, the effect produced upon the public mind in all quarters was that we were on the eve of war. The first gun had been fired, and the end of the struggle no man could foresee. Despatches from Richmond indicated that the most fearful excitement reigned in the border State of Virginia, and the effect of the news upon other southern States might be easily anticipated.
Following close upon this startling intelligence of an overt act of hostility on the part of South Carolina came the news that North Carolina had seized upon the forts in that State; that the steam frigate Brooklyn had been despatched from Norfolk under sealed orders, and that she had been passed at sea bearing southward; that the steamer Joseph Whitney had sailed from Boston, laden with coal, provisions and troops for some port in Florida. Then came the account of the actual secession of Mississippi on Wednesday, and preparatory steps taken yesterday by Florida and Alabama to follow her out of the Union.
In the midst of all this exciting intelligence despatches were received from New Orleans last night to the effect that all the militia were ordered out by Governor Moore; that all the United States forts and arsenals had been taken possession of amidst the enthusiastic plaudits of the people, and that assurances had been received there that Texas and Florida would immediately follow the example; and there is very little doubt that that government forts and arsenals are now in the hands of the authorities of those States, so that when the troops on board the Joseph Whitney arrive they will find no forts in Florida to garrison. Another significant piece of news which reached us was that the steamship Marion, of the Charleston line, had been seized by the State of South Carolina for its own service.
And all this budget of news – teeming with danger and alarm, pregnant with the foreshadowings of war and bloodshed – ells of events which have transpired within the brief space of four and twenty hours. Yet, while the southern States are thus acting, and going one by one out of the Union, there are many people in the North who do not yet believe that the south is in earnest; who think that the trouble is coming to an end, and who refuse to recognize the possibility of the South Carolinians obstructing the Star of the West in her attempt to land government troops at Fort Sumter; while the demagogues of the republican party, who produced this fearful calamity, fearing to meet their constituent with this weight of responsibility upon their heads, still hold out, that it all amounts to nothing, in the face of circumstances which too plainly indicate that the country is rapidly drifting into civil war.
The pressure of this terrible crisis now rests upon Congress, and upon the incoming administration; and it is to be hoped that the events of the last twenty four hours – the meaning of which cannot be mistaken – will have the effect of leading to an immediate settlement of the question. Now that the new President has in part selected his Cabinet, with Mr. Seward at its head, we entertain some expectations that before a serious collision takes place some proposition will be made tending to preserve us from the most frightful catastrophe that ever befell a nation. Such are the fears entertained by the State of Virginia, that one branch of the Legislature has just passed resolutions proffering its services as a mediator between the North and the South to avert the impending disaster; and these fears, we may say, are now shared by everybody throughout the entire country who values the existence of the confederacy and who shrinks from the bloody horrors of a desolating civil war.
As the present administration can do no more toward pacification – the Executive having exhausted its constitutional powers, as Mr. Buchanan states in his message – it is the new administration which must accomplish this grand result, by fairly and boldly settling the differences between the southern States, who are contending for their constitutional rights, and that party at the North which, for the sake of a mere abstraction, is disposed to deny them. From the character of Mr. Seward, the Premier of the new administration, it is expected of him that he will take a decided stand in this momentous crisis; and as he is expected to speak upon the state of the country in the Senate tomorrow, it is earnestly to be hoped that he will unfold some portion of the policy which Mr. Lincoln’s government intends to purse with regard to the vital questions of the day.