January 8, 1861, The New York Herald
WASHINGTON, Jan. 5, 1861.
Among the causes of the prevailing excitement may justly be designated, as one of the most productive, the telegraphic correspondence from the seceding States. Much of this may be quite correct, but a very great deal of it is extremely exaggerated, and not a little totally fictitious. So many startling rumors, conflicting with and often contradictory of each other, are born to this city along the wires, that the public, unable to discriminate between the false and true, are kept in a perpetual fever of anxiety. Such were the stories that were tossed about for two days past, as to Major Anderson’s communications being cut off–as to the means taken by government to open the way of communication with him at any hazard–of his constant expectation of attack–and of his having intimated to the secessionists forces that if they intended to assault Fort Sumter they ought first to remove the women and children from the city of Charleston. All these reports fan the popular fire into flame, and hence the notice taken in the Senate today of a system of misrepresentation, not less detrimental to the public welfare than annoying to individuals. No despatches, however, are more deserving of censure, as unjust and mischievous, than those sent from this city to the Charleston Mercury and the Columbia Carolinian, during the time Commissioners’ honored us with their presence. They were calculated to mislead the people of South Carolina, and drive them on in their career.
have it however, from reliable authority, that Messrs. Barnwell and Orr, at least (if not Mr. Adams), would exert their influence on their return home, to prevent any attack upon Fort Sumter, and generally to stay all proceedings that would precipitate armed collision with the federal forces. And this intelligence has contributed to allay somewhat the painful solicited which the bogus despatches of yesterday were calculated to produce.