January 31, 1861, The Charleston Mercury
FROM WASHINGTON.
Treachery of the Administration.
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
WASHINGTON, January 30 – 10:45 a.m. – The President has replied to the despatch of Senator MALLORY, of Florida. He says the Brooklyn has gone to Pensacola; that she will land provisions at Fort Pickens, and then lay off to assist the fort with troops, should an attack be made upon it.
There is intense anxiety this morning at the Executive mansion to hear from Fort Pickens. An immediate conflict is anticipated by all parties.
I have it from undoubted authority that the commander of the Brooklyn has been ordered to keep a strict watch on all the movements at the Pensacola Navy Yard, and in the neighborhood of Fort Pickens. In the event of his discovering the slightest preparations for an attack, or of an attack being made, his orders are instantly to land the artillery forces for the fort and bring his own guns to bear upon those who make the attack upon it.
The Constitution newspaper, now no longer supported by the Federal patronage, will collapse tomorrow.
The Editor, W. N. BROWNE, announces that he will shortly resume its publication somewhere in the great Southern Confederacy – probably at Montgomery, Alabama.
SECOND DESPATCH.
WASHINGTON, January 30, 9 p. m. – My despatch of yesterday to the MERCURY, stating that HAYNE had made the formal demand upon the President for the surrender of Fort Sumter, was correct in every particular.
Col. HAYNE has made the formal demand for the unconditional surrender of Fort Sumter. As yet the President has made no reply; but it is known in well informed circles here, that the President holds that he has the right to reinforce the forts, and that he will neither say nor do anything that might be construed into a relinquishment of that right. It is believed here that reinforcements will be sent to Fort Sumter and to the other forts in the South, so far as the resources of the Federal Government will admit.
The following despatch was sent this morning, by a number of distinguished Southern men, whom I will not now name, to Gen. CHASE at Pensacola, to Senator MALLORY, and to the Governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida.
“The Government here is utterly treacherous.
We think you should act as you think best, without regard to the promises or professions from Washington.”