WAR DEPARTMENT, January 15, 1861.
To his Excellency JOHN W. ELLIS,
……………Governor of North Carolina, Raleigh:
SIR: Your letter of the 11th instant, addressed to the President of the United States, has by him been referred to this Department, and he instructs me to express his gratification at the promptitude with which you have ordered the expulsion of the lawless men who recently occupied Forth Johnston and Caswell. He regards this action on the part of your Excellency as in complete harmony with the honor and patriotic character of the people of North Carolina, whom you so worthily represent.
In reply to your inquiry whether it is the purpose of the President to garrison the forts of North Carolina during his administration, I am directed to say that they, in common with the other forts, arsenals, and public property of the United States, are in the charge of the President, and that if assailed, no matter from what quarter or under what pretext, it is his duty to protect them by all the means which the law has placed at his disposal. It is not his purpose to garrison the forts to which you refer at present, because he considers them entirely safe, as heretofore, under the shelter of that law-abiding sentiment for which the people of North Carolina have ever been distinguished. Should they, however, be attacked or menaced, with danger of being seized and taken from the possession of the United States, he could not escape from his constitutional obligations to defend and preserve them. The very satisfactory and patriotic assurances given by your Excellency justify him, however, in entertaining the confident expectation that no such contingency will arise.
I have the honor to be, very respectfully, your obedient servant,
J. HOLT,
Secretary of War ad interim.