MINORITY REPORT.

Mr. John Cochrane, from the committee of five, to whom was referred the President's communication of the 8th ultimo, with certain instructions, and his subsequent communication of the 9th instant, presents, by leave of the House, the following minority report, upon so much of the said reference as relates to the correspondence between the President and those invested by the State of South Carolina with diplomatic character,

A recurrence to events will enable the judgment to pronounce with more certainty and justice upon the acts of the President, which seem to have irritated the patriotism and provoked the animadversion of the majority of the committee. Their startling array marshals to us a connexion of facts unparalleld, if not hitherto supposed to be without the pale of political possibility. The sovereign State of South Carolina, for causes of assumed adequacy, severed the federation bonds which embraced her, and, by inherent sovereignty, constituted herself an independent State. Were we to receive her declarations as political doctrine, and her public acts as infrangible authority, she thereby emerged from the thraldom of the confederate Union, and maintained, what she assumed, the attitude and power of a rightful independence. In pursuance of her designs, the regenerated State authenticated commissioners to treat with the President of the United States concerning mutual rights, in abeyance between them. Among those enumerated appear to have been the fortifications, arsenals, magazines, light-houses, &c., the real property of the United States, and its appurtenances, together with the values they represented. The advent of the commissioners was recognized by the President as the arrival in Washington of distinguished citizens. Their interviews with him partook of the private consideration in which they were held; and the routine of colloquial interviews might have illimitably continued, had they not been terminated by the startling intelligence, that Major Anderson, in his literal compliance with the instructions of the President, had made more secure the property of the United States in Charleston harbor, concerning which it was the intent of the commissioners to treat. This event was the signal for the first written communication from the commissioners to the President, in which they displayed a copy of their instructions and powers. The President in reply uses the following language:

"In answer to this communication I have to say, that my position as President of the United States was clearly defined in the message to Congress on the 3d instant. In that I stated that apart from the execution of the laws, so far as this may be practicable, the Executive has no authority to decide what shall be the relations between the federal government and South Carolina. He has been invested with no such discretion. He possesses no power to change the relations heretofore existing between them, much less to acknowledge the independence of that State. This would be to invest a mere executive officer with the power of recognizing the dissolution of the confederacy among our thirty-three sovereign States. It bears no resemblance to the recognition of a foreign de facto government, involving no such responsibility. Any attempt to do this would, on his part, be a naked act

H. Rep. Com. 88-2

of usurpation. It is, therefore, my duty to submit to Congress the whole question in all its bearings.'

"Such is my opinion still. I could therefore meet you only as private gentlemen of the highest character, and was entirely willing to communicate to Congress any proposition you might have to make to that body upon the subject. Of this you were well aware. It was my earnest desire that such a disposition might be made of the whole subject by Congress, who alone possess the power, as to prevent the inauguration of a civil war between the parties in regard to the possession of the federal forts in the harbor of Charleston, and I therefore deeply regret that, in your opinion, the events of the last twenty-four hours render this impossible."

The import of this language cannot well be mistaken. Its assertions are to the full effect of repudiating official relations between South Carolina as a foreign government and himself as President of the United States, and a reference of the whole question to Congress. It is addressed to Robert W. Barnwell, James H. Adams, and James L. Orr, "with great personal regard," and not to the commissioners who aspired to represent the sovereignty of an independent and foreign State. It is perhaps needless, though it may be well to notice, that the representatives of South Carolina, while admitting this attitude of the President towards them, fortified the dignity of their position with the subsequent written declaration that "they felt no special solicitude as to the character in which you (the President) might recognize us, (the commissioners.") If diplomatic relations suppose a mutuality of official character, it is quite certain that the personal appearance of James Buchanan, in this correspondence, deprives it of its imputed nature. The simplest mind will not have failed to perceive that so far from an official recognition by the President of the United States of the government of South Carolina having occurred, not only was its prudence but its possibility denied, and the whole question" was referred to the arbitrament of Congress. Indeed, to such a reference by the President, in pursuance of the intent thus expressed, is it that the majority of the committee are now empowered to pervert his declarations and acts into evidences of a censurable correspondence with a rebellious State. It is conceded that the further effusion of words upon this topic of investigation would be an extravagant expenditure of both time and labor. The simplicity of the case can in nowise detract from its strength. Its perfect symmetry of proportion commends to the public that admirable prudence which preserved unsullied from even approximate reproach the purity of the presidential character when remitting to Congress the decision of a purely constitutional question.

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But we are admonished by the majority of the committee that the presidential ermine was sullied in the epistolary correspondence which at a later date occurred between Hon. J. Holt, Secretary of War ad interim, on the part of the government, and Hon. I. W. Hayne, envoy from the State of South Carolina, bearing a communication from the governor of that State to the President of the United States in relation to the surrender of Fort Sumter. It must be remembered that the correspondence communicated to the House in no instance discloses either personal or epistolary intercourse between the President and the envoy. Senatorial intervention diverted the latter from the prosecution of his purpose, and substituted for his a communication from

certain senators to the President upon the controverted questions. It may be well to reproduce at this point the communication referred to. It is as follows:

"SENATE CHAMBER, January 11, 1861.

"SIR: We have been requested to present to you copies of a correspondence between certain senators of the United States and Colonel Isaac W. Hayne, now in this city, in behalf of the government of South Carolina; and to ask that you will take into consideration the subject of said correspondence.

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Very respectfully, your obedient servants,

"BEN. FITZPATRICK.
"S. R. MALLORY.
"JOHN SLIDELL.

Proceeding through a constitutional channel, the subject of inquiry and demand thus unexceptionably submitted to his notice received from the President a fitting response through the Secretary of War ad interim. The following extract affirms the continued and careful scrupulousness with which the constitutional integrity of the chief executive officer was guarded and the dignity of the government maintained:

"In regard to the proposition of Colonel Hayne, 'that no re-enforcements will be sent to Fort Sumter in the interval, and that public peace will not be disturbed by any act of hostility towards South Carolina,' it is impossible for me to give you any such assurances. The President has no authority to enter into such an agreement or understanding. As an executive officer, he is simply bound to protect the public property, so far as this may be practicable; and it would be a manifest violation of his duty to place himself under engagements that he would not perform this duty either for an indefinite or a limited period. At the present moment, it is not deemed necessary to re-enforce Major Anderson, because he makes no such request, and feels quite secure in his position. Should his safety, however, require re-enforcements, every effort will be made to supply them.

"In regard to an assurance from the President that public peace will not be disturbed by any act of hostility towards South Carolina,' the answer will readily occur to yourselves. To Congress, and to Congress alone, belongs the power to make war, and it would be an act of usurpation for the Executive to give any assurance that Congress would not exercise this power, however strongly he may be convinced that no such intention exists.”

It is not possible that a more successful refutation of the charge against the President of diplomatic intercourse with representatives accredited from the State of South Carolina could be either constructed or imagined. With characteristic care even the remotest advances to such a consummation were distinctively repelled. The most casual conversations were rescued from perversion by remarkable precautions, and the self-imposed restraint of South Carolina was the result rather of the influences of her citizens than of any assurances alledged to have been given by the Executive. In the whole course of the published correspondence it will be impossible to detect the most trifling deviation from the earliest annunciation by the President in his message to Congress at its opening, of his intention to defend with the whole power of the government its property, and to conserve its rights with all his constitutional vigor. The ardent inspirations of an uncalculating zeal have denounced as timidity these dictates of sobriety; impulsive impetuosity has derided them, and the ungenerous impulses of political hostility have visited upon them the invectives of acrimonious controversy. But the sober sense of the

12

CORRESPONDENCE RELATIVE TO SOUTH CAROLINA.

public will inevitably prevail over these factitious stimulants of factious discord. Ultimately will be recognized and acknowledged the prescient wisdom which palliated the shock of disunion by the preservation of peace, which preserved from desolation by barricading the paths of blood, and wooed the occasion for conciliation, compromise and adjustment by the counsels of moderation and peace. That the evening light still lingers in the parting day, and that to a people's prayers and hopes the night hath not yet come, may with truth be ascribed to the equable action of the President. It is to be regretted that the stridulous cry of partisan politics penetrates through and rises above the dismal moan of a dissolving republic. It is sad to think how reproaches exhaust the energies, and invectives occupy the faculties, that a less disordered temperament or a more equally poised intellect would have devoted to harmonious co-operation, and have crowned with national preservation. It is, however, to be entertained as one-not the least alarming-of the current expositions of the day; and the philosophic observer, however he be depressed by the reflection, will not probably err in his estimate of the hopelessness of our condition when including this among the signs and wonders of the latter days. I would not willingly encourage by defending the delinquency of any public officer. The more elevated his position, the greater should be the exactions upon his virtue and capacity. But the distressing proneness of the professional party critic to detract from official virtue, and the tendency of party spirit to defame political adversaries, should be indicated in their inception, and be transfixed with the public reprobation. I do not apply these reflections to the report of the majority of the committee, but I am clearly of opinion that their remembrance would disarm its perusal of some of its baneful effects.

JOHN COCHRANE.

I concur in the conclusions and in most of the views above expressed. L. O'B. BRANCH.

36TH CONGRESS, HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. 2d Session.

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REPORT

No. 91.

SEIZURE OF FORTS, ARSENALS, REVENUE CUTTERS, AND OTHER PROPERTY OF THE UNITED STATES.

FEBRUARY 28, 1861.-Ordered to be printed.

Mr. HOWARD, from the select committee of five, made the following REPORT.

The select committee of five, appointed on the 9th of January, to whom have been referred the special messages of the President and sundry other papers at different times, respectfully report:

That they have diligently considered the several matters referred to them by the House, and, under the authority conferred to "report from time to time," have heretofore submitted five special reports upon the following subjects, to wit:

1st. The protection of the public property, accompanied by a bill to provide for calling forth the militia and to accept the services of volunteers in certain cases.

2d. The collection of the revenue, with a bill.

3d. On the subject of a secret hostile organization, or conspiracy, to sieze the capital, &c.

4th. The position of the ships, resignation of naval officers, &c. 5th. On the subject of treating with persons who claim to have seceded and established independent governments within the bounds of the United States.

It now remains to consider briefly the remaining subjects intrusted to your committee. The committee have been in session nearly every day since they were appointed. Amongst the great variety of subjects before them, they have diligently considered a large number of petitions and memorials on the subject of conciliation and compromise; and whilst they earnestly desire that peace and harmony may be restored to our distracted country on the basis of justice and equality to all sections, with a full recognition of all constitutional rights and obligations, yet, in view of the fact that there are so many and so well-considered propositions already before the House, they have deemed it inexpedient to make any recommendations on the subject, and they report back all papers relating to the same.

Under the instructions of the House, the committee were to make inquiry and report as to the seizure of certain forts and arsenals, revenue cutters, and other property of the United States. The rapid