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.I believe Ihave no lawful right to do so, and I have no inclination to do so. Secession and the Coming War 113Lincoln also expressed his conviction that the central ideaof secession is the essence of anarchy, or chaos and rebellion.The new president believed that since the South was in the mi-nority within a system that made decisions by majority vote,then the South would likely lose some of the political battles.Because seceding states had rejected the rule of the majority,they were choosing anarchy, or chaos, instead.Lincoln opposedsecession, insisting that no State upon its own mere motion canlawfully get out of the Union. To Lincoln, secession violated theConstitution.Lincoln also summarized the whole issue underlying se-cession, saying, One section of our country believes slavery isright and ought to be extended, while the other believes it iswrong and ought not to be extended.This is the only substantialdispute. To Lincoln, and indeed, to most Americans in 1861,the secession crisis was not about states rights, territories, orelection results.Instead, the crisis facing the United States hadslavery as its roots.Generally, the South wanted to expand slav-ery within the growing nation, and the North wanted to limitslavery to the Southern states where it already existed.Finally, Lincoln promised to do what he could to holdthe Union together.Because several states had already seceded,Lincoln stated that, as president, he intended to protect federalproperty, wherever it might be. The power confided to me, hedeclared, will be used to hold, occupy, and possess the prop-erty and places belonging to the Government. Lincoln had nointentions of turning over Fort Sumter or Fort Pickens, bothlocated in the South, to the Confederacy.Lincoln, however, soon learned he had little time to wait.On the day of his inauguration, the new president went to hisoffice and received a disturbing message from the commanderof one of the two remaining federal forts in Southern territory.Fort Sumter had only enough supplies to hold out about sixweeks.Unless the forces there received the necessary supplies, 114 CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WARWhen Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, many Southerners believedit was the beginning of the end of slavery.Despite the best efforts of a few politi-cians, South Carolina was the first to secede the Union, followed shortly by six otherstates.At the same time Lincoln was being sworn into office during his inauguration(above), the newly formed Confederate States of America were creating their owngovernment and constitution. Secession and the Coming War 115Lincoln would be forced to evacuate the fort.The new presidentwas unwilling to abandon the fort, especially since he had justpromised to protect all federal property.THE APPROACHING CRISISWhen Lincoln took office, there were only two federal militaryforts in the South still held by Union forces.These two fortswere both located on the coast: Fort Pickens in Florida andFort Sumter in South Carolina.Fort Pickens lay near Pensacola,Florida, and enjoyed an isolated position outside the PensacolaHarbor.Fort Sumter was one of four federal military proper-ties in Charleston, South Carolina.The other three were CastlePinckney, Fort Johnson, and Fort Moultrie.Sumter was unique,because it was located on a small island in the entrance to theharbor.The others, situated on land, were therefore exposed todanger from land forces.Although Fort Sumter lay in the har-bor, its nearness to the other forts and Charleston itself meantthat enemy forces on the land could bombard it from threesides.Defensive positions on land were capable of easily deny-ing relief ships from reaching Fort Sumter.South Carolinians resented the federal troops stationedon what they believed to be the soil of an independent state.Tensions rose even higher when South Carolina seceded onDecember 20, 1860.Because Congress did not recognize SouthCarolina as independent, the federal troops remained in FortMoultrie.Their commanding officer, however, Major RobertAnderson, recognized their vulnerable position.Hoping todelay a possible attack, Anderson secretly moved his 85 menunder the cover of darkness on December 26 from Fort Moult-rie to the more defensible Fort Sumter in the harbor.The movewas both bold and necessary.Lincoln had not ordered Ander-son to relocate, but the situation demanded it.South Carolin-ians condemned the move, but did nothing other than occupythe forts on land and demand Anderson to evacuate completely 116 CAUSES OF THE CIVIL WARfrom South Carolina soil.When other states seceded, formingthe Confederate States of America, Confederate General PierreG.T.Beauregard insisted that Anderson and his men withdraw.Anderson refused to budge, however, and awaited furtherorders from Washington.The fort itself was unfinished and un-dersupplied.During the Buchanan presidency, cuts in militaryspending meant the forces inside the fort had less than half thenumber of cannons they required.Worse still, Anderson haddwindling rations.For the federal troops inside Fort Sumter,there was little to do but wait for orders to leave, or await anattack from shore.Buchanan ordered the fort re-supplied, sending thesteamer Star of the West to deliver troops and supplies
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