s scattered in distant seas, leaving but
a very small part of it within the immediate reach of the government.
Officers of the Federal army and navy had resigned in great numbers;
and of those resigning a large proportion had taken up arms against the
government. Simultaneously, and in connection with all this, the purpose
to sever the Federal Union was openly avowed. In accordance with this
purpose, an ordinance had been adopted in each of these States, declaring
the States respectively to be separated from the national Union. A
formula for instituting a combined government of these States had
been promulgated; and this illegal organization, in the character
of confederate States, was already invoking recognition, aid, and
intervention from foreign powers.

Finding this condition of things, and believing it to be an imperative
duty upon the incoming executive to prevent, if possible, the consummation
of such attempt to destroy the Federal Union, a choice of means to that
end became indispensable. This choice was made and was declared in the
inaugural address. The policy chosen looked to the exhaustion of all
peaceful measures before a resort to any stronger ones. It sought only
to hold the public places and property not already wrested from the
government, and to collect the revenue, relying for the rest on time,
discussion, and the ballot-box. It promised a continuance of the mails, at
government expense, to the very people who were resisting the government;
and it gave repeated pledges against any disturbance to any of the
people, or any of their rights. Of all that which a President might
constitutionally and justifiably do in such a case, everything was
forborne without which it was believed possible to keep the government on
foot.

On the 5th of March (the present incumbent's first full day in office), a
letter of Major Anderson, commanding at Fort Sumter, written on the 28th
of February and received at the War Department on the 4th of March, was
by that department placed in his hands. This letter expressed the
professional opinion of the writer that reinforcements could not be thrown
into that fort within the time for his relief, rendered necessary by the
limited supply of provisions, and with a view of holding possession of the
same, with a force of less than twenty thousand good and well-disciplined
men. This opinion was concurred in by all the officers of his command, and
their memoranda on the subject were m