ng to others the odium of aggression. His doctrine
on this point may be summed up in this wise: in the first place, the
separation is unconstitutional, it should be, it will be combated,
nothing on earth can bring the President to accede to the destruction of
the Union; in the second place, he will not be the aggressor, he will
endeavor to shun a war which exposes the South to fearful perils; in the
third place, he will fulfill the duty of preserving federal property and
collecting federal taxes in the South. In other terms, he will employ
the means which should have been employed on the first day, and which
would have then been more efficacious. He will attempt the establishment
of a maritime blockade, in order to reduce the rebellion of the whites
without provoking the insurrection of the negroes. Already, the vessels
of war have been recalled from distant stations. Alas! I have little
hope that the precautions dictated to Mr. Lincoln by prudence and
humanity will bear their fruits. The South raises an army and is about
to attack Fort Sumter, knowing that it will thus expose itself to a
formidable retribution. Mr. Lincoln, in fact, has not left it in
ignorance of this: "In your hands, my dissatisfied fellow-citizens, in
yours and not mine, is found the terrible question of civil war. The
Government will not attack you; you will have no conflict, if you are
not the aggressors. You have not, on your part, an oath registered in
heaven to destroy the Government; whilst I, on my side, am about to take
the most solemn oath to maintain, to protect and defend it."

Such is the respective position. Men will agitate, are agitating
already, about the new President, to take away from his thoughts and
designs this resolute character which makes their force. They attempt to
demonstrate to him, not only that Fort Sumter, so easy to revictual
under Mr. Buchanan, has now become inaccessible to aid, and that no
other course remains than to authorize its surrender; but that Fort
Pickens itself should be surrendered to the South, in order to reserve
every chance of reconciliation and in no degree to assume the
responsibility of civil war! I hope that Mr. Lincoln will know how to
resist these enfeebling influences. After having demonstrated to him
that it is necessary to deliver up the forts, they will demonstrate to
him that it is necessary to renounce the blockade, which is not tenable
without the forts; then, who knows? they will demons