ithdraw the garrison
altogether from the harbor of Charleston.

The President's objection to this was, that it was his bounden duty to
preserve and protect the property of the United States. To this I
replied, with all the earnestness the occasion demanded, that I would
pledge my life that, if an inventory were taken of all the stores and
munitions in the fort, and an ordnance-sergeant with a few men left in
charge of them, they would not be disturbed. As a further guarantee, I
offered to obtain from the Governor of South Carolina full assurance
that, in case any marauders or lawless combination of persons should
attempt to seize or disturb the property, he would send from the citadel
of Charleston an adequate guard to protect it and to secure its keepers
against molestation.

The President promised me to reflect upon this proposition, and to
confer with his Cabinet upon the propriety of adopting it. All Cabinet
consultations are secret; which is equivalent to saying that I never
knew what occurred in that meeting to which my proposition was
submitted. The result was not communicated to me, but the events which
followed proved that the suggestion was not accepted.

Major Anderson, who commanded the garrison, had many ties and
associations that bound him to the South. He performed his part like the
true soldier and man of the finest sense of honor that he was; but that
it was most painful to him to be charged with the duty of holding the
fort as a threat to the people of Charleston is a fact known to many
others as well as to myself. We had been cadets together. He was my
first acquaintance in that corps, and the friendship then formed was
never interrupted. We had served together in the summer and autumn of
1860, in a commission of inquiry into the discipline, course of studies,
and general condition of the United States Military Academy. At the
close of our labors the commission had adjourned, to meet again in
Washington about the end of the ensuing November, to examine the report
and revise it for transmission to Congress. Major Anderson's duties in
Charleston Harbor hindered him from attending this adjourned meeting of
the commission, and he wrote to me, its chairman, to explain the cause
of his absence. That letter was lost when my library and private papers
were "captured" from my home in Mississippi. If any one has preserved it
as a trophy of war, its publication would show how bright was the honor,
how broad t