an a match dropped in the heart of a powder-magazine. On an
island in the very harbour of Charleston itself stood Fort Sumter, an
arsenal held by the Federal Government. South Carolina, regarding
herself as now an independent State, had sent an embassy to Washington
to negotiate among other things for its surrender and transfer to the
State authorities. Buchanan had met these emissaries and temporized
without definitely committing himself. He had been on the point of
ordering Major Anderson, who was in command of the garrison, to evacuate
the fort, when under pressure from Black, his Secretary of State, he
changed his mind and sent a United States packet, called _Star of the
West_, with reinforcements for Anderson. The State authorities at
Charleston fired on the ship, which, being unarmed, turned tail and
returned to Washington without fulfilling its mission. The problem was
now passed on to Lincoln, with this aggravation: that Anderson's troops
had almost consumed their stores, could get no more from Charleston,
and, if not supplied, must soon succumb to starvation. Lincoln
determined to avoid the provocation of sending soldiers and arms, but to
despatch a ship with food and other necessaries for the garrison. This
resolution was duly notified to the authorities at Charleston.

Their anger was intense. They had counted on the evacuation of the fort,
and seem to have considered that they held a pledge from Seward, who was
now Secretary of State, and whose conduct in the matter seems certainly
to have been somewhat devious, to that effect. The Stars and Stripes
waving in their own harbour in defiance of their Edict of Secession
seemed to them and to all their people a daily affront. Now that the
President had intimated in the clearest possible fashion that he
intended it to be permanent, they and all the inhabitants of Charleston,
and indeed of South Carolina, clamoured loudly for the reduction of the
fortress. In an evil hour Jefferson Davis, though warned by his ablest
advisers that he was putting his side in the wrong, yielded to their
pressure. Anderson was offered the choice between immediate surrender or
the forcible reduction of the fortress. True to his military duty,
though his own sympathies were largely Southern, he refused to
surrender, and the guns of three other forts, which the Confederates had
occupied, began the bombardment of Sumter.

It lasted all day, the little fortress replying with great spirit,