[COPY.]
Columbia, December 7, 1860.
[STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL.]
My Dear Sir: With a sincere desire to prevent a collision of force, I have thought proper to address you directly and truthfully on points of deep and immediate interest.
I am authentically informed that the forts in Charleston harbor are now being thoroughly prepared to turn, with effect, their guns upon the interior and the city. Jurisdiction was ceded by this State expressly for the purpose of external defence from foreign invasion, and not with any view that they should be turned upon the State.
In an ordinary case of mob rebellion, perhaps it might be proper to prepare them for sudden outbreak. But when the people of the State, in sovereign convention assembled, determine to resume their original powers of separate and independent sovereignty, the whole question is changed, and it is no longer an act of rebellion. I, therefore, most respectfully urge that all work on the forts be put a stop to for the present, and that no more force may be ordered there.
The regular Convention of the people of the State of South Carolina, legally and properly called, under our Constitution, is now in session, deliberating upon the gravest and most momentous questions, and the excitement of the great masses of the people is great, under a sense of deep wrongs, and a profound necessity of doing something to preserve the peace and safety of the State.
To spare the effusion of blood, which no human power may be able to prevent, I earnestly beg your immediate consideration of all the points I call your attention to. It is not improbable that, under orders from the Commandant, or perhaps from the Commander-in-Chief of the army, the alteration and defences of those posts are progressing without the knowledge of yourself or the Secretary of War.
The Arsenal, in the city of Charleston, with the public arms, I am informed, was turned over, very properly, to the keeping and defence of a State force, at the urgent request of the Governor of South Carolina. I would most respectfully, and from a sincere devotion to tie public peace, request that you would allow me to send a small force, not exceeding twenty-five men and an officer, to take possession of Fort Sumter immediately, in order to give a feeling of safety to the community. There are no United States troops in that fort whatever, or perhaps only four or five, at present, besides some additional workmen or laborers, lately employed to put the guns in order. If Fort Sumter could be given to me, as Governor, under a permission similar to that by which the Governor was permitted to keep the Arsenal, with the United States arms, in the city of Charleston, then I think the public mind would be quieted, under a feeling of safety; and as the Convention is now in full authority, it strikes me that could be done with perfect propriety. I need not go into particulars, for urgent reasons will force themselves readily upon your consideration.
If something of the kind be not done, I cannot answer for the consequences.
I send this by a private and confidential gentleman, who is authorized to confer with Mr. Trescott fully, and to receive through him any answer you may think proper to give to this.
I have the honor to be, most respectfully,
Yours, truly,
(Signed) F. W. PICKENS.
To the President of the United States.
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Reports and Resolutions of South Carolina to the General Assembly; published 1861
