My source for most of this data is Fredriksen's Civil War Almanac.
One entry for March 3, 1861 says:
"President Jefferson Davis appoints General Pierre G.T. Beauregard commander of Confederate forces in the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina. He is instructed to prepare for military action against the Federal garrison sequestered inside Fort Sumter in the harbor."
Here are Beauregard's orders dated March 1, 1861. He arrived in Charleston on March 3. Davis must have had a large megaphone to reach him on the 3rd..
WAR DEPARTMENT,
Montgomery, March 1, 1861.
Brigadier General P. G. T. BEAUREGARD:
SIR: You will proceed without delay to Charleston and report to Governor Pickens for military duty in that State.
You are authorized by your appointment as brigadier-general, under the provisions of the third section of an act of the Congress to raise Provisional Forces for the Confederate States, to receive into the service of this Government such forces as may be tendered or may volunteer, not to exceed five thousand men, as you may require, or for whom you can make suitable provision. A copy of the act referred to has been this day transmitted to Governor Pickens.
You will report to this Department your arrival at Charleston, and give such information with respect to the defenses of that harbor as you may consider important. You will also secure, if possible, the services of a competent adjutant, and report your action in that behalf to this Department.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
L. P. WALKER,
Secretary of War
Defense of the harbor would have certainly involved defending against bombardment from Fort Sumter.
I will certainly grant you this much: many in the South incorrectly believed they could legally and peacefully secede. A study of history and of the Constitution itself would have shown them their errors.
I suggest you read Albert Taylor Bledsoe's 1866 book, "Is Davis a Traitor? Or Was Secession a Constitutional Right Previous to the War of 1861". Here's a Link. Bledsoe knew Lincoln in Springfield and bested him in court more than Lincoln bested Bledsoe.
Some have argued Bledsoe's book helped the Supreme Court realize that they couldn't prove that Davis was a traitor. Whether that is true or not, I don't know. Chief Justice Chase was supposedly on record saying in 1865 that by the Constitution secession was not rebellion [from Shelby Foote, I think]. There were treason trials in Tennessee after the war. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch on December 18, 1865:
Trial for treason.
--The first treason case consequent upon the late rebellion is now being tried in the United States District Court of Tennessee before Judge Trigg. The case is the United States vs. John S. Gamble, who was an enrolling officer under the Confederate Government in Blount county, East Tennessee. This is the first treason trial since the memorable Aaron Burr case.
Gamble was acquitted.
Especially, they would have learned that those "signing statements" by NY, VA and RI which did not make it into the Bill of Rights were REJECTED by our Founders.
They were basically covered by the 10th Amendment. As Thomas Jefferson said:
I consider the foundation of the Constitution as laid on this ground: That " all powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States or to the people." [XIIth amendment.] To take a single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress, is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition.
The 10th Amendment was originally the 12th Amendment of the Bill of Rights.
Now back to estate work.
There was no Internet or email in 1861, of course, but they did have telegraph, and even snail-mail could travel by rail in a just few days. ;-)
I don't know what document Fredriksen is referring to here, however, the eventual necessity of war was laid down in January, when South Carolina demanded Fort Sumter's surrender, declared any resupply tantamount to war, and President Buchanan told South Carolina's envoys Sumter would not be surrendered. So absent some negotiated deal then, war was simply a matter of when the Union decided it must resupply Major Anderson.
We can fully expect Beauregard was instructed to prepare for the inevitable.
rustbucket: "Defense of the harbor would have certainly involved defending against bombardment from Fort Sumter."
Now that is nonsense, and you know it. Fort Sumter was not attacking anyone, or demanding anyone's surrender. Only the South was demanding Sumter's surrender, and declaring attempts to resupply it tantamount to war.
quoting: "This is the first treason trial since the memorable Aaron Burr case.
rustbucket: "Gamble was acquitted."
As was Aaron Burr 60 years earlier. And Burr's trial for treason was also based on attempted secession, the charges brought by none other than President Jefferson. I'd say this tells us exactly what Jefferson REALLY believed about secession.
rustbucket: "Some have argued Bledsoe's book helped the Supreme Court realize that they couldn't prove that Davis was a traitor."
Here is the US Constitution's definition of treason:
"Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court."
So, was Davis guilty of treason? Seems pretty clear he "levied War against" the United States, doesn't it?