I asked for evidence of a mob. Your link doesn't mention that any mob formed to attack Moultrie. What Anderson was acting on was his fear that if one came it could easily take over Moultrie.
[rb]: But Anderson moved from Moultrie anyway and thereby violated Buchanan's agreement with the South Carolinians.
[ns]: Buchanan didn't think so. Link. He denies that Anderson's move was illegal and refused to order him to vacate Sumter.
Buchanan's reply that you linked to was made public. In it he does not seem to recall his earlier response when he was confronted by Southerners about Anderson's move:
"My God! Are calamities ... never to come singly! I call God to witness -- you gentlemen better than anybody else know that this is not only without but against my orders. It is against my policy." [Sources: Klein, Days of Defiance, page 170; Tilly, Lincoln Takes Command, page 110]
Anderson no longer believed he had orders to make that move. If he thought he already had such approval, he wouldn't have wired Washington on December 22 saying:
I think that I could, however, were I to receive instructions so to do, throw my garrison into that work [Sumter], but I should have to sacrifice the greater of my stores as it is now too late to attempt their removal. [Link]
Anderson got no instructions to make the move in response to his December 22 telegram. Apparently, Anderson sent his December 22 telegram to Washington after he had received the instructions that Floyd relayed from Buchanan on December 21. Those December 21 instructions had frustrated Anderson and limited what he could do. I linked to his response to the December 21 instructions earlier. Buchanan sloughed over the December 21 telegram in his public response you linked to. Perhaps he said one thing in his public pronouncements and another in private.
Legally, the forts were the property of the United States, and only an act of Congress could change that. No such act was passed so the South Carolina authorities illegally seized property that wasn't their's.
As long as South Carolina remained in the Union, the forts remained the property of the Union. Their status was much less clear once South Carolina seceded.
It didn't take Davis long to toss diplomacy right out the window, did it? He was willing to wait three months for Buchanan to dither, but just over a month after Lincoln was inaugurated he decided war was appropriate. What changed his position?
You sound like a reporter repeatedly asking basically the same question over and over hoping the responder will make an error. See my earlier reply.
The South could have enacted no tariff or a tariff of a thousand percent and it would have made not one bit of difference to U.S. imports. Lincoln mentioned collecting tariffs.
No difference, huh?. Imports to the Port of New York (by far the largest port for imports) averaged about $20,000,000 a month throughout 1860. They started out at $26,000,000 in January 1861, but the last six months averaged about $10,000,000 a month. [Source: Port of NY import figures for each month from 1860 to 1864 in Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia for the Year 1865]
I also refer you to an old post of mine to you about the inflation adjusted value of US imports relative to the 1860 values [Link].
The tariff was not a factor in Lincoln's opposition to the Southern acts of secession.
Wasn't it Lincoln who famously asked "what about my revenues?" or words to that effect before the Sumter attack?
Not really, no. You've been all over the board suggesting tariffs...no blockade...no, maybe something else as the cause. But you've offered no evidence at all at what Davis believed was that last act of aggression that drove him to war, and made Lincoln responsible for all that happened. Could it be that Davis didn't agree with you?
I said on this thread I didn't know what caused Davis to attack the fort, or have you forgotten?
Read the two sources I cited.
Anderson no longer believed he had orders to make that move.
Then he must have changed his mind. In his message to the AGO on December 27 he refers to "my solemn duty to move my command from a fort which we could not probably held longer than fourty-eight to sixty hours, to this one where my power of resistance is increased to a very great degree."
As long as South Carolina remained in the Union, the forts remained the property of the Union. Their status was much less clear once South Carolina seceded.
Based on what rule of law?
No difference, huh?. Imports to the Port of New York (by far the largest port for imports) averaged about $20,000,000 a month throughout 1860. They started out at $26,000,000 in January 1861, but the last six months averaged about $10,000,000 a month.
You don't suppose the war had something to do with that? Or are you suggesting that all those imports which used to go to New York were now flowing into Southern ports? If that is the case, why didn't the go there before the war broke out?
Wasn't it Lincoln who famously asked "what about my revenues?" or words to that effect before the Sumter attack?
It has been alleged. But at the end of the day why should Lincoln have risked war over the 5% to 7% of the federal revenue provided by Southern imports?
I said on this thread I didn't know what caused Davis to attack the fort, or have you forgotten?
With respect, no you have not. This whole conversation began with your quote, ""The aggressor in war is not the first who uses force, but the first who renders force necessary." I asked what the act of aggression was that made force necessary on the part of Davis and his regime and you really haven't been able to point to what the tipping point was.