OPINIONS WRITTEN BY MEMBERS OP THE CABINET AT
THE VERBAL REQUEST OF THE PRESIDENT, AT A CABINET MEETING HELD TO
DETERMINE THE QUESTION OF SENDING AN EXPEDITION TO RELIEVE FORT
SUMTER, March 29, 1861.
Mr. Welles, Secretary of the Navy wrote:
I concur in the proposition to send an armed force off
Charleston with supplies of provisions and reinforcements for the
garrison at Fort Sumter, and of communicating at the proper time the
intentions of the government to provision the fort peaceably if
unmolested. There is little probability that this will be permitted
if the opposing forces can prevent it. An attempt to force in
provisions without reinforcing the garrison at the same time might
not be advisable; but armed resistance to a peaceable attempt to send
provisions to one of our own forts will justify the government in
using all the power at its command to reinforce the garrison and
furnish the necessary supplies.
Fort Pickens and other places retained should be
strengthened by additional troops, and, if possible, made
impregnable.
The naval force in the gulf and on the southern coast should
be increased. Accounts are published that vessels having on board
marketable products for the crews of the squadron at Pensacola are
seized -- the inhabitants we know are prohibited from furnishing the
ships with provisions or water; and the time has arrived when it is
the duty of the government to assert and maintain its authority.
