Posted on 04/12/2002 4:48:30 PM PDT by WhowasGustavusFox
Foxx News at the Battle Front:
Good Evening. This is Tomy Slow in Washington with the Foxx News team. This evening, April 12, is the 141st anniversary of the US government’s ordering of federal warships to a foreign port to settle a political dispute. We have sent our war correspondent, Jarold Reverso, back in time to the front lines to give us an update on the action.
(Tomy Slow): Jarold Reverso, describe what is happening where you are.
(Jarold Reverso): Thanks Tomy. It about 6:30 pm here, and the sun is going down in the west. The cannon fire began about 14 hours ago, and we can see some fire and smoke rising from the fort to the east of us.
(Tomy Slow): Jarold, that view of the Fort behind you is quite telling. Exactly where are you in the city of Charleston.
(Reverso): I am standing on the edge of the southern most part of the peninsula of the city at a place called the “Battery”. The lady standing with me is Mary Boykin Chesnut, a well-known resident here. Mrs. Chesnut, what do you think of the things happening in your city?
(Mrs. Chesnut): The stupidity of it all. None of this was necessary.
(Tomy Slow): Why do you say that?
(Mrs. Chesnut): Back in the early winter last year, 1860, our Governor and Mayor sent representatives to Washington to discuss Fort Sumter. The city and the state wanted to buy the fort from the government, and we made offers. Buchanan’s people were too stubborn to accept our offer to buy the ugly thing.
(Tomy Slow): So what caused the firing to begin last night?
(Reverso): Well, a number of things, but the most immediate is that a number of Union troop ships just approached the mouth of the harbor here in Charleston. It seems as if the Confederate cabinet in Montgomery was notified by sympathizers in New York several days ago that a naval armada with troops and supplies was being outfitted for movement to Charleston, apparently for military action. Surrender of the fort would negate the Naval mission, and stop the action.
(Mrs. Chesnut): My husband says that more importantly, the withdrawal from the fort of the Union troops would be proof of the inability of the US government to collect tariffs in the South. Without tariff income, the Federal Treasury will immediately require loans, which cannot be guaranteed if there is no tariff income from goods bought overseas with dollars generated by the sale of cotton and tobacco. I say that the wealth of Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago is in the lurch, and it is they who elected Lincoln and they that control him.
(Reverso): Our new president, Mr. Lincoln, who at first directed the effort remain a secret, must have some interest in provoking the people of South Carolina. Just days ago in a document provided to the Governor of South Carolina, which declared itself no longer in the Union as of four months ago, Lincoln himself warned that he had ordered in supplies and troops, “to be delivered by force, if necessary.”
(Tomy Slow): What did the Governor say in response?
(Mrs. Chesnut): I cannot answer that in polite company, but I can assure you it wasn’t “Well, gollllllllllllll-y”.
(Tomy Slow): You mean to tell us that the Federal government was sending troops to South Carolina? Lincoln was threatening coercion, and conspiring to use force against the people? For what reason?
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): I think as an expert historian I can answer that question. Jarold, the ships sailing to Charleston were rushing down to save the starving, brave Union soldiers from a horrible death.
(Mary Boykin Chesnut): Well, not exactly Doris. They may be eating pork and rice for breakfast today, but last week they were eating steaks, shrimp, and fruits that they were buying at the Charleston Market. They have been free to shop like anyone else since they have been stationed here. The mayor asked them last week not to come over from the fort anymore until the situation is worked out. Judging from the cut of their uniforms, I would not exactly say they were starving. Besides, wading out from the walls of the fort and picking for a while, before your oysters on the half shell, is not exactly torture.
(Goodwad): Well, I still say they are starving! I am going to get Ken Burns on my cell phone and let him tell you about history.
(Mrs. Chesnut): Suit yourself. You might want to put on a little make-up for the camera there, Doris. How about a mint julep, Jarold?
(Bill O’Really): Jarold, this isn’t the first time that Federal troops have attempted to enter Charleston Harbor this year. What is going on down there?
(Reverso): Well, it is a bit complicated, but let me say that two separate US presidents have sent the Navy twice to Charleston in the past four months. First time, back in January, the Charleston militia fired some shots over the bow of the ship, the Star of the West. It was a flat bottom side-wheeler used normally to transfer exports and imports between northern and southern ports. Buchanan loaded it with supplies and US Marines, thinking that a side-wheeler had a chance of sneaking in without anyone in Charleston catching onto his gambit.
(Mrs. Chestnut): Buchanan had bats in his belfry.
(Bill O’Really): Looks like lots of firing back and forth. Aren’t you in danger?
(Reverso): I can see you guys are spending too much time in the studio; it is just a little good cannon fire. More like a fireworks display. No one has been hurt.
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): This is historical. This is the first firing of troops. This is the beginning of the war. The die is cast. The clock is striking the eleventh hour. Oh, the humanity.
(Mary Boykin Chesnut): Doris, give it a break. This is our country, the Confederacy, protecting its shores from armed military excursions of the Union. Unless they show up again, there is nothing to this.
And you as such an educated historian should know that the first shots of hostility fired by regular military were fired at the local Florida militia by Union troops at Ft. Barrancas, back in early January of 1861. Nothing came of that. Go take a powder and get over yourself.
(Bill O’Really): But a great deal of Federal property was taken by what became the Confederates. Was there no loss of life?
(Chesnut): Not one life Mr. O’Really. It was a very peaceful transfer of property. Also, for the past two months, there have been several representatives of the Confederacy in Washington, trying to arrange repayment to the Union for the assets seized. Up until now, there has been a very peaceful separation of the cotton states.
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): But what about that poor fort? They are tearing it up. Those evil people.
(Mary Boykin Chesnut): Listen Goodwad, these people have done something that those brash Bostonian pals of yours have been threatening to do for decades……they have seceded from the Union. And they plan to peacefully go about their lives growing cotton and tobacco, trading with Europe, living under their new government, and new Constitution. You have yours, and we have ours, which is quite an improvement over yours.
(Goodwad): They will never make it. Slave labor. Very inefficient.
(Bill O’Really): Recently more and more manufacturing has been moving to the South, which is poised for more. The density of slave labor in some southern states has declined, so it appears to be a changing economy. Slow, but sure.
(Goodwad): That is blather, Bill.
(Tomy Slow): It seems very strange that US Navy vessels are now in the mouth of the harbor. Just a few days ago, Secretary of State William Seward was quoted as saying that the garrison at Ft. Sumter would be withdrawn peacefully. What is going on with the government?
(Mrs. Chesnut): Maybe you can now see the problem we have with this new administration. Every time this man Lincoln makes a speech, he seems as if he has a bipolar disorder. He says one thing, then the opposite. He does not have the common decency to meet and negotiate. Then he sends the military of common defense of the states down here as if we are menacing the Union from 600 miles away. We may have political differences, but there has never been one serious speech or newspaper editorial given by any Southern official that hints at any Southern desire to overthrow the government of the US or intent to invade land belonging to Northern states. The North is full of people like John Brown, who would invade us and incite genocide. We aren’t safe in the Union.
(Doris Kerns Goodwad): Well, Major Anderson, Union Commander of Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island, moved all his troops off that fort into the unfinished Ft. Sumter. He was concerned that he was not safe.
(Mrs. Chesnut): Why did that green goose Anderson go and move the troops? Ever since, many things have been going wrong. Ready for another julep, Jarold?
(Doris Kerns Goodwad): He was perfectly within his rights to make the move.
(Mrs. Chesnut): Was he within his rights to turn the cannon in the fort toward the people of Charleston?
(Bill O’Really): Now, Doris, remember the armistice agreement of December 6, 1860, between the US Government and Governor Gist of the State of South Carolina that forbade improvement of the Federal positions unless attacked. That, made Anderson’s move illegal. Five days after Anderson moved the troops, there was a big stink in Washington. Buchanan didn’t know what to do. When he didn’t immediately order Anderson back, two members of his cabinet, including the Secretary of War, resigned in protest. The Secretary told the reporters that he and Buchanan had assured South Carolina that the military status would not be changed. And when Buchanan failed to honor his own armistice, that was not one month old, some in the cabinet became very critical of a president failing to honor the promise of the US government. What a guy, and what a government!
(Reverso): Then a couple of weeks later, he hires out the “Star of the West”, loads it with troops and sends it down to Charleston. What’s with that crowd up in Washington?
(Tomy Slow): Hey, I got one better than that. Just a few weeks after that, the US Congress passed a bunch of legislation funding the construction of seven shallow draft, screw steamships for blockade use. Who were they going to blockade, Cuban pirates?
(Bill O’Really): How about this one from those pranksters in Buchanan’s Congress…after authorizing the money for those ships, in a final act, the US Congress authorized 1/5 of the entire US Budget for the next year could be spent by the next US president without their approval.
Think about that, guys and Doris. Here the Congress was giving away its power to the new president who had not even taken office. They must have figured that the new guy was going to need to spend a lot of money on something. And whatever that was, they wanted no part of it, and no blame for it. In fact, they did not want to be around for it. Having given that authority away, they did not need to convene until after Lincoln’s mischief. No wonder those folks in Montgomery started preparing for war.
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): This all sounds completely preposterous. The Federal government would not send troops and initiate a war. We have elected officials who would not allow it. Congress and the courts would not allow it.
(Mrs. Chesnut): Well, they would and they just did. And don’t hand me that fish crap about Lincoln not anticipating a military reaction. His entire cabinet, save one, advised him against military adventurism at Ft. Sumter.
In his own message to his superiors in Washington upon learning that there may be an effort to reinforce the Fort, Major Anderson stated that if the effort were made, it likely would result in war. If they anticipated it in Montgomery, in Charleston, and in Washington, then old stovetop knew what would happen. He wanted an excuse to start a military action.
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): The president does not need an excuse; there is the slavery issue. He would go to war to free the slaves.
(Mrs. Chesnut): Doris, I don’t think he said exactly that. I think you have been putting a little too much magnesia in your milk.
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): Look, say what you want, but Lincoln just wants to get back to doing the peoples’ business.
(Mrs. Chesnut): Oh, stuff it Doris. He just wants to get back to the business of collecting the tariffs that pay for the government, 75% resulting from the sale of Southern grown goods. The South is the cash cow of the infrastructure cancer of the North.
(Jarold Reverso): I herd ‘dat.
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): Bill, I have Ken Burns on my cell phone. Ken does say that the starving thing was an exaggeration. But he said it made for good drama, so what the heck.
(Bill O’Really): So, he could do a documentary on “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” without a re-write. There was already enough “drama” in that book without Burns spinning historical “facts” again. I am sure the History Channel would be glad to buy that program. Oliver Stone would be glad to do that piece. On second thought, PPS, the Public Propaganda System would love that.
(Doris Kernes Goodwad): That’s a great idea. We could have the government going out to rescue the starving slaves.
(Mary Boykin Chesnut): Oh, sit on it Doris. How about another drink, moustache boy.
If Cuba were to denounce and repudiate the arrangements by which the United States has a base at Guantanamo, the United States would be on strong ground to assert (1) that the Cuban denunciation and repudiation were ineffective; (2) that we retained our base rights; and (3) that we would be justified in resisting with force any attempt to evict our armed forces from the base. These conclusions stem from the following considerations:
(a) The right of the United States in Guantanamo is more than a right to maintain a base on territory under the sovereignty of Cuba and governed by Cuban law; by international agreement and treaty the United States obtained the lease of a defined area and received from Cuba the right of "complete jurisdiction and control" in that area.
(b) No date was set for the termination of these rights, and the relevant international instruments specify that they are to continue until modified or abrogated by agreement between the United States and Cuba.
Background
In February 1903 the President of Cuba and President Theodore Roosevelt signed an "Agreement for the Lease to the United States of Lands in Cuba for Coaling and Naval Stations"./1/ This included a lease covering the Guantanamo base, whose boundaries were described in Article I of the Agreement. Article II stated: "While on the one hand the United States recognizes the continuance of the ultimate sovereignty of the Republic of Cuba over the above described areas of land and water, on the other hand the Republic of Cuba consents that during the period of the occupation by the United States of said areas under the terms of this agreement the United States shall exercise complete jurisdiction and control over and within said areas . . . ." The Agreement contained no terminal date and no provision for termination.
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