1860 SOUTH CAROLINA TAKES FEDERAL FORTS



the liberal constitution. Miramon fled the country. Before
embarking he helped himself to the funds of the British Con-
sulate in Mexico, obtaining some 600,000 piastres.
   In the United States, in December, two Southern mem-
bers of the Cabinet resigned. They were Cobb of Georgia
and Floyd of Virginia, by whose connivance, it was asserted,
Federal arsenals had fallen into the hands of the Southerners.
Commissioners representing South Carolina appeared at
Washington as the envoys of a separate republic, and Gov-
ernor Pickens made a formal request that Fort Sumter, in
Charleston Harbor, be delivered to the authorities of the
State. After some hesitation, Buchanan refused to receive
the Commissioners, and let them know that Fort Sumter
would not be abandoned. It was then that Oliver Wendell
Holmes wrote "Brother Jonathan's Lament," addressed to
South Carolina:
       "She has gone-she has left us in passion and pride-
          Our stormy-browed sister, so long at our side!
        She has torn her own star from our firmament's glow,
          And turned on her brother the face of a foe! . . ."

   When this was written, Forts Pinckney and Moultrie had
already been seized by the South Carolina troops. On De-
cember 31 possession was taken of the Federal arsenal at
Charleston, the flag of the United States was hauled down,
and in its place was hoisted the palmetto flag of South
Carolina.



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