Secretary of State William H. Seward had pledged that Major Robert Anderson’s Federal garrison would evacuate Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, by March 18. On the 20th, the Confederate commissioners in Washington seeking to negotiate a peaceful settlement of disputes over Federal property on Confederate soil (Martin J. Crawford, John Forsyth, and A.B. Roman) telegraphed Brigadier-General P.G.T. Beauregard at Charleston: “Has Sumter been evacuated? Any action by Anderson indicating it?” Beauregard replied that the Federals were building defenses and showed no sign of evacuating.
The commissioners then contacted Confederate Secretary of State Robert Toombs: “You have not heard from us because there is no change. If there is faith in man we may rely on the assurances we have as to the status. Time is essential to a peaceful issue of this mission. In the present posture of affairs precipitation is war. We are all agreed.”
Supreme Court Justice John A. Campbell, intermediary between the Lincoln administration and the Confederate envoys, explained the Confederate concerns to Seward. The secretary assured both him and fellow Justice Samuel Nelson that the administration’s policy would be peaceful coexistence with the Confederacy, and any delay in evacuating the fort was unintentional. Seward did not reply to two notes written by Campbell accusing him of overreaching his authority and vacillating. Meanwhile, officials released some correspondence between Seward and the Confederate envoys to the press, which caused indignation in the North…