"Because,if we propose an inventory, it will imply that our Government is to be responsible for the amount in any future settlement, whereas, considering that the United States forces inaugurated a state of hostilities, approaching a state of war (by the removal from Moultrie, by leaving the carriages, spiking the guns, and cuttiiig down the flagstaff, and left the fort in actual flames, which would have reached the magazine if I had not taken possession and stopped the progress), then the attempt to throw re-enforcements in and the whole course of the Government and command here, has forfeited all claim for future accountability for armament and public property In this fort now;" F. W. Pickens, Governor of S.C., March 24, 1861.
And the strongest argument....
Reponse To President Buchanan
"Scarcely had their commissioners left [South Carolina, D. U.], than Major Anderson waged war. No other words will describe his action. It was not a peaceful change from one fort to another; it was a hostile act in the highest sense one only justified in the presence of a superior enemy, and in imminent peril. He abandoned his position, spiked his guns, burned his gun carriages, made preparations for the destruction of his post, and withdrew, under cover of the night, to a safer position. This was war. No man could have believed (without your assurance) that any officer could have taken such a step, not only without orders, but against orders. What the State did was in simple self-defense; for this act, with all its attending circumstances, was as much war as firing a volley; and war being thus begun, until those commencing it explained their action and disavowed their intention, there was no room for delay; and even at this moment, while we are writing, it is more than probable, from the tenor of your letter, that re-enforcements are hurrying on to the conflict, so that when the first gun shall be fired there will have been, on your part, one continuous, consistent series of actions commencing in a demonstration essentially warlike, supported by regular re-enforcement, and terminating in defeat or victory. And all this without the slightest provocation; for, among the many things which you have said, there is one thing you cannot say, you have waited anxiously for news from the seat of war, in hopes that delay would furnish some excuse for this precipitation. But this tangible evidence of a design to proceed to a hostile act on the part of the authorities of South Carolina (which is the only justification of Major Anderson) you are forced to admit has not yet been alleged. But you have decided. You have resolved to hold by force what you have obtained through our misplaced confidence, and by refusing to disavow the action of Major Anderson, have converted his violation of orders into a legitimate act of your executive authority."
R. W. Barnwell, J. H. Adams, James L. Orr, Commissioners, Representing the State of South Carolina, with full powers from the Convention of the People of South Carolina, Jan. 1, 1861.
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David Upton