BUCHANAN ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA SECESSION. BUCHANAN, JAMES. 1791-1868. Autograph Letter Signed ('...

BUCHANAN ON THE SOUTH CAROLINA SECESSION. BUCHANAN, JAMES. 1791-1868. Autograph Letter Signed ('James Buchanan'), to George W. Bowman, giving his version of events leading to attack on Fort Sumter, 4pp recto and verso, on conjoined leaves, 8vo (183 x 104 mm), Wheatland, Pennsylvania, September 21, 1861, detailing Buchanan's actions during the secession crisis and stating that his decisions would be judged favorably by history. Fold creases, browning around edges, small separation with tape repair at lower end of fold crease. 'I had a hard time of it during my administration; but upon a careful review of all my conduct I should not change it in a single important measure if this were now in my power....' Nearly a year after the events in South Carolina that clouded the end of his Presidency, sparking the Civil War, Buchanan defends his actions throughout the South Carolina secession crisis. He captures the problem of his position, caught between Republican opposition in the North, and the insupportable actions of the leading secessionists. In a remarkable first-hand account of his thoughts and actions during the events that led to the outbreak of the Civil War, he notes '... when I returned the insolent letter of the South Carolina Commissioners to them unanswered all intercourse political or social between them & myself ceased. I was on the next day, or a day or two after, violently attacked in the Senate by Jefferson Davis & his followers & the letter which I had returned was submitted by him to that Body & published in the Congressional Globe. I pursued my own steady course from the beginning. The Charleston authorities were directly notified over & over again that if they attacked Fort Sumter I should consider this attack as the commencement of a civil war.' Buchanan confidently notes, 'When the official documents & the facts come to be presented to the public, I entertain no apprehension as to what will be their verdict [his vindication].' However, Buchanan has been widely pilloried by historians for his inaction in the face of a splintering nation, denying states the right to secede, but arguing that the Union also had no right to compel them to stay. This important contemporary letter pleading his case sheds important light on another angle of South Carolina's secession and the origins of the Civil War. For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing