President Buchanan On the seizure of the New Orleans Mint
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On the seizure of the New Orleans Mint
James Buchanan, 23 February 1861
BUCHANAN, James (1791-1868). Autograph draft message as President to the United States House of Representatives, [Washington, c. 23 February 1861].
One page, bifolium 344 x 214 mm, with numerous autograph corrections in ink and pencil (light soiling along extreme margins).
Less than two weeks before he would relinquish office to Abraham Lincoln, James Buchanan offers his only public message on Louisiana's seizure of the United States Mint in New Orleans. When the Louisiana Secession Convention voted to leave the Union on 26 February 1861, it asserted its control of federal property within the state, including the custom house and the United States Mint in New Orleans—holding nearly $500,000 in gold and silver coins. The state took "quiet possession" over the mint on 1 February—its officials took oaths of office as employees of the State.1 The crisis escalated when the Assistant Treasurer of New Orleans refused to honor a draft from Secretary of the Treasury, John A. Dix ordering $300,000 be transferred to the mint in Philadelphia. Congress ordered an investigation on 11 February.
It took Buchanan over a week to reply, "respecting the seizure of the mint at New Orleans, with a large amount of money therein, by the authorities of the State of Louisiana, the refusal of the branch mint to pay drafts of the United States, etc." His answer, "that all the information within my possession or power on these subjects was communicated to the House by the Secretary of the Treasury on the 21st instant, and was prepared under the resolution above referred…." was yet another example of the paralysis that gripped the Executive Mansion in the waning days of Buchanan's administration. The press paraphrased Treasury Secretary's comments of the 21st, including his observation that "throughout the whole course of encroachment [by the Southern States] the Federal Government has borne it with a spirit of paternal forbearance, of which there is no example in history, of a Republic waiting in the patient hope that the empire of reason would resume its sway over those whom the excitement of passion has thus blinded, and trusting the friends of good order, wearied with submission to proceedings which they disapprove, would, at no distant day, rally under the banner of the Union, and exert themselves with vigor and success against the prevailing recklessness and violence."2
When Louisiana ratified the Confederate Constitution in March, the Confederate States assumed control of the U.S. Mint, issuing its own coinage there until the supply of bullion ran out in late April 1861. When Union forces captured New Orleans, the U.S. Marines placed the American flag atop the Mint, prompting William Bruce Mumford to climb the roof and tear it down. Arrested for treason, Mumford was hung from a horizontal flagstaff on the side of the mint building.
1"Seizure of the Mint at New Orleans," Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, 2 Feb. 1861, 3.
2"The Public Revenue," Daily National Intelligencer, Washington, 25 Feb. 1861, 2.
Comments
1861 Confederate Restrike Half Dollar.
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