Charleston Mercury
May 1, 1861
Our readers will bear us testimony that up to this time, whilst others have heaped abuse upon Major ANDERSON for the occupancy of Fort Sumter, and for various other steps he has taken, we have seduously avoided uttering not one word against him, either as an officer or a gentleman. As a military man he had duties to perform. And if blame was to attach for the results, in our opinion, it was not attached to him, but elsewhere. We confess that at times we have thought hard of him as a native Virginian and a Southern man. But we were perfectly aware that there were a class of men at the South, commonly called Federalists, who professed to know no North, and no South, no East and no West; that is, who ignored all rights in the individual States. As an army officer we expected no better from him. A man may be both an officer and a gentleman, without any particular amount of brains, or metaphysical or political science. This we were willing to concede; and we have done so. But we must confess that within the last week we have been thoroughly disgusted with the said Major; and however good an officer he may be, we can perceive very little either of the patriot or the gentleman in his late conduct.
Relieved from Fort Sumter, when utterly untenable, according to his own account, under terms of unparalleled magnanimity, he has acknowledged it by not one word of courteous profession; but, on the contrary, with all the smallness and meanness of a very Yankee, he has only made a boast of his own mighty prowess, whilst accepting the homage of the enemies of his country, in public receptions and dinners in New York, and presentations of five hundred dollar golden boxes. Such is the man we have forborne to press, in sympathy for his position as a soldier, though a Southern man. This is his requital—this is his acknowledgment—this his sense of chivalry. His conduct has cast a slur upon his race and his native State. Egotism has swallowed up his whole heart, and the man we looked to find a soldier, if not a patriot, has proved himself but a vain and selfish mercenary—a hireling of power, and a crafty self-seeker—with God forever upon his lips, and self ever within his heart.
Where South Carolina again meets Major ANDERSON upon the field of battle, she will know how to treat a renegade.