To James Buchanan: Your abandonment of the Federal forts on the coast of South Carolina, to the mercy of a Charleston mob, places you in the category of the rebels against the lawful authority of the United States — of whose Executive power you are the sworn defender.
Original passage & context
"Your abandonment of the Federal forts on the coast of South Carolina, to the mercy of a Charleston mob, and your persistence in that policy, place you in the category of the rebels against the just and lawful authority of the United States, of whose Executive power, you are the sworn defender."
The Republican counter to the Herald's forbearance doctrine (se-015): Alexander McClure's paper tells the sitting President that abandoning the Charleston forts makes HIM a party to the rebellion he is sworn to suppress. A week later the fight over the forts began in earnest. Text from the Valley of the Shadow transcription — this is the one fully-transcribed sentence of the editorial; the remainder survives only as page image.
Read it in the original — Franklin Repository, Dec 26, 1860 ↗