Soon after states begin to secede, the federal government begins debating about what to do about federal properties in the South. What are your thoughts about this? Do you think one approach was more realistic than the other?

Soon after states begin to secede, the federal government begins debating about what to do about federal properties in the South. Some think US troops should be removed immediately so talks about reconciliation can begin, while others think it will be viewed as a surrender and will encourage other states to secede. What are your thoughts about this? Do you think one approach was more realistic than the other?

I agree that Federal property belonged to the Union. The South had chosen to dissolve their ties, but that did not give them the right to annex Federal property. I think Lincoln was right not to give up these properties. If Lincoln's plan to reinforce supplies at Fort Sumner by sea had gone more smoothly I think it may have shortened the War.

I think Lincoln was right in choosing not to give up Federal properties in the South, esp. since his hope was to reunite the States. However, I do understand the South preceptive that they didn't want a foreign government to have military properties operating on their soil.

To each his own; if it was federal property, it should remain as such. If it was personal property, it should go to them.

Personally, I think Lincoln was correct in choosing to try to keep Federal properties. If the situation would occur today, what would be the reaction? Have laws been established since 1861 that codify keeping Federal property? just wondering.

I agree with Marionthel Librarian above. When our nation began, citizens identified by the state they lived in. George Washington was a Virginian. Adams was from Massachusetts. That made sense when travel was so much slower and only the very wealthy had the means to travel great distances. Today we can cross the continent in hours, but too many citizens focus on the rights of individual states, rather than the rights and responsibilities of all Americans. A child born in the 21st century often lives in a multitude of states before graduating from high school. He or she identifies as being an American way more than the individual state he or she might have lived in for a year or two. Our laws and practices should reflect that. Our rights as American citizens come from the Constitution much more deeply than from any individual state. All Americans should have access to the same health care rights, the right to be protected from assault weapons, the same educational rights and the freedom to read the same books. We are Americans first.

I think Lincoln’s approach was correct. The Confederate states just assumed federal land would be theirs and made their decision to secede without proactively discussing this specific issue with Buchanan or with Lincoln once he was inaugurated. The book did not go into detail about whether the federal had any discussions about how to manage federal land and to how specifically manage resupplying Fort Sumter proactively. It would have been easy for the federal government to just let the Confederacy have the land. But had that been the case, I think the Confederacy would have taken that as a sign of weakness and the belief that they had the upper hand.

since they were separate. The North should of not had bases in the South. They were all Military bases.

Legally, the Federal property belonged to the United States of America and thus they certainly had the right to maintain it.

I think that federal property belonged to the Union. But these properties were also surrounded by what amounted to enemy territory after the southern states seceded. Finding the difficult balance between trying to hold and resupply these forts versus just letting them go was a hard decision to make. And if Lincoln had just let the Confederacy have them, would that have eliminated the war and saved lives, or would those cannons, etc. have been turned on Union forces.

I think that you don't get to pick and choose when it comes to an established democracy. The federal properties in the southern states were property of the federal government, so they had every right to defend them from secessionists. The secessionists voided their rights under the American constitution.