be adequate force for their protection, I respectfully submit the petition for your consideration. I may mention that the subject has been presented to the worthy officer in command, and I beg to refer you to the inclosed copies of the correspondence between us.

Hoping the subject may command your early attention,

I am, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

ARCHIBALD McLEAN,

Mayor.

[Inclosure No. 6.]

WAR DEPARTMENT, October 27, 1860.

Honorable ARCHIBALD McLEAN,

Mayor, Fayetteville, N. C.:

SIR: I have received your communication of the 25th instant at the hands of Mr. Fuller, and at once reply by saying that the guard you desire shall be furnished as soon as it can be done. There may be delay in meeting your wishes in consequence of the difficulty of finding troops that are available at once.

Very respectfully, your obedient servant,

JOHN B. FLOYD,

Secretary of War.

[Inclosure No. 7.]

ADJUTANT-GENERAL'S OFFICE,

Washington, D. C., November 1, 1860.

Lieutenant General WINFIELD SCOTT,

General-in-Chief U. S. Army:

GENERAL: The Secretary of War requests that you will please give the necessary orders for the company of Second Artillery now at Fort Hamilton, N. Y., to proceed to Fayetteville, N. C., and take post at the North Carolina Arsenal.

I am, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant,

S. COOPER,

Adjutant-General.

RALEIGH, N. C., January 10, 1861.

Honorable WARREN WINSLOW:

Call on General Scott; demand of him to know if he intends to garrison the North Carolina forts. Reply immediately.

JOHN W. ELLIS.

EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENT,

Raleigh, January 12, 1861.

His Excellency JAMES BUCHANAN,

President of the United States:

SIR: Reliable information has reached this Department that on the 9th instant Forts Johnston and Caswell were taken possession of by State troops and persons resident in that vicinity, in an irregular manner. Upon the receipt of this information I immediately issued a military order requiring the forts to be restored to the authorities of the United States, which order will be executed this day.

My information satisfies me that this popular outbreak was caused by a report very generally credited, but which, for the sake of humanity, I hope is not true, that it was the purpose of the administration to coerce the Southern States, and that troops were on their way to garrison the Southern forts and to begin the work of our subjugation. This impression is not yet erased from the public mind, which is deeply agitated at the bare contemplation of so great an indignity and wrong, and I now