On April 12, a day or two after Sumner’s remarks to Lincoln, South Carolina started bombarding Fort Sumter. Prevented from accessing Lincoln’s food shipment, the fort surrendered after thirty-six hours of attack. When he heard the news, Sumner rushed to the White House and told Lincoln that “I was with him now, heart and soul, and that under the war power the right had come to him to emancipate the slaves.”
