Who Owned Fort Sumter?
 
From: athyriot@hotmail.com
 
If you reread my article, you will note I gave the law involved, then the Statute of South Carolina, and then my opinion: http://shnv.blogspot.com/2011/04/south-carolina-takes-back-her-fort.html
 
It is my opinion that South Carolina owned Fort Sumter at the beginning of the WBTS, because and only because she had attached a stipulation to the "gift" to the United States and the property had reverted to South Carolina.
 
As pointed out in my article, if the State of Georgia discontinues using Stone Mountain Park as a Confederate monument (and it does the very least it can to maintain it as a "monument" other than the carving), the property reverts to the Venable family, which originally used it as a quarry.
 
The legal principle is simple: If you give a gift (property of any kind, such as, "the car is yours so long as you maintain it and keep it insured") and that person does not follow your stipulation, can you take it back? Yes.
 
"This island in the harbor is yours so long as you build a fort on it, maintain what’s there now, and keep it garrisoned" and the grantee does not build a fort on it (abandoned building it), maintain what’s there now (abandoned that too) and keep it garrisoned (never garrisoned Fort Sumter), does the property revert to the grantor, South Carolina? I say yes.
 
And when Anderson moved his troops there, did he unintentionally invade South Carolina, a State (although seceded) with whom the United States had friendly relations? Yes he did.
 
If this is not legally the case, then why did Portugal and India negotiate on Goa, Portugal and China negotiate on Macau, and Great Britain and China negotiate on Hong Kong? Why hasn’t Spain merely taken over Gibraltar and Malaysia taken over Singapore? Legal rights. They appear to be important throughout the world, but not when discussing WBTS matters.
 
The flags of the nations making up Yugoslavia were still honored for their service in WWI, even though technically they had disappeared; they lost to Tito. The flag of South Vietnam is still honored, especially by the veterans of the SV Army and Navy; they lost to the North. The flags of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were still honored (on U.S. stamps, no less) when they disappeared into the Soviet Union; they lost. But the flags of the Confederacy? They lost; take them down! The free country of Georgia shocked the PC crowd of the world when its pins at the Olympics in Atlanta included the "old" Georgia flag with the CFB crossed with the Georgia flag of the free Georgia Republic.
 
Hope that answers your questions.
 
John C. Whatley, AB, BMS, JD, LLM, MTh
Tax Consultant
Retired Artillery Officer
Former Professor of Business Law
Confederate Author Typical Georgia Confederate, Typical South Carolina Confederate