May 9th, 1861.—We hear many rumors and the papers are filled with alarming paragraphs, just enough to keep us “on the anxious bench,” yet not enough to give much real information. We have been hearing hints of a blockade but last night the news reached us that the United States Government established on the 6th of May, a blockade of all Southern ports, beginning at Pensacola. This is bad but the South has so many bays and inlets along her miles and miles of sea-coast that it seems almost impossible to prevent the entrance of vessels that wish to come in. The Southern Confederacy needs everything you can mention in the way of weapons and munitions of war; neither have we manufactories, where these can be made. Nearly every day some new company is organized and the need for arms grows greater all the time. Cousin Bettie Bradford has been at school in New York and now she is in a great hurry to get home before it is too late. Cousin Johnnie has gone on for her but nothing has been heard from them as yet and the family are feeling anxious.
MAY 9th. — The Examiner still fires shot and shell at Gov. Letcher and the dominant majority in the Convention, on account of recent appointments. It is furious over the selection of Mr. Baldwin, recently a leading Union man, for inspector-general; and seems to apprehend bad results from thrusting Union men forward in the coming struggle. The Enquirer is moderate, and kind to Gov. Letcher, whose nomination and subsequent course were so long the theme of bitter denunciation. It is politic. The Whig now goes into the secession movement with all its might. Mr. Mosely has resumed the helm; and he was, I believe, a secessionist many years ago. The Dispatch, not long since neutral and conservative, throws all its powers, with its large circulation, into the cause. So we have perfect unanimity in the press. Per contra, the New York Herald has turned about and leap-frogged over the head of the Tribune into the front ranks of the Republicans. No doubt, when we win the day, the Herald will leap back again.
May 9th.—Virginia Commissioners here. Mr. Staples and Mr. Edmonston came to see me. They say Virginia “has no grievance; she comes out on a point of honor; could she stand by and see her sovereign sister States invaded?”
Sumter Anderson has been offered a Kentucky regiment. Can they raise a regiment in Kentucky against us? In Kentucky, our sister State?
Suddenly General Beauregard and his aide (the last left him of the galaxy who surrounded him in Charleston), John Manning, have gone—Heaven knows where, but out on a war-path certainly. Governor Manning called himself “the last rose of summer left blooming alone” of that fancy staff. A new fight will gather them again.
Ben McCulloch, the Texas Ranger, is here, and Mr. Ward,¹ my “Gutta Percha” friend’s colleague from Texas. Senator Ward in appearance is the exact opposite of Senator Hemphill. The latter, with the face of an old man, has the hair of a boy of twenty. Mr. Ward is fresh and fair, with blue eyes and a boyish face, but his head is white as snow. Whether he turned it white in a single night or by slower process I do not know, but it is strangely out of keeping with his clear young eye. He is thin, and has a queer stooping figure.
This story he told me of his own experience. On a Western steamer there was a great crowd and no unoccupied berth, or sleeping place of any sort whatsoever in the gentlemen’s cabin—saloon, I think they called it. He had taken a stateroom, 110, but he could not eject the people who had already seized it and were asleep in it. Neither could the Captain. It would have been a case of revolver or “‘leven inch Bowie-knife.”
Near the ladies’ saloon the steward took pity on him. “This man,” said he, “is 110, and I can find no place for him, poor fellow.” There was a peep out of bright eyes: “I say, steward, have you a man 110 years old out there ? Let us see him. He must be a natural curiosity.” “We are overcrowded,” was the answer, “and we can’t find a place for him to sleep.” “Poor old soul; bring him in here. We will take care of him.”
” Stoop and totter,” sniggered the steward to No. 110, “and go in.”
” Ah,” said Mr. Ward, “how those houris patted and pitied me and hustled me about and gave me the best berth! I tried not to look; I knew it was wrong, but I looked. I saw them undoing their back hair and was lost in amazement at the collapse when the huge hoop-skirts fell off, unheeded on the cabin floor.”
One beauty who was disporting herself near his curtain suddenly caught his eye. She stooped and gathered up her belongings as she said: “I say, stewardess, your old hundred and ten is a humbug. His eyes are too blue for anything,” and she fled as he shut himself in, nearly frightened to death. I forget how it ended. There was so much laughing at his story I did not hear it all. So much for hoary locks and their reverence-inspiring power!
Russell, the wandering English newspaper correspondent, was telling how very odd some of our plantation habits were. He was staying at the house of an ex-Cabinet Minister, and Madame would stand on the back piazza and send her voice three fields off, calling a servant. Now that is not a Southern peculiarity. Our women are soft, and sweet, low-toned, indolent, graceful, quiescent. I dare say there are bawling, squalling, vulgar people everywhere.
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¹ Matthias Ward was a native of Georgia, but had removed to Texas in 1836. He was twice a delegate to National Democratic Conventions, and in 1858 was appointed to fill a vacancy from Texas in the United States Senate, holding that office until 1860.
—At 8 o’clock this afternoon the steamer Maryland, with other transports, arrived at Baltimore with 1,800 troops from Perryville. They consist of five companies of the 3d Infantry, regulars, Major Shepherd, 420 men; one company of Sherman’s Battery of Light Artillery, with 6 pieces of cannon and 70 horses, under Major Sherman; and the 1st Regiment, ten companies, of Pennsylvania Artillery, Col. Patterson, armed with muskets, and numbering 800 men. They were landed at Locust Point, one of the termini of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, within half a mile of Fort McHenry, and there transferred on board of two trains of car; which departed immediately.
Two hundred men were left to take charge of the horses, provisions and baggage, and these were to be forwarded at a later hour. The Mayor and Police Commissioners, with two hundred police, crossed in a ferry-boat to Locust Point, and were present at the debarkation.
The Harriet Lane stood off the point with her ports open. The transfer to the cars was accomplished without much difficulty, and there was no excitement other than that which proceeded from the curiosity of the people to witness the proceedings.
The track from Locust Point skirts the lower part of the city, and joins the main stem near Camden Station.—N. Y. Tribune, May 10.
—The Richmond Whig says: “We beg to sanest to all Southern papers the propriety of omitting all mention of the movement of troops within our borders. A word to the wise.”
“The caution is a good one, and might well be extended to correspondents, both private and public, by telegraph and by mail. The caution is the more necessary, because of our large daily correspondence with the people of the North, with whom we are unfortunately at war.”—N. O. Picayune, May 10.
—The Confederate Congress passed an act authorizing the President of the Southern Confederacy to raise such a force for the war as he may deem expedient.—(Doc. 147.)
—The Palmetto Guard left Charleston, S. C., for Virginia. The company numbers eighty-five privates, and is commanded as follows:
Geo. B. Cuthbert, Captain; C. R. Holmes, First Lieutenant; T. S. Brownfield, Second Lieutenant; L. S. Webb, Third Lieutenant; Samuel Robinson, First Sergeant; J. E. Wright, Second Sergeant; G. M. Lalane, Third Ser-geant; H. D. Manahan, Fourth Sergeant; M. J. Darly, Fifth Sergeant; J. B. Boyd, First Corporal; J. E. Gaillard, Second Corporal; A. M. Brailsford, Third Corporal; DeSaussure Edwards, Fourth Corporal; J. E. Dutart, Fifth Corporal; E. W. Bellinger, Sixth Corporal; O. D. Mathews, Quartermaster; R. S. Miller, jr., Commissary.—Charleston Mercury, May 10.
—The Cumberland, Pawnee, Monticello, and Yankee are enforcing the blockade off Fortress Monroe. The Yankee pursued an armed schooner up York River, but after proceeding a short distance was fired upon from a concealed battery, and compelled to return.
The steamers Philadelphia, Baltimore, Powhattan, and Mount Vernon, of the Aquia Creek line, recently taken possession of by the Federal Government, are cruising on the Potomac, all heavily armed. Southern troops are concentrating in the vicinity of Norfolk. An Alabama regiment of 1,100 men, and eighty cadets of the same State, have arrived, and encamped in the vicinity of Fort Norfolk.
The Virginians have five batteries erected in Norfolk harbor; one on Craney Island; one at Sandy Point; one at the Hospital; one near Fort Norfolk, and one on the Bluffs three miles from the Hospital. —N. Y. Evening Post, May 11.
—J. Lawrence Keese, a private in the 8th Company of the 7th Regiment of New York, was accidentally shot at Washington. He was standing in front of his tent washing his hands, when a musket fell from a stack of arms within a few feet of him, and went off, the ball entering his side, passing through his lungs, and killing him almost instantly. He was a young man of fine talents, and greatly esteemed by his comrades.—N. Y. Commercial, May 10.
—Today was strictly observed as a fast-day at Wheeling, Va. Patriotic sermons were delivered in nine out of the twelve churches. The Methodist Church pulpit was decorated with the Stars and Stripes. Rev. Mr. Smith delivered an eloquent address. He said he would hold no fellowship with traitors. If there was a secessionist in his congregation he wanted him to leave. Other ministers prayed that the rebels might be subdued or wiped from the face of the earth.—N. Y. Herald, May 10.
—The steamship Africa arrived at New York from England, bringing the first news of the impression produced in Europe by the reduction of Fort Sumter. The earliest feeling was one of the profoundest gloom and discouragement, but subsequent reflection suggested a probability, eagerly accepted, that hostilities would terminate with the opening act; and that, startled by the shock of arms, the Government and the separated States would have fresh dispositions for an amicable arrangement The notion, founded on the fact that no lives had been lost, also became current; that the affair was merely a sham fight, arranged entirely to cover the evacuation from discredit, and save the reputation of Major Anderson. These ideas were indorsed generally by the journals, who, however, regarded the business as extremely enigmatic, and as needing further enlightenment before final judgment could be passed.— (Doc. 148.)
—Two companies of Southern volunteers from Baltimore, numbering sixty-five men, passed through Frederick, Md., on their way to Virginia. They were under the command of Capts. Wetmore and Price, and unarmed. They marched through the city protected by Gen. Shriver and the sheriff, and their appearance created deep excitement, but no outbreak. A company of about thirty-four volunteers left Frederick early this morning for Harper’s Ferry, under the command of Captain Bradley T. Johnson.—National Intelligencer, May 11.
—The First Regiment of Connecticut Volunteers left New Haven this morning for the seat of war.—N. Y. Tribune, May 10.
May 8th. I tried to write, as I have taken my place in the steamer to Mobile to-morrow, and I was obliged to do my best in a room full of people, constantly disturbed by visitors. Early this morning, as usual, my faithful Wigfall comes in and sits by my bedside, and passing his hands through his locks, pours out his ideas with wonderful lucidity and odd affectation of logic all his own. “We are a peculiar people, sir! You don’t understand us, and you can’t understand us, because we are known to you only by Northern writers and Northern papers, who know nothing of us themselves, or misrepresent what they do know. We are an agricultural people; we are a primitive but a civilized people. We have no cities—we don’t want them, have no literature—we don’t need any yet. We have no press—we are glad of it. We do not require a press, because we go out and discuss all public questions from the stump with our people. We have no commercial marine—no navy—we don’t want them. We are better without them. Your ships carry our produce, and you can protect your own vessels. We want no manufactures: we desire no trading, no mechanical or manufacturing classes. As long as we have our rice, our sugar, our tobacco, and our cotton, we can command wealth to purchase all we want from those nations with which we are in amity, and to lay up money besides. But with the Yankees we will never trade—never. Not one pound of cotton shall ever go from the South to their accursed cities; not one ounce of their steel or their manufactures shall ever cross our border.” And so on. What the Senator who is preparing a bill for drafting the people into the army fears is, that the North will begin active operations before the South is ready for resistance. “Give us till November to drill our men, and we shall be irresistible.” He deprecates any offensive movement, and is opposed to an attack on Washington, which many journals here advocate.
Mr. Walker sent me over a letter recommending me to all officers of the Confederate States, and I received an invitation from the President to dine with him to-morrow, which I was much chagrined to be obliged to refuse. In fact, it is most important to complete my Southern tour speedily, as all mail communication will soon be suspended from the South, and the blockade effectually cuts off any communication by sea. Rails torn up, bridges broken, telegraphs down—trains searched—the war is begun. The North is pouring its hosts to the battle, and it has met the pæans of the conquering Charlestonians with a universal yell of indignation and an oath of vengeance.
I expressed a belief in a letter, written a few days after my arrival (March 27th), that the South would never go back into the Union. The North think that they can coerce the South, and I am not prepared to say they are right or wrong; but I am convinced that the South can only be forced back by such a conquest as that which laid Poland prostrate at the feet of Russia. It may be that such a conquest can be made by the North, but success must destroy the Union as it has been constituted in times past. A strong Government must be the logical consequence of victory, and the triumph of the South will be attended by a similar result, for which, indeed, many Southerners are very well disposed. To the people of the Confederate States there would be no terror in such an issue, for it appears to me they are pining for a strong Government exceedingly. The North must accept it, whether they like it or not.
Neither party—if such a term can be applied to the rest of the United States, and to those States which disclaim the authority of the Federal Government— was prepared for the aggressive or resisting power of the other. Already the Confederate States perceive that they cannot carry all before them with a rush, while the North have learnt that they must put forth all their strength to make good a tithe of their lately uttered threats. But the Montgomery Government are anxious to gain time, and to prepare a regular army The North, distracted by apprehensions of vast disturbance in their complicated relations, are clamoring for instant action and speedy consummation. The counsels of moderate men, as they were called, have been utterly overruled.
The whole foundation on which South Carolina rests is cotton and a certain amount of rice; or rather she bases her whole fabric on the necessity which exists in Europe for those products of her soil, believing and asserting, as she does, that England and France cannot and will not do without them. Cotton, without a market, is so much flocculent matter encumbering the ground. Rice, without demand for it, is unsalable grain in store and on the field. Cotton at ten cents a pound is boundless prosperity, empire and superiority, and rice or grain need no longer be regarded.
In the matter of slave-labor, South Carolina argues pretty much in the following manner: England and France (she says) require our products. In order to meet their wants, we must cultivate our soil. There is only one way of doing so. The white man cannot live on our land at certain seasons of the year; he cannot work in the manner required by the crops. He must, therefore, employ a race suited to the labor, and that is a race which will only work when it is obliged to do so. That race was imported from Africa, under the sanction of the law, by our ancestors, when we were a British colony, and it has been fostered by us, so that its increase here has been as great as that of the most flourishing people in the world. In other places, where its labor was not productive or imperatively essential, that race has been made free, sometimes with disastrous consequences to itself and to industry. But we will not make it free. We cannot do so. We hold that slavery is essential to our existence as producers of what Europe requires; nay more, we maintain it is in the abstract right in principle; and some of us go so far as to maintain that the only proper form of society, according to the law of God and the exigencies of man, is that which has slavery as its basis. As to the slave, he is happier far in his state of servitude, more civilized and religious, than he is or could be if free or in his native Africa. For this system we will fight to the end.
In the evening I paid farewell visits, and spent an hour with Mr. Toombs, who is unquestionably one of the most original, quaint, and earnest of the Southern leaders, and whose eloquence and power as a debater are greatly esteemed by his countrymen. He is something of an Anglo-maniac, and an Anglo-phobist—a combination not unusual in America—that is, he is proud of being connected with and descended from respectable English families, and admires our mixed constitution, whilst he is an enemy to what is called English policy, and is a strong pro-slavery champion. Wigfall and he are very uneasy about the scant supply of gunpowder in the Southern States, and the difficulty of obtaining it.
In the evening had a little reunion in the bedroom as before.—Mr. Wigfall, Mr. Keitt, an eminent Southern politician, Col. Pickett, Mr. Browne, Mr. Benjamin, Mr. George Sanders, and others. The last-named gentleman was dismissed or recalled from his post at Liverpool, because he fraternized with Mazzini and other Red Republicans à ce qu’ on dit. Here he is a slavery man, and a friend of an oligarchy. Your “Rights of Man” man is often most inconsistent with himself, and is generally found associated with the men of force and violence.
WEDNESDAY 8
Another fine bright day. Have been bothered some with ladies at the Pat office calling upon me. I might perhaps better say interupted. They all want to see Gov Sprague of R.I. I took in five and introduced them. Then into the quarters upstairs, then into the Surgeon Genls quarters, then into the Hospital. Juliet renewed the Govs Boquet of flowers. Went after dinner to the Presidents grounds with wife, Juliet & H N Jr. Went from there to the Pat office to see the RI Regt parade. Avee full of people, mostly soldiers. Troops marching and parading all over the City every night. Music heard all over.
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The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.
MAY 8th.— The Convention has appointed five members of Congress to go to Montgomery: Messrs. Hunter, Rives, Brockenborough, Staples, and ———. I have not yet seen Mr. Hunter; he has made no speeches, but no doubt he has done all in his power to secure the passage of the ordinance, in his quiet but effective way. To-day President Tyler remarked that the politicians in the Convention had appointed a majority of the members from the old opposition party. The President would certainly have been appointed, if it had not been understood he did not desire it. Debilitated from a protracted participation in the exciting scenes of the Convention, he could not bear the fatigue of so long a journey at this season of the year.
CINCINNATI, May 8, 1861.
DEAR GUY:—I have just received and read your letter of the 27th ult. It does me good to hear from you again. I have thought of you often since these troubles began. Curiously enough, having a bad cold and a slight fever, I dreamed of many things last night. Among others I dreamed of seeing you at the Burnet House; that you wore on your cap some sort of secession emblem and that you were in danger of getting into difficulty with some soldiers who were in the rotunda, and that it was after some effort that I succeeded in getting you rid of them. I should have written you soon even if I had not heard from you.
Your predictions as to the course of things have indeed been very exactly fulfilled. I can recollect distinctly many conversations had twelve, perhaps even fifteen, years ago in which you pointed out the probable result of the agitation of slavery. I have hoped that we could live together notwithstanding slavery, but for some time past the hope has been a faint one. I now have next to no hope of a restoration of the old Union. If you are correct in your view of the facts, there is no hope whatever. In such case, a continued union is not desirable were it possible. I do not differ widely from you as to the possibility of conquering the South, nor as to the expediency of doing it even if it were practicable. If it is the settled and final judgment of any slave State that she cannot live in the Union, I should not think it wise or desirable to retain her by force, even if it could be done.
But am I, therefore, to oppose the war? If it were a war of conquest merely, certainly I should oppose it, and on the grounds you urge. But the war is forced on us. We cannot escape it. While in your State, and in others, perhaps in all the cotton-growing States, a decided and controlling public judgment has deliberately declared against remaining in the Union, it is quite certain that in several States rebellious citizens are bent on forcing out of the Union States whose people are not in favor of secession; that the general Government is assailed, its property taken, its authority defied in places and in a way not supported by any fairly expressed popular verdict. Undoubtedly the design to capture Washington is entertained by the Government of the Southern Confederacy. Undoubtedly that Confederacy has not by its acts sought a peaceful separation. Everything has been done by force. If force had been employed to meet force, I believe several States now out of the Union would have remained in it. We have an example before us. Two weeks ago Maryland was fast going out; now, aided by the power of the general Government, the Union men seem again to be in the ascendant. The same is true of Delaware, Kentucky, Missouri, and western Virginia, with perhaps allowances in some quarters.
I do not, of course, undertake to predict what will be the ultimate object of the war. I trust it will not be merely the conquest of unwilling peoples. Its present object, and its obvious present effect, is to defend the rights of the Union, and to strengthen the Union men in the doubtful States. We were becoming a disgraced, demoralized people. We are now united and strong.
If peaceful separation were to be attempted, it would fail. We should fight about the terms of it. The question of boundary alone would compel a war. After a war we shall make peace. It will henceforth be known that a State disappointed in an election can’t secede, except at the risk of fearful war. What is left to us will be ours. The war for the purposes indicated— viz., for the defence of the capital, for the maintenance of the authority of the Government and the rights of the United States, I think is necessary, wise, and just. I know you honestly differ from me. I know that thousands—the great body of the people in some States, perhaps,—agree with you, and if we were only dealing with you and such as you, there would be no war between us. But if Kentucky, Virginia, and other States similarly situated leave the Union, it will be because they are forced or dragged out; and our Government ought not to permit it, if it can be prevented even by war.
I read your letter to Judge Matthews. We agree in the main respecting these questions. I shall be pleased to read it to George [Jones] when we meet. He has two brothers who have volunteered and gone to Washington. Lorin Andrews, President of Kenyon, our classmate, is colonel of a regiment. My brother- in-law, Dr. [James D.] Webb, has gone as a surgeon. I shall not take any active part, probably, unless Kentucky goes out. If so the war will be brought to our own doors and I shall be in it. If I felt I had any peculiar military capacity I should probably have gone to Washington with the rest. I trust the war will be short and that in terms, just to all, peace will be restored. I apprehend, and it is, I think, generally thought, that the war will [not] be a long one. Our whole people are in it. Your acquaintances Pugh, Pendleton, and Groesbeck, are all for prosecuting it with the utmost vigor. Vallandigham is silent, the only man I have heard of in any party. He has not been mobbed and is in no danger of it. I will try to send you Bishop McIlvaine’s address on the war. It will give you our side of the matter.
We shall, of course, not agree about the war. We shall, I am sure, remain friends. There are good points about all such wars. People forget self. The virtues of magnanimity, courage, patriotism, etc., etc., are called into life. People are more generous, more sympathetic, better, than when engaged in the more selfish pursuits of peace. The same exhibition of virtue is witnessed on your side. May there be as much of this, the better side of war, enjoyed on both sides, and as little of the horrors of war suffered, as possible, and may we soon have an honorable and enduring peace!
My regards to your wife and boy. Lucy and the boys send much love.
As ever,
R.B. HAYES.
P.S.—My eldest thinks God will be sorely puzzled what to do. He hears prayers for our side at church, and his grandmother tells him that there are good people praying for the other side, and he asks: “How can He answer the prayers of both?”
GUY M. BRYAN,
Texas.
—The Salem, Mass., Zouaves arrived at Washington. They number 66 men, and are officered as follows: Captain, A. F. Devereux; 1st Lieutenant, G. F. Austin; 2d Lieutenant, E. A. P. Brewster; 3d Lieutenant, G. D. Putnam. They are armed with the Miniè musket, and uniformed in dark blue jackets and pants, trimmed with scarlet braid, and red fatigue caps. —National Intelligencer, May 11.
—A privateer was captured at the mouth of the Chesapeake, by the steamer Harriet Lane. The officers and crew, with the exception of two seamen, escaped.—Philadelphia Press, May 9.
—The Richmond Examiner of to-day demands a Dictator; it says: “No power in executive hands can be too great, no discretion too absolute, at such moments as these. We need a Dictator. Let lawyers talk when the world has time to hear them. Now let the sword do its work. Usurpations of power by the chief, for the preservation of the people from robbers and murderers, will be reckoned as genius and patriotism by all sensible men in the world now, and by every historian that will judge the deed hereafter.”
—The Fourth Pennsylvania Regiment from the county of Montgomery, arrived at Washington from Annapolis. It is commanded by the following officers:
Colonel, John F. Hartranft; Lieut. Col, Edward Schall; Major, Edwin Schall; Adjutant, Chas. Hunsicker; Quartermaster, Yerkes; Surgeon, Dunlop; Assistant-Surgeons, Christ and Rogers; Captains, Bolton, Schall, Chamberlain, Dunn, Snyder, Allabaugh, Amey, Brooke, Cooke, and Taylor.
The regiment numbers about 900, and comprises a fine body of hardy yeomanry and artisans, who left their fields and shops to rally in defence of the National Capital—National Intelligencer, May 9.
—The steam frigate Minnesota, the flag-ship of the blockading squadron, sailed from Boston, Mass.—Boston Transcript, May 8.
—A meeting in aid of the volunteers from Roxbury, Mass., was held in that city. Speeches were made by Rev. J. E. Bartholomew, Edward Everett, and Alexander H. Rice.—(Doc. 145.)
—General Butler, at the Relay House, Md., promulgated special brigade orders concerning the several events that have occurred at the camp at that place since its formation.—(Doc. 146.)
May 9th. [7th1]—To-day the papers contain a proclamation by the President of the Confederate States of America, declaring a state of war between the Confederacy and the United States, and notifying the issue of letters of marque and reprisal. I went out with Mr. Wigfall in the forenoon to pay my respects to Mr. Jefferson Davis at the State Department. Mr. Seward told me that but for Jefferson Davis the Secession plot could never have been carried out. No other man of the party had the brain, or the courage and dexterity, to bring it to a successful issue. All the persons in the Southern States spoke of him with admiration, though their forms of speech and thought generally forbid them to be respectful to any one.
There before me was “Jeff Davis’ State Department” — a large brick building, at the corner of a street, with a Confederate flag floating above it. The door stood open, and “gave” on a large hall whitewashed, with doors plainly painted belonging to small rooms, in which was transacted most important business, judging by the names written on sheets of paper and applied outside, denoting bureaux of the highest functions. A few clerks were passing in and out, and one or two gentlemen were on the stairs, but there was no appearance of any bustle in the building.
We walked straight up-stairs to the first-floor, which was surrounded by doors opening from a quadrangular platform. On one of these was written simply, “The President.” Mr. Wigfall went in, and after a moment returned and said, “The President will be glad to see you; walk in, sir.” When I entered, the President was engaged with four gentlemen, who were making some offer of aid to him. He was thanking them “in the name of the Government.” Shaking hands with each, he saw them to the door, bowed them and Mr. Wigfall out, and turning to me said, “Mr. Russell, I am glad to welcome you here, though I fear your appearance is a symptom that our affairs are not quite prosperous,” or words to that effect. He then requested me to sit down close to his own chair at his office-table, and proceeded to speak on general matters, adverting to the Crimean War and the Indian Mutiny, and asking questions about Sebastopol, the Redan, and the Siege of Lucknow.
I had an opportunity of observing the President very closely: he did not impress me as favorably as I had expected, though he is certainly a very different looking man from Mr. Lincoln. He is like a gentleman—has a slight, light figure, little exceeding middle height, and holds himself erect and straight. He was dressed in a rustic suit of slate-colored stuff, with a black silk handkerchief round his neck; his manner is plain, and rather reserved and drastic; his head is well formed, with a fine full forehead, square and high, covered with innumerable fine lines and wrinkles, features regular, though the cheek-bones are too high, and the jaws too hollow to be handsome; the lips are thin, flexible, and curved, the chin square, well defined; the nose very regular, with wide nostrils; and the eyes deep set, large and full—one seems nearly blind, and is partly covered with a film, owing to excruciating attacks of neuralgia and tic. Wonderful to relate, he does not chew, and is neat and clean-looking, with hair trimmed, and boots brushed. The expression of his face is anxious, he has a very haggard, care-worn, and pain-drawn look, though no trace of anything but the utmost confidence and the greatest decision could be detected in his conversation. He asked me some general questions respecting the route I had taken in the States.
I mentioned that I had seen great military preparations through the South, and was astonished at the alacrity with which the people sprang to arms. “Yes, sir,” he remarked, and his tone of voice and manner of speech are rather remarkable for what are considered Yankee peculiarities, “In Eu-rope” (Mr. Seward also indulges in that pronunciation) “they laugh at us because of our fondness for military titles and displays. All your travellers in this country have commented on the number of generals, and colonels, and majors all over the States. But the fact is, we are a military people, and these signs of the fact were ignored. We are not less military because we have had no great standing armies. But perhaps we are the only people in the world where gentlemen go to a military academy who do not intend to follow the profession of arms.”
In the course of our conversation, I asked him to have the goodness to direct that a sort of passport or protection should be given to me, as I might possibly fall in with some guerilla leader on my way northwards, in whose eyes I might not be entitled to safe conduct. Mr. Davis said, “I shall give such instructions to the Secretary of War as shall be necessary. But, sir, you are among civilized, intelligent people who understand your position, and appreciate your character. We do not seek the sympathy of England by unworthy means, for we respect ourselves, and we are glad to invite the scrutiny of men into our acts; as for our motives, we meet the eye of Heaven.” I thought I could judge from his words that he had the highest idea of the French as soldiers, but that his feelings and associations were more identified with England, although he was quite aware of the difficulty of conquering the repugnance which exists to slavery.
Mr. Davis made no allusion to the authorities at Washington, but he asked me if I thought it was supposed in England there would be war between the two States? I answered, that I was under the impression the public thought there would be no actual hostilities. “And yet you see we are driven to take up arms for the defence of our rights and liberties.”
As I saw an immense mass of papers on his table, I rose and made my bow, and Mr. Davis, seeing me to the door, gave me his hand and said, “As long as you may stay among us you shall receive every facility it is in our power to afford to you, and I shall always be glad to see you.” Colonel Wigfall was outside, and took me to the room of the Secretary of War, Mr. Walker, whom we found closeted with General Beauregard and two other officers in a room full of maps and plans. He is the kind of man generally represented in our types of a “Yankee” — tall, lean, straight-haired, angular, with fiery, impulsive eyes and manner—a ruminator of tobacco and a profuse spitter—a lawyer, I believe, certainly not a soldier; ardent, devoted to the cause, and confident to the last degree of its speedy success.
The news that two more States had joined the Confederacy, making ten in all, was enough to put them in good humor. “Is it not too bad these Yankees will not let us go our own way, and keep their cursed Union to themselves? If they force us to it, we may be obliged to drive them beyond the Susquehanna.” Beauregard was in excellent spirits, busy measuring off miles of country with his compass, as if he were dividing empires.
From this room I proceeded to the office of Mr. Benjamin, the Attorney-General of the Confederate States, the most brilliant perhaps of the whole of the famous Southern orators. He is a short, stout man, with a full face, olive-coloured, and most decidedly Jewish features, with the brightest large black eyes, one of which is somewhat diverse from the other, and a brisk, lively, agreeable manner, combined with much vivacity of speech and quickness of utterance. He is one of the first lawyers or advocates in the United States, and had a large practice at Washington, where his annual receipts from his profession were not less than £8000 to £10,000 a year. But his love of the card-table rendered him a prey to older and cooler hands, who waited till the sponge was full at the end of the session, and then squeezed it to the last drop.
Mr. Benjamin is the most open, frank, and cordial of the Confederates whom I have yet met. In a few seconds he was telling me all about the course of Government with respect to privateers and letters of marque and reprisal, in order probably to ascertain what were our views in England on the subject. I observed it was likely the North would not respect their flag, and would treat their privateers as pirates. “We have an easy remedy for that. For any man under our flag whom the authorities of the United States dare to execute, we shall hang two of their people. ” “Suppose, Mr. Attorney-General, England, or any of the great powers which decreed the abolition of privateering, refuses to recognize your flag?” “We intend to claim, and do claim, the exercise of all the rights and privileges of an independent sovereign State, and any attempt to refuse us the full measure of those rights would be an act of hostility to our country.” “But if England, for example, declared your privateers were pirates?” “As the United States never admitted the principle laid down at the Congress of Paris, neither have the Confederate States. If England thinks fit to declare privateers under our flag pirates, it would be nothing more or less than a declaration of war against us, and we must meet it as best we can.” In fact, Mr. Benjamin did not appear afraid of anything; but his confidence respecting Great Britain was based a good deal, no doubt, on his firm faith in cotton, and in England’s utter subjection to her cotton interest and manufactures. “All this coyness about acknowledging a slave power will come right at last. We hear our commissioners have gone on to Paris, which looks as if they had met with no encouragement at London; but we are quite easy in our minds on this point at present.”
So Great Britain is in a pleasant condition. Mr. Seward is threatening us with war if we recognize the South, and the South declares that if we don’t recognize their flag, they will take it as an act of hostility. Lord Lyons is pressed to give an assurance to the Government at Washington, that under no circumstances will Great Britain recognize the Southern rebels; but, at the same time, Mr. Seward refuses to give any assurance whatever, that the right of neutrals will be respected in the impending struggle.
As I was going down stairs, Mr. Browne called me into his room. He said that the Attorney-General and himself were in a state of perplexity as to the form in which letters of marque and reprisal should be made out. They had consulted all the books they could get, but found no examples to suit their case, and he wished to know, as I was a barrister, whether I could aid him. I told him it was not so much my regard to my own position as a neutral, as the vafri inscilia juris which prevented me throwing any light on the subject. There are not only Yankee ship-owners but English firms ready with sailors and steamers for the Confederate Government, and the owner of the Camilla might be tempted to part with his yacht by the offers made to him.
Being invited to attend a levée or reception held by Mrs. Davis, the President’s wife, I returned to the hotel to prepare for the occasion. On my way I passed a company of volunteers, one hundred and twenty artillerymen, and three field-pieces, on their way to the station for Virginia, followed by a crowd of “citizens” and negroes of both sexes, cheering vociferously. The band was playing that excellent quick-step “Dixie.” The men were stout, fine fellows, dressed in coarse grey tunics with yellow facings, and French caps. They were armed with smooth-bore muskets, and their knapsacks were unfit for marching, being waterproof bags slung from the shoulders. The guns had no caissons, and the shoeing of the troops was certainly deficient in soling. The Zouave mania is quite as rampant here as it is in New York, and the smallest children are thrust into baggy red breeches, which the learned Lipsius might have appreciated, and are sent out with flags and tin swords to impede the highways.
The modest villa in which the President lives is painted white—another “White House”—and stands in a small garden. The door was open. A colored servant took in our names, and Mr. Browne presented me to Mrs. Davis, whom I could just make out in the demi-jour of a moderately-sized parlour, surrounded by a few ladies and gentlemen, the former in bonnets, the latter in morning dress à la midi. There was no affectation of state or ceremony in the reception. Mrs. Davis, whom some of her friends call “Queen Varina,” is a comely, sprightly woman, verging on matronhood, of good figure and manners, well-dressed, ladylike, and clever, and she seemed a great favorite with those around her, though I did hear one of them say “It must be very nice to be the President’s wife, and be the first lady in the Confederate States.” Mrs. Davis, whom the President C. S. married en secondes noces, exercised considerable social influence in Washington, where I met many of her friends. She was just now inclined to be angry, because the papers contained a report that a reward was offered in the North for the head of the arch rebel Jeff Davis. “They are quite capable, I believe,” she said, “of such acts.” There were not more than eighteen or twenty persons present, as each party came in and staid only for a few moments, and, after a time, I made my bow and retired, receiving from Mrs. Davis an invitation to come in the evening, when I would find the President at home.
At sundown, amid great cheering, the guns in front of the State Department, fired ten rounds to announce that Tennessee and Arkansas had joined the Confederacy.
In the evening I dined with Mr. Benjamin and brother-in-law, a gentleman of New Orleans, Colonel Wigfall coming in at the end of dinner. The New Orleans people of French descent, or “Creoles,” as they call themselves, speak French in preference to English, and Mr. Benjamin’s brother-in-law labored considerably in trying to make himself understood in our vernacular. The conversation, Franco-English, very pleasant, for Mr. Benjamin is agreeable and lively. He is certain that the English law authorities must advise the Government that the blockade of the Southern ports is illegal so long as the President claims them to be ports of the United States. “At present,” he said, “their paper blockade does no harm; the season for shipping cotton is over; but in October next, when the Mississippi is floating cotton by the thousands of bales, and all our wharfs are full, it is inevitable that the Yankees must come to trouble with this attempt to coerce us.” Mr. Benjamin walked back to the hotel with me, and we found our room full of tobacco-smoke, filibusters, and conversation, in which, as sleep was impossible, we were obliged to join. I resisted a vigorous attempt of Mr. G. N. Sanders and a friend of his to take me to visit a planter who had a beaver-dam some miles outside Montgomery. They succeeded in capturing Mr. Deasy.
1 Note: In the book, this entry is placed between the 6th and 8th, though it is recorded as the 9th. Also, the declaration of war, made in secret session of the Confederate Congress, had been made public on the 6th and appeared in the papers on the 7th.
