To-day I beheld the first secession flag that had met my
vision. It was at Polecat Station, Caroline County, and it was greeted with
enthusiasm by all but the two or three Yankees in the train. One of these,
named Tupps, had been questioned so closely, and his presence and nativity had
become so well known, that he became alarmed for his safety, although no one
menaced him. He could not sit still a moment, nor keep silence. He had been
speculating in North Carolina the year before, and left some property there,
which, of course, he must save, if needs be, at the risk of his life. But he
cared nothing for slavery, and would never bear arms against the South, if
she saw fit to “set up Government business for herself.” He rather guessed war
was a speculation that wouldn't pay. His volubility increased with his
perturbation, and then he drank excessively and sang Dixie. When we reached
Richmond, he was beastly drunk.
Arrived at the Exchange Hotel, Richmond. A storm rages
above, and below in the minds of men; but the commotion of the elements above
attracts less attention than the tempest of excitement agitating the human
breast. The news-boys are rushing in all directions with extras announcing the
bombardment of Fort Sumter! This is the irrevocable blow! Every reflecting mind
here should know that the only alternatives now are successful revolution or
abject subjugation. But they do not lack for the want of information of the
state of public sentiment in the North. It is in vain that the laggards are assured
by persons just from the North, that the Republican leaders now composing the
cabinet at Washington were prepared to hail the event at Charleston as the most
auspicious that could have happened for the accomplishment of their designs;
and that their purpose is the extinction of slavery, at least in the border
States; the confiscation of the estates of rebels to reimburse the Federal
Government for the expenses of the war which had been deliberately resolved on;
and to gratify the cupidity of the “Wide-Awakes,” and to give employment to
foreign mercenaries.
But it is not doubtful which course the current of feeling
is rapidly taking. Even in this hitherto Union city, secession demonstrations
are prevalent; and the very men who two days ago upheld Gov. Letcher in his conservatism,
are now stricken dumb amid the popular clamor for immediate action. I am
now resolved to remain in Richmond for a season.
After tea I called upon Gov. Wise, who occupied lodgings at
the same hotel. He was worn out, and prostrated by a distressing cough which
threatened pneumonia. But ever and anon his eagle eye assumed its wonted
brilliancy. He was surrounded by a number of his devoted friends, who listened
with rapt attention to his surpassing eloquence. A test question, indicative of
the purpose of the Convention to adjourn without action, had that day been
carried by a decided majority. The governor once rose from his recumbent
position on the sofa and said, whatever the majority of Union men in the
Convention might do, or leave undone, Virginia must array herself on one side
or the other. She must fight either Lincoln or Davis. If the latter, he would
renounce her, and tender his sword and his life to the Southern Confederacy.
And although it was apparent that his physique was reduced, as he said,
to a mere “bag of bones,” yet it was evident that his spirit yet struggled with
all its native fire and animation.
Soon after President Tyler came in. I had not seen him for
several years, and was surprised to find him, under the weight of so many
years, unchanged in activity and energy of body and mind. He was quite as
ardent in his advocacy of prompt State action as Wise. Having recently
abandoned the presidency of the Peace Congress at Washington, in despair of obtaining
concessions or guarantees of safety from the rampant powers then in the
ascendency, he nevertheless believed, as did a majority of the statesmen of the
South, that, even then, in the event of the secession of all the Southern
States, presenting thus a united front, no war of great magnitude would ensue.
I know better, from my residence in the North, and from the confessions of the
Republicans with whom I have been thrown in contact; but I will not dissent
voluntarily from the opinions of such statesmen. I can only, when my opinion is
desired, intimate my conviction that a great war of the sections might have
been averted, if the South had made an adequate coup d'etat before the
inauguration of Lincoln, and while the Democratic party everywhere was yet
writhing under the sting and mortification of defeat. Then the arm of the
Republican party would have been paralyzed, for the attitude of the Democratic
party would at least have been a menacing one; but now, the Government
has been suffered to fall into the possession of the enemy, the sword and the
purse have been seized, and it is too late to dream of peace — in or out
of the Union. Submission will be dishonor. Secession can only be death, which
is preferable.
Gov. Wise, smiling, rose again and walked to a corner of the
room where I had noticed a bright musket with a sword-bayonet attached. He took
it up and criticised the sword as inferior to the knife. Our men would
require long drilling to become expert with the former, like the French
Zouaves; but they instinctively knew how to wield the bowie-knife. The
conversation turning upon the probable deficiency of a supply of improved arms
in the South, if a great war should ensue, the governor said, with one of his
inevitable expressions of feeling, that it was not the improved arm, but
the improved man, which would win the day. Let brave men advance with
flint locks and old-fashioned bayonets, on the popinjays of the Northern cities
— advance on, and on, under the fire, reckless of the slain, and he would
answer for it with his life, that the Yankees would break and run. But, in the
event of the Convention adjourning without decisive action, he apprehended the
first conflict would be with Virginians — the Union men of Virginia. He
evidently despaired, under repeated defeats, of seeing an ordinance of secession
passed immediately, and would have preferred “resistance” to “secession.”
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 16-18
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