Everybody in fine spirits in my world. They have one and all
spoken in the Congress1 to their own perfect satisfaction. To my
amazement the Judge took me aside, and, after delivering a panegyric upon
himself (but here, later, comes in the amazement), he praised my husband to the
skies, and said he was the fittest man of all for a foreign mission. Aye; and
the farther away they send us from this Congress the better I will like it.
Saw Jere Clemens and Nick Davis, social curiosities. They
are Anti-Secession leaders; then George Sanders and George Deas. The Georges
are of opinion that it is folly to try to take back Fort Sumter from Anderson
and the United States; that is, before we are ready. They saw in Charleston the
devoted band prepared for the sacrifice; I mean, ready to run their heads
against a stone wall. Dare devils they are. They have dash and courage enough,
but science only could take that fort. They shook their heads.
_______________
1 It was at this Congress that Jefferson Davis, on February
9,1861, was elected President, and Alexander H. Stephens Vice-President of the
Confederacy. The Congress continued to meet in Montgomery until its removal to
Richmond, in July, 1861.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 12
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