To-day the secession fires assumed a whiter heat. In the
Convention the Union men no longer utter denunciations against the disunionists.
They merely resort to pretexts and quibbles to stave off the inevitable
ordinance. They had sent a deputation to Washington to make a final appeal to
Seward and Lincoln to vouchsafe them such guarantees as would enable them to
keep Virginia to her moorings. But in vain. They could not obtain even a promise
of concession. And now the Union members as they walk the streets, and even
Gov. Letcher himself, hear the indignant mutterings of the impassioned storm
which threatens every hour to sweep them from existence. Business is generally
suspended, and men run together in great crowds to listen to the news from the
North, where it is said many outrages are committed on Southern men and those
who sympathize with them. Many arrests are made, and the victims thrown into
Fort Lafayette. These crowds are addressed by the most inflamed members of the
Convention, and never did I hear more hearty responses from the people.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p.19-20
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