My family are gone. We have moved the department to
Mechanics' Hall, which will be known hereafter as the War Department. In an
evil hour, I selected a room to write my letters in, quite remote from the
Secretary's office. I thought Mr. Walker resented this He had likewise been
piqued at the effect produced by an article I had written on the subject of the
difficulty of getting arms from Georgia with the volunteers from that State.
One of the spunky Governor's organs had replied with acerbity, not only
defending the Governor, but striking at the Secretary himself, to whom the
authorship was ascribed. My article had been read and approved by the Secretary
before its insertion; nevertheless he now regretted it had been written — not
that there was anything improper in it, but that it should have been couched in
words that suggested the idea to the Southern editor that the Secretary might
be its author. I resolved to meddle with edged tools no more; for I remembered
that Gil Bias had done the same thing for the Duke of Lerma. Hereafter I shall
study Gil Bias for the express purpose of being his antithesis. But I shall
never rise until the day of doom brings us all to our feet again.
SOURCE: John Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's
Diary at the Confederate States Capital, Volume 1, p. 57
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