The Rebels are demoralized and discouraged, yet have not the
manly resolution to confess it. Great is the tyranny of public opinion in all
this land of ours, and little is the individual independence that is exercised.
Men surrender their honest convictions to the dictates of others, often of less
sense and ability than themselves. The discipline and mandates of party are
omnipotent, North as well as South. Toombs of Georgia publishes a letter in
which he speaks with freedom and boldness of the wretched condition of affairs
among the Rebels, and of the ruin that is before them. This is audacity rather
than courage. Toombs is a malcontent. Scarcely a man has contributed more than
Toombs to the calamities that are upon us, and I am glad to see that he is aware
of the misery which he and his associates have inflicted on the country. I have
ever considered him a reckless and audacious partisan, an unfit leader in
public affairs, and my mind has not changed in regard to him. Toombs, however,
was never a sycophant.
Was at the navy yard with E[dgar] and F[ox] to examine the
Clyde, one of the fast boats purchased by the Rebels in England, which was
captured by our blockaders.
SOURCE: Gideon Welles, Diary of Gideon Welles,
Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. 1: 1861 – March 30,
1864, p. 428
No comments:
Post a Comment