SEMINARY, Jan. 20,
1861.
Here is another
Sunday. I have written you often enough of late to keep you in a perfect state
of uneasiness, but it does seem that each day brings forth something new. I now
have official notice that three thousand three hundred muskets, seventy
thousand cartridges, etc., are sent here from Baton Rouge, which must be a part
of those seized by the state or otherwise stolen, and I must make provision for
their storage. I must move to the new house in order to afford room for them in
my present quarters.
But my stay here
much longer is impossible. My opinions and feelings are so radically opposed to
those in power that this cannot last long. I send you a copy of a letter I
wrote to Governor Moore on the 18th, on the receipt of which he will be forced
to act. I hate to lose that five hundred dollars but I guess it can't be
helped. I know all about the forms of reports, returns, money accounts, etc.,
and no one here does, and I know of no one in the state that Moore can find.
Still I think he will feel bound to place the custody of these arms in the
hands of one more faithful to Louisiana than I profess to be.
I shall expect a
definite answer in a week, when I propose to go to New Orleans and settle the
bank account. I would then ship in some Cincinnati boat such traps as would not
bear railroad transportation and thence by railroad to Cincinnati, so that it
is not impossible I may be in Lancaster early in February. I must leave here
with a clean record, and this can only be done in the manner I have pointed out
to Governor Moore. He may endeavor to throw obstacles in my way, but I think
not. He is too fair a man.
I feel no desire to
follow an army necessarily engaged in Civil War, and as we could start out of
debt, it may be we can keep so.
Those now in debt
will suffer most, or least, for they will likely repudiate all debts. Down here
they think they are going to have fine times. New Orleans a free port whereby
she can import goods without limit or duties and sell to the up-river
countries. But Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore will never consent
that New Orleans should be a free port and they subject to duties. The most
probable result will be that New Orleans will be shut off from all trade, and
the South having no money* and no sailors cannot raise a blockade without
assistance from England, and that she will never receive.
I have letters from
General Graham and others who have given up all hope of stemming the tide. All
they now hope for is as peaceable a secession as can be effected. I heard Mr.
Clay's speech in 1850 on the subject of secession and if he deemed a peaceable
secession then as an absurd impossibility, much more so is it now when the
commercial interests of the North are so much more influential. . .
* So written but
probably Navy is meant.—ED.
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