Clear and cold. Our
commissioners are back again! It is said Lincoln and Seward met them at
Fortress Monroe, and they proceeded no further. No basis of negotiation but
reconstruction could be listened to by the Federal authorities. How could it be
otherwise, when their armies are marching without resistance from one triumph
to another—while the government "allows" as many emissaries as choose
to pass into the enemy's country, with the most solemn assurances that the
Union cause is spreading throughout the South with great rapidity—while the
President is incapacitated both mentally and physically by disease, disaster,
and an inflexible defiance of his opponents—and while Congress wastes its time
in discussions on the adoption of a flag for future generations!
This fruitless
mission, I apprehend, will be fraught with evil, unless the career of Sherman
be checked; and in that event the BATTLE for RICHMOND, and Virginia, and the Confederacy,
will occur within a few months—perhaps weeks. The sooner the better for us, as
delay will only serve to organize the UNION PARTY sure to spring up; for many
of the people are not only weary of the war, but they have no longer any faith
in the President, his cabinet, Congress, the commissaries, quartermasters,
enrolling officers, and most of the generals.
Judge Campbell was
closeted for hours last night with Mr. Secretary Seddon at the department. I
have not recently seen Mr. Hunter.
We have news from
the Eastern Shore of Virginia. My wife's aunt, Miss Sally Parsons, is dead—over
90 years of age. The slaves are free, but remain with their owners—on wages. The
people are prosperous, getting fine prices for abundant crops. Only a few
hundred Federal troops are in the two counties; but these, under the despotic
orders of Butler, levy heavy "war contributions" from the unoffending
farmers.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 409-10
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