RICHMOND, April 17,1
1861.
Well, my dearest
one, Virginia
has severed her connection with the Northern hive of abolitionists, and
takes her stand as a sovereign and independent State. By a large vote she
decided on yesterday, at about three o'clock, to resume the powers she had
granted to the Federal government, and to stand before the world clothed in the
full vestments of sovereignty. The die is thus cast, and her future is in the
hands of the god of battle. The contest into which we enter is one full of
peril, but there is a spirit abroad in Virginia which cannot be crushed until
the life of the last man is trampled out. The numbers opposed to us are
immense; but twelve thousand Grecians conquered the whole power of Xerxes at
Marathon, and our fathers, a mere handful, overcame the enormous power of Great
Britain.
The North seems to
be thoroughly united against us. The Herald and the Express both give way and
rally the hosts against us. Things have gone to that point in Philadelphia that
no one is safe in the expression of a Southern sentiment. Poor Robert is
threatened with mob violence. I wish most sincerely he was away from there. I
attempted to telegraph him to-day, but no dispatch is permitted northward, so
that no one knows there, except by secret agent, what has transpired here. At
Washington a system of martial law must have been established. The report is
that persons are not permitted to pass through the city to the South. I learn
that Mrs. Orrick and her children, on her way here to join her husband, who is
on the convention, has been arrested and detained. There is another report that
General Scott resigned yesterday and was put under arrest. I hope it may be so,
but I do not believe it. I have some fear that he will not resign. Reports are
too conflicting about it.
Two expeditions are
on foot,—the one directed against the Navy Yard at Gosport, the other Harper's
Ferry. Several ships are up the river at the Navy Yard, and immense supplies of
guns and powder; but there is no competent leader, and they have delayed it so
long that the government has now a very strong force there. The hope is that
Pickens will send two thousand men to aid in capturing it. From Harper's Ferry
nothing is heard. The city is full of all sorts of rumors. To-morrow night is
now fixed for the great procession; flags are raised all about town.
If possible I shall
visit home on Saturday. Tell Gill that I shall send or bring down the sturgeon
twine and six bushels of potatoes, which should be planted as soon as they
reach home. I wish much to see you after so long an absence, and the dear
children, since they have had the measles. Do, dearest, live as frugally as
possible in the household,—trying times are before us.
1 As the ordinance was passed on the 17th,
this date ought to be 18th.
SOURCE: Lyon
Gardiner Tyler, The Letters and Times of the Tylers, Volume 2, p.
641-2
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