Find every one
working very hard here. As I dozed on the sofa last night, could hear the
scratch, scratch of my husband's pen as he wrote at the table until midnight.
After church
to-day, Captain Ingraham called. He left me so uncomfortable. He dared to
express regrets that he had to leave the United States Navy. He had been
stationed in the Mediterranean, where he liked to be, and expected to be these
two years, and to take those lovely daughters of his to Florence. Then came
Abraham Lincoln, and rampant black Republicanism, and he must lay down his life
for South Carolina. He, however, does not make any moan. He says we lack
everything necessary in naval gear to retake Fort Sumter. Of course, he only
expects the navy to take it. He is a fish out of water here. He is one of the
finest sea-captains; so I suppose they will soon give him a ship and send him
back to his own element.
At dinner Judge
____ was loudly abusive of Congress. He said: “They have trampled the
Constitution underfoot. They have provided President Davis with a house.” He
was disgusted with the folly of parading the President at the inauguration in a
coach drawn by four white horses. Then some one said Mrs. Fitzpatrick was the
only lady who sat with the Congress. After the inaugural she poked Jeff Davis
in the back with her parasol that he might turn and speak to her. “I am sure that
was democratic enough,” said some one.
Governor Moore came
in with the latest news — a telegram from Governor Pickens to the President, “that
a war steamer is lying off the Charleston bar laden with reenforcements for
Fort Sumter, and what must we do?” Answer: '”Use your own discretion!” There is
faith for you, after all is said and done. It is believed there is still some
discretion left in South Carolina fit for use.
Everybody who comes
here wants an office, and the many who, of course, are disappointed raise a cry
of corruption against the few who are successful. I thought we had left all
that in Washington. Nobody is willing to be out of sight, and all will take
office.
“Constitution”
Browne says he is going to Washington for twenty-four hours. I mean to send by
him to Mary Garnett for a bonnet ribbon. If they take him up as a traitor, he
may cause a civil war. War is now our dread. Mr. Chesnut told him not to make
himself a bone of contention.
Everybody means to
go into the army. If Sumter is attacked, then Jeff Davis's troubles will begin.
The Judge says a military despotism would be best for us — anything to prevent
a triumph of the Yankees. All right, but every man objects to any despot but
himself.
Mr. Chesnut, in
high spirits, dines to-day with the Louisiana delegation. Breakfasted with “Constitution”
Browne, who is appointed Assistant Secretary of State, and so does not go to
Washington. There was at table the man who advertised for a wife, with the wife
so obtained. She was not pretty. We dine at Mr. Pollard's and go to a ball
afterward at Judge Bibb's. The New York Herald says Lincoln stood before
Washington's picture at his inauguration, which was taken by the country as a
good sign. We are always frantic for a good sign. Let us pray that a Casar or a
Napoleon may be sent us. That would be our best sign of success. But they still
say, “No war.” Peace let it be, kind Heaven!
Dr. De Leon called,
fresh from Washington, and says General Scott is using all his power and influence
to prevent officers from the South resigning their commissions, among other
things promising that they shall never be sent against us in case of war.
Captain Ingraham, in his short, curt way, said: “That will never do. If they
take their government's pay they must do its fighting”
A brilliant dinner
at the Pollards's. Mr. Barnwell1 took me down. Came home and found
the Judge and Governor Moore waiting to go with me to the Bibbs's. And they say
it is dull in Montgomery! Clayton, fresh from Washington, was at the party and
told us “there was to be peace.”
_______________
1 Robert Woodward Barnwell, of South
Carolina, a graduate of Harvard, twice a member of Congress and afterward
United States Senator. In 1860, after the passage of the Ordinance of
Secession, he was one of the Commissioners who went to Washington to treat with
the National Government for its property within the State. He was a member of
the Convention at Montgomery and gave the casting vote which made Jefferson
Davis President of the Confederacy.
SOURCE: Mary Boykin Chesnut, Edited by Isabella D. Martin
and Myrta Lockett Avary, A Diary From Dixie, p. 8-10
