With William Schermerhorn to Columbia College Board meeting at two o’clock. Unusual amount of business, mostly unimportant. Treasurer’s report. Report from a Committee on Tutorships; we decided to appoint three. . . .
I confidently predict that Lincoln will be elected by the
people, and that South Carolina and Texas, and probably Georgia and
Mississippi, will thereupon be foolish enough to commit themselves to
revolution, which will be a grave calamity. Also that Governor Wise will make
several great speeches, and make himself singularly ridiculous. Also, that
there will be Northern men enough interested in Southern trade to paralyze our
Northern protest against treason and disunion, and that their special organ
will be the New York Express1
Also, that Southern conservatives will be crushed and silenced, though in a
majority, and that the Reign of Terror in the Carolinas, Georgia, and other
states will be so strengthened that it may become intolerable and be thrown
off. I fear the question may have a grim solution in an uprising of the slaves,
from Richmond to Galveston, stimulated by their masters’ insane talk about the
designs of the Black Republican party.
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1 James Brooks’s Express, founded in 1836 and now supporting Douglas, was a peace-at-any-price organ, reflecting the views of many merchants; in 1861 its defense of the South almost provoked mob violence.
SOURCE: Allan Nevins and Milton Halset Thomas, Editors, Diary of George Templeton Strong, Vol. 3, p. 58
