Last night, the weather being very pleasant, the President's house was pretty well filled with gentlemen and ladies. I cannot imagine how they continue to dress so magnificently, unless it be their old finery, which looks well amid the general aspect of shabby mendicity. But the statures of the men, and the beauty and grace of the ladies, surpass any I have seen elsewhere, in America or Europe. There is high character in almost every face, and fixed resolve in every eye.
The President was
very courteous, saying to each, “I am glad to meet you here to-night.” He
questioned me so much in regard to my health, that I told him I was not very
well; and if his lady (to whom he introduced us all) had not been so close (at
his elbow), I might have assigned the cause. When we parted, he said, “We have met before.” Mrs.
Davis was in black—for her father. And many of the ladies were in mourning for
those slain in battle.
Gen. Lee has
published the following to his army:
- General Robert E. Lee’s General Orders No. 7, January 22, 1864
An eloquent and
stirring appeal!
It is rumored that
the writ of habeas corpus has been suspended—as the President has been
allowed to suspend it—by Congress, in secret session. But Congress passed a
resolution, yesterday, that after it adjourns on the 18th February, it will
assemble again on the first Monday, in May.
Mr. Lyons, chairman
of the Committee on Increased Compensation to the civil officers, had an
interview with the Secretary of War yesterday. The Secretary told him, it is
said, that unless Congress voted the increase, he would take the responsibility
of ordering them rations, etc. etc. And Mr. Smith, of North Carolina, told me,
to-day, that something would be done. He it was who moved to lay the bill on
the table. He said it would have been defeated, if the vote had been taken on
the bill.
Gov. Smith sent to
the Legislature a message, yesterday, rebuking the members for doing so little,
and urging the passage of a bill putting into the State service all between the
ages of sixteen and eighteen and over forty-five. The Legislature considered
his lecture an insult, and the House of Delegates contemptuously laid it on the
table by an almost unanimous vote. So he has war with the Legislature, while
the President is in conflict with the Confederate States Senate.
SOURCE: John
Beauchamp Jones, A Rebel War Clerk's Diary at the Confederate
States Capital, Volume 2, p. 136-7
