University of Virginia Library

II
MONTGOMERY, ALA.

II. February 19, 1861—March 11, 1861

MONTGOMERY, Ala., February 19, 1861.—The brand-new
Confederacy is making or remodeling its Constitution.
Everybody wants Mr. Davis to be General-in-Chief
or President. Keitt and Boyce and a party
preferred Howell Cobb[1] for President. And the fire-eaters
per se wanted Barnwell Rhett.

My brother Stephen brought the officers of the "Montgomery
Blues" to dinner. "Very soiled Blues," they said,
apologizing for their rough condition. Poor fellows! they
had been a month before Fort Pickens and not allowed to
attack it. They said Colonel Chase built it, and so were
sure it was impregnable. Colonel Lomax telegraphed to
Governor Moore[2] if he might try to take it, "Chase or no
Chase," and got for his answer, "No." "And now," say
the Blues, "we have worked like niggers, and when the
fun and fighting begin, they send us home and put regulars

there." They have an immense amount of powder.
The wheel of the car in which it was carried took fire.
There was an escape for you! We are packing a hamper
of eatables for them.

I am despondent once more. If I thought them in earnest
because at first they put their best in front, what now?
We have to meet tremendous odds by pluck, activity, zeal,
dash, endurance of the toughest, military instinct. We
have had to choose born leaders of men who could attract
love and secure trust. Everywhere political intrigue is as
rife as in Washington.

Cecil's saying of Sir Walter Raleigh that he could "toil
terribly" was an electric touch. Above all, let the men who
are to save South Carolina be young and vigorous. While
I was reflecting on what kind of men we ought to choose, I
fell on Clarendon, and it was easy to construct my man
out of his portraits. What has been may be again, so the
men need not be purely ideal types.

Mr. Toombs[3] told us a story of General Scott and himself.
He said he was dining in Washington with Scott,
who seasoned every dish and every glass of wine with the
eternal refrain, "Save the Union; the Union must be preserved."
Toombs remarked that he knew why the Union
was so dear to the General, and illustrated his point by a
steamboat anecdote, an explosion, of course. While the
passengers were struggling in the water a woman ran up
and down the bank crying, "Oh, save the red-headed

man!" The red-headed man was saved, and his preserver,
after landing him noticed with surprise how little interest in
him the woman who had made such moving appeals seemed
to feel. He asked her, "Why did you make that pathetic
outcry?" She answered, "Oh, he owes me ten thousand
dollars." "Now, General," said Toombs, "the Union
owes you seventeen thousand dollars a year!" I can imagine
the scorn on old Scott's face.

February 25th.—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
Cæsar 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. Barnwell[4] 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."

February 28th.—In the drawing-room a literary lady
began a violent attack upon this mischief-making South
Carolina. She told me she was a successful writer in the
magazines of the day, but when I found she used "incredible"
for "incredulous," I said not a word in defense of
my native land. I left her "incredible." Another person
came in, while she was pouring upon me her home troubles,
and asked if she did not know I was a Carolinian. Then
she gracefully reversed her engine, and took the other tack,
sounding our praise, but I left her incredible and I remained
incredulous, too.

Brewster says the war specks are growing in size. Nobody
at the North, or in Virginia, believes we are in earnest.
They think we are sulking and that Jeff Davis and
Stephens[5] are getting up a very pretty little comedy. The

Virginia delegates were insulted at the peace conference;
Brewster said, "kicked out."

The Judge thought Jefferson Davis rude to him
when the latter was Secretary of War. Mr. Chesnut persuaded
the Judge to forego his private wrong for the public
good, and so he voted for him, but now his old grudge
has come back with an increased venomousness. What a
pity to bring the spites of the old Union into this new one!
It seems to me already men are willing to risk an injury to
our cause, if they may in so doing hurt Jeff Davis.

March 1st.—Dined to-day with Mr. Hill[6] from Georgia,
and his wife. After he left us she told me he was the celebrated
individual who, for Christian scruples, refused to
fight a duel with Stephens.[7] She seemed very proud of
him for his conduct in the affair. Ignoramus that I am, I
had not heard of it. I am having all kinds of experiences.
Drove to-day with a lady who fervently wished her husband
would go down to Pensacola and be shot. I was dumb with
amazement, of course. Telling my story to one who knew
the parties, was informed, "Don't you know he beats
her?" So I have seen a man "who lifts his hand against
a woman in aught save kindness."

Brewster says Lincoln passed through Baltimore disguised,
and at night, and that he did well, for just now Baltimore
is dangerous ground. He says that he hears from
all quarters that the vulgarity of Lincoln, his wife, and his
son is beyond credence, a thing you must see before you
can believe it. Senator Stephen A. Douglas told Mr. Chesnut
that "Lincoln is awfully clever, and that he had
found him a heavy handful."

Went to pay my respects to Mrs. Jefferson Davis. She
met me with open arms. We did not allude to anything
by which we are surrounded. We eschewed politics and
our changed relations.

March 3d.—Everybody in fine spirits in my world.
They have one and all spoken in the Congress[8] to their
own perfect satisfaction. To my amazement the Judge
took me aside, and, after delivering a panegyric upon himself
(but here, later, comes in the amazement), he praised
my husband to the skies, and said he was the fittest man of
all for a foreign mission. Aye; and the farther away they
send us from this Congress the better I will like it.

Saw Jere Clemens and Nick Davis, social curiosities.
They are Anti-Secession leaders; then George Sanders and
George Deas. The Georges are of opinion that it is
folly to try to take back Fort Sumter from Anderson and
the United States; that is, before we are ready. They saw
in Charleston the devoted band prepared for the sacrifice;
I mean, ready to run their heads against a stone wall.
Dare devils they are. They have dash and courage enough,
but science only could take that fort. They shook their
heads.

March 4th.—The Washington Congress has passed peace

measures. Glory be to God (as my Irish Margaret used to
preface every remark, both great and small).

At last, according to his wish, I was able to introduce
Mr. Hill, of Georgia, to Mr. Mallory,[9] and also Governor
Moore and Brewster, the latter the only man without a
title of some sort that I know in this democratic subdivided
republic.

I have seen a negro woman sold on the block at auction.
She overtopped the crowd. I was walking and felt faint,
seasick. The creature looked so like my good little Nancy,
a bright mulatto with a pleasant face. She was magnificently
gotten up in silks and satins. She seemed delighted
with it all, sometimes ogling the bidders, sometimes looking
quiet, coy, and modest, but her mouth never relaxed from
its expanded grin of excitement. I dare say the poor
thing knew who would buy her. I sat down on a stool in a
shop and disciplined my wild thoughts. I tried it Sterne
fashion. You know how women sell themselves and are
sold in marriage from queens downward, eh? You know
what the Bible says about slavery and marriage; poor
women! poor slaves! Sterne, with his starling—what did
he know? He only thought, he did not feel.

In Evan Harrington I read: "Like a true English
female, she believed in her own inflexible virtue, but never
trusted her husband out of sight."

The New York Herald says: "Lincoln's carriage is not
bomb-proof; so he does not drive out." Two flags and a
bundle of sticks have been sent him as gentle reminders.
The sticks are to break our heads with. The English are
gushingly unhappy as to our family quarrel. Magnanimous
of them, for it is their opportunity.

March 5th.—We stood on the balcony to see our Confederate
flag go up. Roars of cannon, etc., etc. Miss Sanders
complained (so said Captain Ingraham) of the deadness of
the mob. "It was utterly spiritless," she said; "no cheering,
or so little, and no enthusiasm." Captain Ingraham
suggested that gentlemen "are apt to be quiet," and this
was "a thoughtful crowd, the true mob element with us
just now is hoeing corn." And yet! It is uncomfortable
that the idea has gone abroad that we have no joy, no
pride, in this thing. The band was playing "Massa in the
cold, cold ground." Miss Tyler, daughter of the former
President of the United States, ran up the flag.

Captain Ingraham pulled out of his pocket some verses
sent to him by a Boston girl. They were well rhymed and
amounted to this: she held a rope ready to hang him,
though she shed tears when she remembered his heroic rescue
of Koszta. Koszta, the rebels She calls us rebels, too.
So it depends upon whom one rebel! against—whether to
save or not shall be heroic.

I must read Lincoln's inaugural. Oh, "comes he in
peace, or comes he in war, or to treat but one measure as
Young Lochinvar?" Lincoln's aim is to seduce the border
States.

The people, the native, I mean, are astounded that I
calmly affir, in all truth and candor, that if there were
awful things in society in Washington, I did not see or
hear of them. One must have been hard to please who did
not like the people I knew in Washington.

Mr. Chesnut has gone with a list of names to the President
—de Treville, Kershaw, Baker, and Robert Rutledge.
They are taking a walk, I see. I hope there will be good
places in the army for our list.

March 8th.—Judge Campbell,[10] of the United States

Supreme Court, has resigned. Lord! how he must have
hated to do it. How other men who are resigning high positions
must hate to do it.

Now we may be sure the bridge is broken. And yet
in the Alabama Convention they say Reconstructionists
abound and are busy.

Met a distinguished gentleman that I knew when he
was in more affluent circumstances. I was willing enough
to speak to him, but when he saw me advancing for that
purpose, to avoid me, he suddenly dodged around a corner
—William, Mrs. de Saussure's former coachman. I remember
him on his box, driving a handsome pair of bays,
dressed sumptuously in blue broadcloth and brass buttons;
a stout, respectable, fine-looking, middle-aged mulatto.
He was very high and mighty.

Night after night we used to meet him as fiddler-in-chief
of all our parties. He sat in solemn dignity, making faces
over his bow, and patting his foot with an emphasis that
shook the floor. We gave him five dollars a night; that was
his price. His mistress never refused to let him play for
any party. He had stable-boys in abundance. He was far
above any physical fear for his sleek and well-fed person.
How majestically he scraped his foot as a sign that he was
tuned up and ready to begin!

Now he is a shabby creature indeed. He must have felt
his fallen fortunes when he met me—one who knew him in
his prosperity. He ran away, this stately yellow gentleman,
from wife and children, home and comfort. My
Molly asked him "Why? Miss Liza was good to you, I
know." I wonder who owns him now; he looked forlorn.

Governor Moore brought in, to be presented to me, the
President of the Alabama Convention. It seems I had

known him before; he had danced with me at a dancing-school
ball when I was in short frocks, with sash, flounces,
and a wreath of roses. He was one of those clever boys of
our neighborhood, in whom my father saw promise of better
things, and so helped him in every way to rise, with
books, counsel, sympathy. I was enjoying his conversation
immensely, for he was praising my father[11] without stint,
when the Judge came in, breathing fire and fury. Congress
has incurred his displeasure. We are abusing one another
as fiercely as ever we have abused Yankees. It is disheartening.

March 10th.—Mrs. Childs was here to-night (Mary Anderson,
from Statesburg), with several children. She is
lovely. Her hair is piled up on the top of her head oddly.
Fashions from France still creep into Texas across Mexican
borders. Mrs. Childs is fresh from Texas. Her husband
is an artillery officer, or was. They will be glad to promote
his here. Mrs. Childs had the sweetest Southern voice,
absolute music. But then, she has all of the high spirit of
those sweet-voiced Carolina women, too.

Then Mr. Browne came in with his fine English accent,
so pleasant to the ear. He tells us that Washington society
is not reconciled to the Yankees régime. Mrs. Lincoln means
to economize. She at once informed the major-domo that
they were poor and hoped to save twelve thousand dollars
every year from their salary of twenty thousand. Mr.
Browne said Mr. Buchanan's farewell was far more imposing
than Lincoln's inauguration.

The people were so amusing, so full of Western stories.

Dr. Boykin behaved strangely. All day he had been gaily
driving about with us, and never was man in finer spirits.
To-night, in this brilliant company, he sat dead still as if
in a trance. Once, he waked somewhat—when a high public
functionary came in with a present for me, a miniature
gondola, "A perfect Venetian specimen," he assured me
again and again. In an undertone Dr. Boykin muttered:
"That fellow has been drinking." "Why do you think
so?" "Because he has told you exactly the same thing
four times." Wonderful! Some of these great statesmen
always tell me the same thing—and have been telling me
the same thing ever since we came here.

A man came in and some one said in an undertone,
"The age of chivalry is not past, O ye Americans!"
"What do you mean?" "That man was once nominated
by President Buchanan for a foreign mission, but some Senator
stood up and read a paper printed by this man abusive
of a woman, and signed by his name in full. After that
the Senate would have none of him; his chance was gone
forever."

March 11th.—In full conclave to-night, the drawing-room
crowded with Judges, Governors, Senators, Generals,
Congressmen. They were exalting John C. Calhoun's hospitality.
He allowed everybody to stay all night who chose
to stop at his house. An ill-mannered person, on one occasion,
refused to attend family prayers. Mr. Calhoun said
to the servant, "Saddle that man's horse and let him go."
From the traveler Calhoun would take no excuse for the
"Deity offended." I believe in Mr. Calhoun's hospitality,
but not in his family prayers. Mr. Calhoun's piety was of
the most philosophical type, from all accounts.[12]

The latest news is counted good news; that is, the last
man who left Washington tells us that Seward is in the
ascendency. He is thought to be the friend of peace.

The man did say, however, that "that serpent Seward is
in the ascendency just now."

Harriet Lane has eleven suitors. One is described as
likely to win, or he would be likely to win, except that he is
too heavily weighted. He has been married before and
goes about with children and two mothers. There are limits
beyond which! Two mothers-in-law!

Mr. Ledyard spoke to Mrs. Lincoln in behalf of a doorkeeper
who almost felt he had a vested right, having been
there since Jackson's time; but met with the same answer;
she had brought her own girl and must economize. Mr.
Ledyard thought the twenty thousand (and little enough it
is) was given to the President of these United States to
enable him to live in proper style, and to maintain an establishment
of such dignity as befits the head of a great nation.
It is an infamy to economize with the public money
and to put it into one's private purse. Mrs. Browne was
walking with me when we were airing our indignation
against Mrs. Lincoln and her shabby economy. The Herald
says three only of the élite Washington families attended
the Inauguration Ball.

The Judge has just come in and said: "Last night,
after Dr. Boykin left on the cars, there came a telegram
that his little daughter, Amanda, had died suddenly." In
some way he must have known it beforehand. He changed
so suddenly yesterday, and seemed so careworn and unhappy.
He believes in clairvoyance, magnetism, and all
that. Certainly, there was some terrible foreboding of
this kind on his part.

Tuesday.—Now this, they say, is positive: "Fort Sumter
is to be released and we are to have no war." After
all, far too good to be true. Mr. Browne told us that, at
one of the peace intervals (I mean intervals in the interest
of peace), Lincoln flew through Baltimore, locked up in an
express car. He wore a Scotch cap.

We went to the Congress. Governor Cobb, who presides

over that august body, put James Chesnut in the
chair, and came down to talk to us. He told us why the
pay of Congressmen was fixed in secret session, and why the
amount of it was never divulged—to prevent the lodging-house
and hotel people from making their bills of a size to
cover it all. "The bill would be sure to correspond with
the pay," he said.

In the hotel parlor we had a scene. Mrs. Scott was
describing Lincoln, who is of the cleverest Yankee type.
She said: "Awfully ugly, even grotesque in appearance,
the kind who are always at the corner stores, sitting on
boxes, whittling sticks, and telling stories as funny as they
are vulgar." Here I interposed: "But Stephen A.
Douglas said one day to Mr. Chesnut, 'Lincoln is the hardest
fellow to handle I have ever encountered yet.'" Mr.
Scott is from California, and said Lincoln is "an utter
American specimen, coarse, rough, and strong; a good-natured,
kind creature; as pleasant-tempered as he is clever,
and if this country can be joked and laughed out of
its rights he is the kind-hearted fellow to do it. Now if
there is a war and it pinches the Yankee pocket instead of
filling it—"

Here a shrill voice came from the next room (which
opened upon the one we were in by folding doors thrown
wide open) and said: "Yankees are no more mean and
stingy than you are. People at the North are just as good
as people at the South." The speaker advanced upon us
in great wrath.

Mrs. Scott apologized and made some smooth, polite remark,
though evidently much embarrassed. But the vinegar
face and curly pate refused to receive any concessions,
and replied: "That comes with a very bad grace after what
you were saying," and she harangued us loudly for several
minutes. Some one in the other room giggled outright,
but we were quiet as mice. Nobody wanted to hurt her
feelings. She was one against so many. If I were at the

North, I should expect them to belabor us, and should hold
my tongue. We separated North from South because of incompatibility
of temper. We are divorced because we
have hated each other so. If we could only separate, a
"separation à l'agréable," as the French say it, and not
have a horrid fight for divorce.

The poor exile had already been insulted, she said.
She was playing "Yankee Doodle" on the piano before
breakfast to soothe her wounded spirit, and the Judge came
in and calmly requested her to "leave out the Yankee
while she played the Doodle." The Yankee end of it did
not suit our climate, he said; was totally out of place and
had got out of its latitude.

A man said aloud: "This war talk is nothing. It will
soon blow over. Only a fuss gotten up by that Charleston
clique." Mr. Toombs asked him to show his passports, for
a man who uses such language is a suspicious character.