March 26, 1861 (Tuesday)

Another warm pleasant day....

From GeorgiaInfo, "This Week in Georgia Civil War History, March 26, 1861:    "The Milledgeville Southern Federal Union reprinted an editorial from a New York newspaper wondering if President Lincoln had the backbone to do what he had claimed about using force to save the Union, and commented on the commercial battle impending between the two countries."

"In the midst of the 'rumors of wars' which agitate the public mind, it seems to escape attention that the most pregnant source of trouble between the slave-holding and non-slave-holding States, must inevitably grow out of the foreign commercial relations of the two sections.  With every disposition to pursue a financial and vicious policy, Mr. Lincoln has so evidently been wanting in the backbone, in the matter of Fort Sumter, that it is doubted by many whether he will attempt to carry out any part of the aggressive, coercive policy, indicated in his inaugural.  Active efforts to collect the revenue by a blockade, or to throw troops into Forts Jefferson, Taylor, and Pickens, would be regarded by Jefferson Davis and his administration as a commencement of civil war, and it may be questioned whether the President will dare, in defiance of public opinion, to push to such an extreme the un-conciliatory measures that he and his advisers have lately initiated...."

The on-going story at Fort Sumter is provided to us today by Civil War Daily Gazette, "Beauregard and Anderson Prepare for Surrender", March 26, 1861. 


Three diary links today--very interesting reads, full of trivia... Hat tip Daily Observations from the Civil War:

William Howard Russell's Diary:  "England might dispute the right of the United States Government to blockade the ports of her own States..."  ---Departure for Washington City


A Diary from Dixie by Mary Boykin Miller Chesnut


The on-going story of Spencer Kellogg Brown, "His Life in Kansas and Death as a Spy."