March 5, 1861 (Tuesday)

Watchfulness and the Growing Angst

Hat tip from the Civil War Daily Gazette:  a paragraph on responses from Southern papers to Lincoln's Inaugural Address:

"In the South, 'war' was the watchword.  'There will, then, as they must have it, be war,' wrote the Atlanta Southern Confederacy.  The Nashville Union and American (perhaps not as accurately named as Atlanta's journal) wrote:  'No man can read the Inaugural, without coming to the conclusion that it is a declaration of war against the seceded States, and in less than thirty days, if its avowals are carried out, we shall have the clangor or resounding arms, with all its concomitants of death, carnage and woe.'  'The sword is drawn and the scabbard thrown away,' proclaimed the Richmond Daily Dispatch.'

From Daily Observations from the Civil War:  The Confederate Records...the response to Lincoln's Inaugural.

"The inaugural undoubtedly means war, and that right off.  We agreed that it was Lincoln's purpose at once to attempt the collection of the revenue, to re-enforce and hold Fort Sumter and Pickens, and to retake the other places.  He is a man of will and firmness."


More Lincoln Inaugural Coverage at the links below:

From The American Interest -- The Long Recall, March 5, 1861:  Special Edition -- Lincoln Inaugurated!



New York Times, March 5, 1861 writes the narrative of the Lincoln Inauguration:  'The Inauguration Ceremonies:  The New Administration  --  great article



From Blue Gray Review:  two short articles on how modern technology of 1861 was used to report the words of Lincoln's Inaugural Address.


Richmond Daily Dispatch:  The Inaugural.   More negative it its narrative of the event.



Walter Russell Mead:  "Lincoln, Davis in Inaugural Shuffle".  Hat tip The Long Recall.


An article by Disunion -- New York Times, March 4, 2011 written by Michael O'Brien entitled "The Minds of the South."