Entry by George Templeton Strong, April 15, 1861

    Source citation
    Allan Nevins, ed., Diary of the Civil War, 1860-1865: George Templeton Strong (New York, Macmillan, 1962), 120-121.
    Author (from)
    Strong, George Templeton
    Type
    Diary
    Date Certainty
    Exact
    Transcriber
    Transcription adapted from Diary of the Civil War, 1860-1865: George Templeton Strong (1962), edited by Allan Nevins
    Adapted by Don Sailer, Dickinson College
    Transcription date
    The following transcript has been adapted from Diary of the Civil War, 1860-1865: George Templeton Strong (1962).

    April 15. Events multiply. The President is out with a proclamation calling for 75,000 volunteers and an extra session of Congress July 4. It is said 200,000 more will be called within a few days. Every man of them will be wanted before this game is lost and won. Change in public feeling marked, and a thing to thank God for. We begin to look like a United North. Willy Duncan (!) says it may be necessary to hang Lincoln and Seward and Greeley hereafter, but our present duty is to sustain Government and Law, and give the South a lesson. The New York Herald is in equilibrio today, just at the turning point. Tomorrow it will denounce Jefferson Davis as it denounced Lincoln a week ago. The Express is half traitorous and half in favor of energetic action against traitors. The Journal of Commerce and the little Day-Book show no signs of reformation yet, but though they are contemptible and without material influence for evil, the growing excitement against their treasonable talk will soon make them more cautious in its utterance. The Herald office has already been threatened with attack.

    Mayor Wood out with a “proclamation.” He must still be talking. It is brief and commonplace, but winds up with a recommendation to everybody to obey the laws of the land. This is significant. The cunning scoundrel sees which way the cat is jumping and puts himself right on the record in a vague general way, giving the least possible offence to his allies of the Southern Democracy. The Courier of this morning devotes its leading article to a ferocious assault on Major Anderson as a traitor beyond Twiggs, and declares that he has been in collusion with the Charleston people all the time. This is wrong and bad. It is premature, at least …

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