taken from her
in an attempt to get it away from New York.

APRIL 20TH.--The news has been confirmed. It was a brickbat "Plug Ugly"
fight--the result of animal, and not intellectual or patriotic
instincts. Baltimore has better men for the strife than bar-room
champions. The absence of dignity in this assault will be productive of
evil rather than good. Maryland is probably lost--for her fetters will
be riveted before the secession of Virginia will be communicated by the
senseless form of ratification a month hence. Woe, woe to the
politicians of Virginia who have wrought this delay! It is now
understood that the very day before the ordinance was passed, the
members were gravely splitting hairs over proposed amendments to the
Federal Constitution!

Guns are being fired on Capitol Hill in commemoration of secession, and
the Confederate flag now floats unmolested from the summit of the
capitol. I think they had better save the powder, etc.

At night. We have a gay illumination. This too is wrong. We had better
save the candles.

APRIL 21ST.--Received several letters to-day which had been delayed in
their transmission, and were doubtless opened on the way. One was from
my wife, informing me of the illness of Custis, my eldest son, and of
the equivocal conduct of some of the neighbors. The Rev. Mr. D., son of
the late B----p, raised the flag of the Union on his church.

The telegraphic wires are still in operation.

APRIL 22D.--Early a few mornings since, I called on Gov. Wise, and
informed him that Lincoln had called out 70,000 men. He opened his eyes
very widely and said, emphatically, "I don't believe it." The greatest
statesmen of the South have no conception of the real purposes of the
men now in power in the United States. They cannot be made to believe
that the Government at Washington are going to wage war immediately. But
when I placed the President's proclamation in his hand, he read it with
deep emotion, and uttered a fierce "Hah!" Nevertheless, when I told him
that these 70,000 were designed to be merely the videttes and outposts
of an army of 700,000, he was quite incredulous. He had not witnessed
the Wide-Awake gatherings the preceding fall, as I had done, and
listened to the pledges they made to subjugate the South, free the
negroes, and hang Gov. Wise. I next told him they would blockade our
ports, and endeavor to cut off our supplies. To this he uttered a most
positive negative. He said it would be c