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city, and was delighted to find them hopeful; relying not only upon the weight and influence of material and business interests to avert actual war, but also, and especially, upon the noble intervention and mediation of Virginia.
It made my heart glow to hear how these great financiers and merchant princes spoke of my adopted State.
They said in effect, that it had always been so; that Virginia was undoubtedly the greatest and most influential of all the States; that she had been the nursing mother of the Union and of the country and would prove their preserver; that Virginians had really made the United States in the olden days,--Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Marshall,--and Virginians would save the United States to-day.
They deciared that they had always worshiped the Old Dominion, and now, more than ever, for the noble position she had assumed in this crisis.
How could I help glowing with pride and brightening with hope!
Alas! the shriek of the first shell that burst over Sumter shattered these fair hopes-and pandemonium reigned in New York.
It is not within the province of this book to discuss the responsibility for that shell.
I will, however, be candid enough to say that I never entertained a doubt as to the South having the best of the Constitutional argument; and yet, so strong was my love for the Union and my affection for my friends, at least nine-tenths of whom were on the Northern side, that I often felt, and more than once said, I could never strike a blow or fire a shot in the conflict, if it should come.
Nevertheless, I was inexorably led in the sequel to give myself unreservedly and whole-heartedly to the defense of the South.
One link in the chain that led to this decision was the conviction that forced itself upon me that I could not remain in New York.
After the firing upon Sumter the whole city was in an uproar.
A wild enthusiasm for “the flag” seized and swept the entire population which surged through streets hung with banners and bunting, their own persons bedecked with small United States flags and other patriotic devices.
It is not worth while to go further into these details.
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