May 11.—I have it from a very reliable source, that Mr. Lincoln considers Sumner to be not very entertaining.
May 11.—The confusion is on the increase. Statesmen, politicians, honest, dishonest, stupid and intelligent, all huddled together. Their name is legion—and what a stench. It is abominable! And many think, and many may think, that I find pleasure in dwelling on such events, on such men as are here. When I was a child, my tutor ingrained into my memory the Cum stercore dum certo, etc. But at any cost, I shall try to preserve the true reflection of events, of times, and of the actors.
May 12.—Jackson dead. Dead invincible! and therefore fell in time for his heroic name. Jackson took a sham, a falsehood, for faith and for truth—but he stood up faithfully, earnestly, devotedly to his convictions. Whatever have been his political errors, Jackson will pass to posterity, the hero of history, of poetry, and of the legend. His name was a terror, it was an army for friend and for enemy. For Jackson
O selig der, dem er in Siegesglantze,
Die blutigen Lorbeer'n um die Schlaefe windet.
May 12.—Sewardiana. Lord Lyons, or rather the English government, objects and protests against the instructions given to our cruisers, which instructions are intrinsically faultless. Mr. Lincoln jumps up and writes a clap-trap dispatch, wholly contrary to our statutes. Mr. Seward promises what he cannot perform, and this time the upshot is that his dispatch came before the Cabinet and was quashed, or, at least, recast.
The Morning Chronicle, of Washington—magnum Administration's excrementum—attacks Schalk and his military reasonings. Oh! great politician.
Sus Minervam docet.
May 13.—The defenders of Hooker affirm that Sedgwick was in fault, and disobeyed orders.
1st. I have good reasons firmly to believe that Sedgwick heroically obeyed and executed orders sent to him. No doubt can exist about it.
2d. The orders written by such a staff as Hooker's might have been written in such a way as to confuse the God Mars himself. Marshal Soult could fight, but as a chief of Napoleon's staff at Waterloo, could not write intelligible orders.