May 4. No national news of much importance today. There are signs, more or less reliable, of collapse and intimidation in Virginia and Maryland. A strong party in Kentucky and western Virginia seems certainly arming for the nation against state secession. The twenty days within which the President’s proclamation called upon all rebels to disperse expire tomorrow, and there are vague rumors of decisive steps thereupon to be taken. We shall see. We are generally hopeful and in high spirits today. But our levies are very raw; the rebel commanders have the energy and freshness that belong to revolutionary leaders. Worse than the loss of three pitched battles would be overtures of compromise and negotiation from the swindling chivalry – “the felon knights” of Jefferson Davis’s Round Table. That would divide and weaken us again. I fear the subtle, knavish, desperate leaders of the South have some such move in reserve. George Templeton Strong (1820-1875) was een Amerikaanse advocaat, vooral bekend vanwege zijn dagboeken. Op de site van de New York Times worden daar gedeelten uit gepubliceerd uit de periode van de Amerikaanse burgeroorlog.
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