MONDAY 21
Mr Yulee was in my room today and asked me if I thought it best to “coerce” the seceding states. I told him that I thought it best to protect the public property. But says he that is coercion in the opinion of the seceding States. I told him that it mattered little what the opinions of the Pirates and Freebooters were who now controled those states. The danger of a collision was imenent, but it soon passed off. I cannot restrain myself when talking with these fireeaters and Traitors. Weather delightful today, was down at the Hotels, bot a “Times,” read an hour to wife.
The three diary manuscript volumes, Washington during the Civil War: The Diary of Horatio Nelson Taft, 1861-1865, are available online at The Library of Congress.