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have an explosion here, the end of which I cannot foretell. The in st troublesome m. liters with us arise from the Forts Sumter and Pickens. Whenever a policy is settled I will write you.

February 16. Stephens and Ben Hill have made friends and are as thick as brothers. When in Milledgeville a proposition for peace w.is made to Stephens, his reply was " If Mr. Hill will acknowledge that he told a lie as he did, then I will speak to him." I have re- ceived a long letter from Mitchell ui^in^ me to put in the claim of Athens for the capital of the Southern Confederacy.

I have had a hint of the Attorney-Generalship. I should promptly and unconditionally decline it if offered. The cabinet is beyond con- jecture. Toombs is spoken of for the State department, but says he would not have it. Yancey and Benjamin have also been named but I think no one has the slightest intimation of the President's views.

February 17. I have stuck to my homespun ever since I have been here. The President arrived here in a suit of homespun. I hope he will be inaugurated in it.

February 18. The inaugural pleased everybody and the manner in which President Davis took the oath was most impressive. The scene was one worth seeing and I regret more than ever that Sally and Gallic were not here. I have not yet called on the President. I hate anything that looks like toadyism.

We signed the enrolled constitution to-day and I have preserved my pen to be laid up again as an heir-loom for my children. They will have but few such memories of me.

February 19. The President had a grand levee last night. Every- body and his wife were there, except me. I stayed in my room and worked hard on bills until past i o'clock. Various rumors are abroad about the cabinet. Mr. Memminger will probably be Secre- tary of the Treasury. The firm conviction here is that Great Britain, France and Russia will acknowledge us at once in the family of nations. As to the North, the 4th of March will determine its policy.

February 20. The exciting question now is, " Who will consti- tute the cabinet?" It is understood that Yancey is to be Attorney- General, Captain Bragg, Secretary of War, and Toombs, Secretary of the Treasury. The State portfolio was offered to Barnwell and declined by him so says Keitt. From five to twenty letters come to me every day, begging for office. Gwynn, of California, writes that Seward told him there would be no war.

February 22. President Davis dines at our table every day. He