Benson J. Lossing, Pictorial Field Book of the Civil War. Volume 1.

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How utterly fallacious were all the promises, hopes, and expectations founded upon the assumption that Cotton was King, will be seen hereafter.

It was plain to some of the least discerning, that the whole scheme of revolt had been deliberately planned long before the assembling of Congress, and that the talk about guaranties, and concessions, and compromises, on the part of the conspirators, was sheer hypocrisy, intended to deceive their constituents, and to lull the suspicions of the loyal people of the Republic. “You talk about concessions,” exclaimed the out-spoken Iverson. “You talk about repealing the Personal Liberty Bills, as a concession to the South! Repeal them all to-morrow, Sir, and it would not stop the progress of this revolution. . . . It is the existence and the action of the public sentiment of the Northern States that are opposed to this institution of Slavery, and are determined to break it down — to use all the power of the Federal Government, as well as every other power in their hands, to bring about its ultimate and speedy extinction. That is what we apprehend, and what, in part, moves us to look for security and protection in secession and a Southern Confederacy.” --“Before this day next week,” said Wigfall,

December 13, 1860.

“I hazard the assertion that South Carolina, in convention assembled, will have revoked the ratification of the treaty which makes her one of these United States. Having revoked that ratification, she will adopt an amendment to her constitution, by which she will have vested in the government of South Carolina all those powers which she, conjointly with the other States, had previously exercised through this foreign department; and in the government of South Carolina will be vested the right to declare war, to conclude peace, to make treaties, to enter into alliances, and to do all other matters and things which Sovereign States may of right do. When that is done, a minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary will be sent to present his credentials; and when they are denied, or refused to be recognized by this Government, I say to you, that the sovereignty of her soil will be asserted, and it will be maintained at the point of the bayonet.” Then, referring to a threat that “seceding States would be coerced into submission,” he expressed a hope that such Democrats as Vallandigham, and Richardson, and Logan, and Cox, and McClernand, and Pugh, of Ohio — members of the House of Representatives--would stand by the Slave power in this matter, and prevent