Chapter 3: assembling of Congress.--the President's Message.
- Meeting of the thirty-sixth Congress, 64. -- President Buchanan's Message, 65. -- the Fugitive Slave Law, 67. -- Personal Liberty acts, 68. -- opinion of Attorney -- General Black. -- Secession impossible, 71. -- the President's indecision and recommendations -- denunciations of the Message, 73. -- disappointment of the people, 74. -- movements of the Clergy -- warnings of General Scott, 75. -- General Wool's letter to General Cass, 76. -- resignation of Cass -- Fast -- day proclaimed, 77. -- Clingman's treasonable speech in the Senate, 78. -- Crittenden's rebuke -- Hale's defiance, and the anger of the conspirators, 79. -- Iverson's treasonable speech in the Senate, 80. -- speeches of Senators Davis and Wigfall, 81. -- Cotton proclaimed King, 82. -- the Cotton “kingdom,” 83. -- Wigfall's insolent harangue, 84.
Whilst the Cotton-growing States were in a blaze of excitement, and the Slave-labor States north of them were surging, and almost insurgent, with conflicting opinions and perplexing doubts and fears, and the Free-labor States were looking on in amazement at the madness of their colleagues, who were preparing to resist the power of the Constitution and laws of the land, the Thirty-Sixth Congress assembled at Washington City. It began its second and last session at the Capitol, on Monday, the 3d of December, 1860. It was on a bright and beautiful morning; and as the eye looked out from the western front of the Capitol upon the city below, the winding Potomac and the misty hights of Arlington beyond, it beheld a picture of repose, strongly contrasting with the spirits of men then assembling in the halls of Congress. Never, since the birth of the Nation — more than seventy years before — had the people looked with more solemn interest upon the assembling of the National Legislature than at this time. The hoarse cry of Disunion, which had so often been used in and out of Congress by the representatives of the Slave interest, as a bugbear to frighten men of the Free-labor States into compliance with their demands, now had deep significance. Its tone was terribly earnest and defiant, and action was everywhere seen in support of words. It was evident that a crisis in the history of the Republic was present, with demands for forbearance, patience, wisdom, and sound statesmanship, in an eminent degree, to save the nation from dreadful calamities, if not from absolute ruin. Therefore with the deepest anxiety the people, in all parts of the Republic, listened to hear the voice of the President in his Annual Message to Congress, which, it was supposed, would indicate, with clearness and precision, the line of policy which the Government intended to pursue. Both Houses of Congress convened at noon on the 3d of December. The Senate, with Mr. Breckinridge, the Vice-President, in the chair, was opened by a prayer by the Rev. P.
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| John C. Breckinridge. |
