Pleading for conciliation.
Pleading still for conciliation, on January 10, 1861, it was the heart of a patriot and not that of the ambitious aspirant from which flowed these words:
What, senators, to-day is the condition of the country?
From
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every corner of it comes the wailing cry of patriotism pleading for the preservation of the great inheritance we derived from our fathers.
Is there a senator who does not daily receive letters appealing to him to use even the small power which one man here possesses to save the rich inheritance our fathers gave us?
Tears are trickling down the faces of men who have bled for the flag of their country and are willing now to die for it; but partriotism stands powerless before the plea that the party about to come to power adopted a platform, and that come what will, though ruin stare us in the face, consistency must be adhered to, even though the government be lost.
Even as he spoke, though perhaps as yet unknown to him,
Mississippi the day before had passed the ordinance of secession.
