1860. Two weeks earlier Congress had met. Northerners and
Southerners had at once joined issue on their relation in the
Union. The House had appointed its committee of thirty-three to
consider the condition of the country. So unpromising indeed from
the Southern point of view had been the early discussions of this
committee that a conference of Southern members of Congress had
sent out their famous address To Our Constituents: "The argument
is exhausted. All hope of relief in the Union . . . is
extinguished, and we trust the South will not be deceived by
appearances or the pretense of new guarantees. In our judgment
the Republicans are resolute in the purpose to grant nothing that
will or ought to satisfy the South. We are satisfied the honor,
safety, and independence of the Southern people require the
organization of a Southern Confederacy--a result to be obtained
only by separate state secession." Among the signers of this
address were the two statesmen who had in native talent no
superiors at Washington--Judah P. Benjamin of Louisiana and
Jefferson Davis of Mississippi.

The appeal To Our Constituents was not the only assurance of
support tendered to the convention of South Carolina. To
represent them at this convention the governors of Alabama and
Mississippi had appointed delegates. Mr. Hooker of Mississippi
and Mr. Elmore of Alabama made addresses before the convention on
the night of the 17th of December. Both reiterated views which
during two days of lobbying they had disseminated in Columbia "on
all proper occasions." Their argument, summed up in Elmore's
report to Governor Moore of Alabama, was "that the only course to
unite the Southern States in any plan of cooperation which could
promise safety was for South Carolina to take the lead and secede