December 19, 1860 (Wednesday)

Lincoln to a Secessionist:
"You will find that the only difference between you and me is that I think Slavery is wrong, and you think it is right; that I am opposed to its extension, while you advocate it; and as to the security of the institution and to the protection of slave property in the states where it has a lawful existence, you will find it as great under my Administration as it ever was under Mr. Buchanan's."

Senator from Tennessee--Andrew Johnson's speech in the Senate:
"I intend to stand by the Constitution as it is, insisting upon a compliance with all its guaranties.  I intend to stand by it as the sheet-anchor of the Government; and I trust and hope...that it will be preserved, and will remain a beacon to guide, and an example to be imitated by all the nations of the earth.  Yes, I intend to hold on to it as the chief ark of our safety, as the palladium of our civil and our religious liberty.  I intend to cling to it as the ship-wrecked mariner clings to the last plank, when the night and the tempest close around him.  It is the last hope of human freedom.

Let South Carolina and her Senators come back, and on the 4th of March we shall have a majority of six in this body against Lincoln.  He cannot make his Cabinet...unless the Senate will permit him.  He cannot send a foreign minister, or even a consul, abroad, if the Senate be unwilling.  He cannot even appoint a first-class postmaster....     I voted against him, I spoke against him; I spent money to defeat him; but still I love my country! I love the Constitution; I intend to insist upon its guaranties.  There, and there alone I intend to plant myself.  Every man throughout the nation who is a Patriot come forward and rally around the altar of our common country...that the Constitution shall be saved and the Union preserved."

"Andrew Johnson's bold and uncompromising attack was the first blow that the disunionists suffered in Congress.  Jefferson Davis writhed under it, and listened with a look and an attitude of the bitterest hatred and disgust.  It was a defection from their own ranks; a rebellion among their own slaves." (New York Times narrative by Ted Widmer, The Tailor Draws a Line, December 17, 2010)