January 21, 1861 (Monday)

Sharp discussions and apologies

Jefferson Davis's Farewell to the U. S. Senate: 
January 21, 1861

"The galleries of the Senate, which held, it is estimated, a thousand people, were packed, principally with women, who, trembling with excitement, awaited the announcements of the day....  As each Senator [five senators resigned today], speaking for his State, concluded his solemn renunciation of allegiance to the United States, women grew hysterical and waved their handkerchiefs, encouraging them with cries of sympathy and admiration....  Scarely a member of that senatorial body but was pale with the terrible significance of the hour.  There was everywhere a feeling of suspense, as if visibly the pillars of the temple were being withdrawn and the great governmental structure was tottering; nor was there a patriot on either side who did not deplore and whiten before the evil that brooded so low over the nation."  (A Belle of the Fifties by Virginia Clay-Clopton, Doubleday, Page & Company, 1905, Five Southern Senators Resign!, Civil War Daily Gazette)


"I rise, Mr. President, for the purpose of announcing to the Senate that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of Mississippi, by a solemn ordinance of her people, in convention assembled, has declared her separation from the United States.  Under these circumstances, of course, my functions are terminated here.

...I find in myself perhaps a type of the general feeling of my constituents towards yours.  I am sure I feel no hostility toward you, Senators from the North.  I am sure there is not one of you, whatever sharp discussion there may have been between us, to whom I cannot now say, in the presence of my God, I wish you well; and such, I feel, is the feeling of the people whom I represent toward those whom you represent.  I, therefore, feel that I but express their desire when I say I hope, and they hope, for peaceable relations with you, though we must part.  They may be mutually beneficial to us in the future, as they have been in the past, if you so will it.  The reverse may bring disaster on every portion of the country, and, if you will have it thus, we will invoke the God of our fathers, who delivered them from the power of the lion, to protect us from the ravages of the bear; and thus, putting our trust in God and in our firm hearts and strong arms, we will vindicate the right as best we may.

In the course of my service here, associated at different times with a variety of Senators, I see now around me some with whom I have served long; there have been points of collision, but, whatever of offense there has been to me, I leave here.  I carry with me no hostile remembrance.  Whatever offense I have given which has not been redressed, or for which satisfaction has not been demanded, I have, Senators, in this hour of our parting, to offer you my apology for any pain which, in the heat of discussion, I have inflicted.  I go hence unencumbered by the remembrance of any injury received, and having discharged the duty of making the only reparation in my power for any injury offered.

Mr. President and Senators, having made the announcement which the occasion seemed to me to require, it only remains for me to bid you a final adieu."  (Jefferson Davis's Farewell to the U. S. Senate, January 21, 1861, The American Civil War List of Resources, The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, vol 1.)

"After his speech, he left the crowded chamber and head lowered, went out into the street.  That night Mrs. Davis heard him pacing the floor.  'May God have us in His holy keeping,' she heard him say over and over as he paced, 'and grant that before it is too late, peaceful councils may prevail.'"  (The Civil War Narrative:  Fort Sumter to Perryville, Vol. 1  by Shelby Foote)