Montgomery, Alabama 1861
in Montgomery, Alabama (illustration), the newly-established Congress of the Confederate States of America, over which Southern Baptist leader Basil Manly, Sr., presides as chaplain, issues a statement that forebodes the military conflict soon to ensue:
Resolved by the Confederate States of America in Congress assembled, That it is the sense of this Congress that immediate steps should be taken to obtain possession of Forts Sumter and Pickens, by the authority of this Government, either by negotiations or force, as early as practicable, and that the President is hereby authorized to make all necessary military preparations for carrying this resolution into effect. Passed February 15, 1861.
As the slaveholding states pass legislation authorizing seizure of federal forts in the South, U. S. president-elect Abraham Lincoln continues his journey to Washington, D.C., where he is to be inaugurated. Traveling from Pittsburgh to Cleveland and greeted by swelling crowds along the way, Lincoln in Pittsburgh declares, “there is no crisis, excepting such a one as may be gotten up at anytime by turbulent men, aided by designing politicians.”
Source: Lincoln quote (link)
