na offered
a resolution declaring that "the quartering of troops around the
capital was impolitic and offensive," and that, "if permitted, it
would be destructive of civil liberty, and therefore the troops
should be forthwith removed." The House laid the resolution on
the table by a vote of 125 to 35. Ex-President Tyler had formally
complained to the President from the Peace Congress, that United-
States troops were to march in the procession which was to celebrate
the 22d of February. When so many of the Southern people were
engaged in seizing the forts and other property of the government,
it was curious to witness their uneasiness at the least display of
power on the part of the National Government.

The tone of Secretary Holt's report to the President in regard to
the marshaling of troops in the National Capital was a manifestation
of courage in refreshing contrast with the surrounding timidity.
He stated in very plain language that "a revolution had been in
progress for the preceding three months in several of the Southern
States;" that its history was one of "surprise, treacheries, and
ruthless spoliations;" that forts of the United States had been
captured and garrisoned, and "hostile flags unfurled from the
ramparts;" that arsenals had been seized, and the arms which they
contained appropriated to the use of the captors; that more than
half a million of dollars, found in the mint of New Orleans, had
been unscrupulously applied to replenish the treasury of Louisiana;
that a conspiracy had been entered into for the armed occupation
of Washington as part of the revolutionary programme; and that he
could not fail to remember that, if the early admonitions in regard
to the designs of lawless men in Charleston Harbor had been acted
on, and "adequate re-enforcements sent there before the revolution
began, the disastrous political complications which ensued might
not have occurred."

The inauguration of Mr. Lincoln was an immense relief to the country.
There had been an undefined dread throughout the Northern States,
colored and heightened by imagination, that Mr. Lincoln would in
some way, by some act of violence or of treachery, be deprived of
the Presidency, and the government thrown into anarchy. Mr.
Breckinridge was the Vice-President, and there had been a vague
fear that the count of the electoral votes, over which he presided,
would in some way be obstructed or tampered with, and that the
regularity of th