Territories subject to its
control.

The raid into Virginia under John Brown--already notorious as a
fanatical partisan leader in the Kansas troubles--occurred in October,
1859, a few weeks before the meeting of the Thirty-sixth Congress.
Insignificant in itself and in its immediate results, it afforded a
startling revelation of the extent to which sectional hatred and
political fanaticism had blinded the conscience of a class of persons in
certain States of the Union; forming a party steadily growing stronger
in numbers, as well as in activity. Sympathy with its purposes or
methods was earnestly disclaimed by the representatives of all parties
in Congress; but it was charged, on the other hand, that it was only the
natural outgrowth of doctrines and sentiments which for some years had
been freely avowed on the floors of both Houses. A committee of the
Senate made a long and laborious investigation of the facts, with no
very important or satisfactory results. In their final report, June 15,
1860, accompanying the evidence obtained and submitted, this Committee
said:

"It [the incursion] was simply the act of lawless ruffians,
under the sanction of no public or political authority,
distinguishable only from ordinary felonies by the ulterior ends
in contemplation by them, and by the fact that the money to
maintain the expedition, and the large armament they brought
with them, had been contributed and furnished by the citizens of
other States of the Union under circumstances that must continue
to jeopard the safety and peace of the Southern States, and
against which Congress has no power to legislate.

"If the several States [adds the Committee], whether from
motives of policy or a desire to preserve the peace of the
Union, if not from fraternal feeling, do not hold it incumbent
on them, after the experience of the country, to guard in future
by appropriate legislation against occurrences similar to the
one here inquired into, the Committee can find no guarantee
elsewhere for the security of peace between the States of the
Union."

On February 2, 1860, the author submitted, in the Senate of the United
States, a series of resolutions, afterward slightly modified to read as
follows

"1. _Resolved_, That, in the adoption of the Federal
Constitution, the States, adopting the same, acted severally as
free and independent sovereignties, dele