of a congress of
the seceding States, to which each State Convention, acting as the
direct representative of the sovereignty of the people thereof,
appointed delegates.

Telegraphic intelligence of the secession of Mississippi had reached
Washington some considerable time before the fact was officially
communicated to me. This official knowledge I considered it proper to
await before taking formal leave of the Senate. My associates from
Alabama and Florida concurred in this view. Accordingly, having received
notification of the secession of these three States about the same time,
on the 21st of January Messrs. Yulee and Mallory, of Florida,
Fitzpatrick and Clay, of Alabama, and myself, announced the withdrawal
of the States from which we were respectively accredited, and took leave
of the Senate at the same time.

In the action which she then took, Mississippi certainly had no purpose
to levy war against the United States, or any of them. As her Senator, I
endeavored plainly to state her position in the annexed remarks
addressed to the Senate in taking leave of the body:

"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. It has seemed to me proper, however, that I
should appear in the Senate to announce that fact to my
associates, and I will say but very little more. The occasion
does not invite me to go into argument; and my physical
condition would not permit me to do so, if it were otherwise;
and yet it seems to become me to say something on the part of
the State I here represent on an occasion so solemn as this.

"It is known to Senators who have served with me here that I
have for many years advocated, as an essential attribute of
State sovereignty, the right of a State to secede from the
Union. Therefore, if I had not believed there was justifiable
cause, if I had thought that Mississippi was acting without
sufficient provocation, or without an existing necessity, I
should still, under my theory of the Government, because of my
allegiance to the State of which I am a citizen, have been bound
by her action. I, however, may be permitted to say that I do
think