ersons whom I regarded as traitors. I cannot now read the debates
without a feeling of resentment. Breckenridge, Mason, Hunter and
Powell still retained their seats as Senators from Kentucky and
Virginia, and almost daily defended the secession of the southern
states, declaring that the states they represented would do likewise.
These and other declarations I thought should have been promptly
resented by the immediate expulsion of these Senators. Wigfall,
of Texas, though his state had seceded, was permitted to linger in
the Senate and to attend executive sessions, where he was not only
a traitor but a spy. His rude and brutal language and conduct
should have excluded him from the Senate in the early days of the
session, but he was permitted to retire without censure, after a
long debate upon the terms of his proposed expulsion. I took no
part in the debates of that session, which closed March 28, 1861,
five days after my becoming a Member. I remained in Washington
until after the fall of Sumter in April following.

During this period my brother, William Tecumseh, came to Washington
to tender his services in the army in any position where he could
be useful. I had corresponded with him freely in regard to his
remaining in Louisiana, where he was president of the Louisiana
State Seminary of Learning and Military Academy. He had been
embarrassed in his position by my attitude in Congress, and,
especially, by the outcry against me for signing the Helper book.
He was very conservative in his opinions in regard to slavery, and
no doubt felt that I was too aggressive on that subject. In the
summer of 1860 he made his usual visit to Lancaster, and, finding
that I was engaged in the canvass and would on a certain day be at
Coshocton, he determined to go and hear me "to see whether I was
an Abolitionist." He was greatly embarrassed by a memorable speech
made by Mr. Corwin, the principal speaker on that occasion. We
sat upon the stand together, and he very excitedly said: "John,
you must not speak after Corwin." He was evidently impressed with
the eloquence of that orator and did not wish me to speak, lest
the contrast between our speeches would be greatly to my disparagement.
I told him that he need not trouble himself, that I was to speak
in the evening, though I might say a few words at the close of Mr.
Corwin's address. He remained and heard me in the evening, and
concluded on the whole that I was not an Abolit