--United States Senate, December 18, 1860.

ROBERT TOOMBS On Secession; Secessionist Opinion
--United States Senate, January 7, 1861.

SAMUEL SULLIVAN COX On Secession; Douglas Democratic Opinion
--House Of Representatives, January 14, 1861.

JEFFERSON DAVIS On Withdrawal From The Union; Secessionist Opinion
--United States Senate, January 21, 1861.

LIST OF PORTRAITS

WILLIAM H. SEWARD -- Frontispiece From a photograph.

SALMON P. CHASE -- From a daguerreotype, engraved by F. E. JONES.

EDWARD EVERETT -- From a painting by R. M. STAIGG.

STEPHEN A. DOUGLASS -- From a steel engraving.

JEFFERSON DAVIS -- From a photograph.

INTRODUCTION TO THE REVISED VOLUME.

The third volume of the American Eloquence is devoted to the
continuation of the slavery controversy and to the progress of the
secession movement which culminated in civil war.

To the speeches of the former edition of the volume have been added:
Everett on the Nebraska bill; Benjamin on the Property Doctrine and
Slavery in the Territories; Lincoln on the Dred Scott Decision; Wade
on Secession and the State of the Union; Crittenden on the Crittenden
Compromise; and Jefferson Davis's notable speech in which he took leave
of the United State Senate, in January, 1861.

Judged by its political consequences no piece of legislation in American
history is of greater historical importance than the Kansas-Nebraska
bill. By that act the Missouri Compromise was repealed and the final
conflict entered upon with the slave power. In addition to the speeches
of Douglas and Chase, representing the best word on the opposing sides
of the famous Nebraska controversy, the new volume includes the notable
contribution by Edward Everett to the Congressional debates on that
subject. Besides being an orator of high rank and of literary renown,
Everett represented a distinct body of political opinion. As a
conservative Whig he voiced the sentiment of the great body of the
followers of Webster and Clay who had helped to establish the Compromise
of 1850 and who wished to leave that settlement undisturbed. The student
of the Congressional struggles of 1854 will be led by a speech like that
of Everett to appreciate that moderate and conservative spirit toward
slavery which would not persist in any anti-slavery action having a
tendency to disturb the harmony of the Union. That this conservative
opinion looked up