In the midst of forebodings which even the most optimistic shared, Congress reassembled.  Feeling was tense in both houses, but it was more noticeable in the Senate, where, hitherto, political differences had not been a barrier to social intercourse.  Senator Iverson put into words what all felt:  “Look at the spectacle exhibited on this floor.  How is it?  There are Republican Northern senators upon that side.  Here are Southern senators on this side.  How much social intercourse is there between us?  You sit upon your side, silent and gloomy; we sit upon ours with knit brows and portentous scowls....  Here are two hostile bodies on this floor; and it is but a type of the feeling that exists between the two sections."[896]

Southern senators hastened to lay bare their grievances.  However much they might differ in naming specific, tangible ills, they all agreed upon the great cause of their apprehension and uneasiness.  Davis voiced the common feeling when he said, “I believe the true cause of our danger to be that a sectional hostility has been substituted for a general fraternity."[897] And his colleague confirmed this opinion.  Clingman put the same thought more concretely when he declared that the South was apprehensive, not because a dangerous man had been elected to the presidency; but because a President had been elected who was known to be a dangerous man and who had declared his purpose to war upon the social system of the South.[898]

With the utmost boldness, Southern senators announced the impending secession of their States.  “We intend,” said Iverson of Georgia speaking for his section, “to go out peaceably if we can, forcibly if we must....  In this state of feeling, divided as we are by interests, by a geographical feeling, by everything that makes two people separate and distinct, I ask why we should remain in the same Union together?"[899]

No Northern senator had better reason than Douglas to believe that these were not merely idle threats.  The knowledge sobered him.  In this hour of peril, his deep love for the Union welled up within him, submerging the partisan and the politician.  “I trust,” he said, rebuking a Northern senator, “we may lay aside all party grievances, party feuds, partisan jealousies, and look to our country, and not to our party, in the consequences of our action.  Sir, I am as good a party man as anyone living, when there are only party issues at stake, and the fate of political parties to be provided for.  But, Sir, if I know myself, I do not desire to hear the word party, or to listen to any party appeal, while we are considering and discussing the questions upon which the fate of the country now hangs."[900]