March 4, 1861; The New York Herald
Since the sixth day of last November a series of unparalleled and eventful circumstances has become a part of the history of this country–circumstances which, in their present aspect, and in the gloomy hue they assume as concerns the future, vitally affect the prosperity and being of the most wondrous nation that ever grew from a few dependent provinces to the strength and majesty of a powerful empire.
On that day a sectional party, born of fanaticism, and nurtured for thirty years by a violent agitation which pervaded the lecture room, the schoolhouse, the pulpit and the family hearthstone, was elevated to power. Its success was the signal for revolt against its principles on the part of that portion of the country whose institutions its orators and politicians denounced as an iniquity and a curse. Six Southern States abandoned their allegiance to a government which was soon to be administered by the chiefs of this party, who were chosen according to the provisions of the constitution, but against the majority of the popular vote. Hostile attitudes were assumed by the seceding States, who seized the property of the general government, and the federal authorities, whose duty it was to protect it; but immediate collision was suspended by the forbearance of the Executive, in the hope that some compromise would be effected which might spare the shedding of fraternal blood. Remonstrances poured in from all sections of the country against the inauguration of coercive measures. State Legislatures proposed compromise and conciliation; a Peace Conference met at Washington; Congress talked by the hour over the affairs of the nation; financial disaster pressed hard upon every mercantile interest; threats of an attack upon the federal capital caused the concentration of a strong military force there; and while in many quarters voices were raised for peace, preparations were making for war. But the politicians of the dominant faction, in the face of all this, were obdurate and unrelenting in their denial of any compromise which might save the country from impending ruin, and the 4th of March has come, leaving the difficulty unsettled, and the country in as perilous a condition as ever.
Today at noon the administration will be established in power, while a separate confederacy is organizing in the cotton States; and in view of the alarming agitation which stirred the whole country to its utmost depths for the past four months, we have prepared and publish today a chronological table of all the important political events which have transpired in the period from the 6th of November to the 4th of March. That period will form a momentous episode in the history of the United States of America.