US warship lurks as peace commissioners sent to Lincoln

Confederate Senate in Alabama Senate chamber

• President Davis and president of the Montgomery Convention, Howell Cobb, advise the US Congress that they are sending three commissioners from the Confederacy to the United States, A. B. Roman, of Louisiana; Martin J. Crawford, of Georgia; John Forsyth, of Alabama, to Washington to discuss peace terms with President-elect Lincoln. In other business, Confederate Congress declares that the Mississippi River is freely opened to navigation by all states of the Confederacy/1861

• Governor Pickens of South Carolina telegraphs President Davis that a war steamer of the United States is lying off Charleston Bar laden with reinforcements for Fort Sumter and that he would like advice as to what to do. President Davis replies that Governor Pickens should use his own discretion/1861 

• In Washington, President-elect Abraham Lincoln, escorted by former New York Senator and Secretary of State-designate William Seward, attends an informal reception in both houses of Congress and visits justices of the Supreme Court during the afternoon. Meanwhile, US Supreme Court Justice from Alabama, Hon. John Archibald Campbell, acting as mediator, tells the Peace Commissioners meeting in Washington's prestigious Willard Hotel that according to Seward, the new Administration will evacuate Fort Sumter at Charleston, South Carolina, and not reinforce Fort Pickens at Pensacola, Florida, yet nothing will change./1861

Old Alabama Senate Chamber

Old Alabama Senate Chamber