The Union sentiment was strong in each one of these States, and the design of Mr.Lincoln was to pursue a policy so mild and conciliatory as to win them to the side of the government.
Kentucky, Maryland, and Missouri were excited by strong minorities who desired to aid the South, while no strong element in their population was ready to take decisive measures for the Union.
Palliation, conciliation, concession, compromise, were the only words heard, and the almost universal opinion in the South, shared largely by the North, was that to precipitate war would be to abandon the last hope for restoration of the Union.
EXTRA SESSION OF THE SENATE.
The extra session of the Senate, called by Mr.Buchanan for the convenience of the new administration, assembled on the 4th of March.

All the Southern States were represented in full except those which had members in the Confederate Congress at Montgomery, and from one of these--the State of Texas--both senators, John Hemphill and Louis T.Wigfall, were present.

Texas was indeed represented in the Congress of the Confederate States at Montgomery and in the Congress of the United States at Washington at the same time.

Some excuse was given for the continuance of the senators by an alleged lack of completeness in the secession proceedings of their State; but to the apprehension of the ordinary mind, a secession that was complete enough to demand representation at Montgomery was complete enough to end it at Washington.

The Texas senators, therefore, did not escape the imputation of seizing a mere pretext for remaining at Washington somewhat in the character of spies upon the new administration.