The charge is often made that, despite the platform of the Republican
Party and the ante-election pledges of its candidate, the people of
the South were convinced that, with its advent to power, a movement
for the abolition of slavery would be inaugurated; and that, because
of this fear, the Cotton States seceded from the Union. No such charge
can be made with respect to Virginia. Over two months before her
secession, the Republican Party, as we have seen, acquired control of
both branches of Congress, and immediately proceeded to allay any such
apprehensions by the adoption of resolutions and the enactment of laws
of the most ultra pro-slavery type.
In January, 1861, a series of resolutions was adopted by the Senate
and the House of Representatives, among which was one declaring that
Congress recognized,
"Slavery as now existing in fifteen of the United States, by the
usages and laws of those states, and we recognize no authority,
legal or otherwise, outside of a state where it exists, to interfere
with slaves or slavery in such states."[278]