Outgoing Democratic Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio delivers a speech excoriating President Abraham Lincoln’s war policies and calling for peaceful coexistence with the Confederacy.

Exploring the most important 55 months in American history
Outgoing Democratic Congressman Clement L. Vallandigham of Ohio delivers a speech excoriating President Abraham Lincoln’s war policies and calling for peaceful coexistence with the Confederacy.
The second session of the lame duck Thirty-seventh U.S. Congress assembles at Washington and receives President Abraham Lincoln’s second annual message.
Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation warning southerners to stop aiding and abetting the Confederacy or risk having their property, including slaves, confiscated by military force.
The lack of southern opposition in the U.S. Congress enables the Republican majority to enact most of its party agenda.
Abraham Lincoln fulfills a party pledge by approving a law that bans the expansion of slavery into the U.S. territories.
President Abraham Lincoln submits his first annual message to Congress, in which he describes the current state of affairs and reiterates his view that the Union must be preserved by all necessary means.