About this same date [April 21] a deputation of sympathizers [from Maryland] visited the President, and demanded a cessation of hostilities until the convening of Congress, accompanying the demand with the assertion that seventy-five thousand Marylanders would contest the passage of troops over their soil. Mr. Lincoln, in refusing to accede to the truce, quietly [...]

Washington, April 20. 1861 Governor Hicks and Mayor Brown: Gentlemen: Your letter by Messrs. Bond, Dobbin & Brume,1, 2 is received. I tender you both my sincere thanks for your efforts to keep the peace in the trying situation in which you are placed. For the future, troops must be brought here, but I make [...]

April 19, 1861 By the President of the United States: A Proclamation. Whereas, An insurrection against the Government of the United States has broken out in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, and the laws of the United States for the collection of the revenue cannot be efficiently executed [...]

April 15, 1861 By the President of the United States A Proclamation.1, 2 Whereas, The laws of the United States have been for some time past, and now are opposed, and the execution thereof obstructed, in the States of South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas, by combinations too powerful to be suppressed [...]

On the 13th of April, 1861, Messrs. Preston Stuart and Randolph, a committee appointed by the Virginia Convention, were formally received by the President, and presented the resolutions under which they were appointed. In response, Mr. Lincoln made the following address: Gentlemen: As a committee of the Virginia Convention, now in session, you present me [...]