“John Brown, and a thousand John Browns, can invade us, and the Government will not protect us,” Jefferson Davis proclaimed in his December 8 speech to the Senate. If “we are not to be protected in our property and sovereignty, we are therefore released from our allegiance, and will protect ourselves out of the Union.” Davis also issued a chilling threat: “To secure our rights and protect our honor we will dissever the ties that bind us together, even if it rushes us into a sea of blood.”
