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February 4, 1861

On this date 150 years ago, the Peace Convention met in Washington, D. C., with 131 members from 21 states, although none of the seceded states sent any delegates to this assembly. The convention was headed by former President John Tyler, who joined with others of like mind in a last desperate effort to compromise and save the Union.

Meanwhile, at Montgomery, Alabama, a convention of Southern representatives assembled. This was the initial meeting of the Provisional Congress of the Confederate States of America, attended by many former United States Senators, among them Louisiana's Judah Benjamin and John Slidell. Benjamin would later become Attoney General, then Secretary of war, in Jefferson Davis' cabinet. He and Slidell had been law partners together in New Orleans. Slidell would later become famous for his involvement in an international incident, the Trent affair.