An excerpt from speeches delivered in the US Senate by Senators Clement Clay of Alabama and William Gwin of California, December 13, 1859.
This document contains excerpts from two speeches delivered in the United States Senate on December 13, 1859, eleven days after John Brown’s execution. Senator Clement C. Clay of Alabama gave the first speech (p. 1-2) and Senator William M. Gwin of California gave the second speech (p. 7). Both men address the political fallout of John Brown’s raid. Gwin was born in Tennessee and was a protégé of Andrew Jackson. As a result, he was sympathetic to slaveholders despite representing the non-slaveholding state of California.