The Slave Power lost no time in carrying into effect its threats of disunion. South Carolina seceded on December 20, 1860, and by the end of the year had seized the United States arsenals and other government property in the State, but Fort Sumter was not molested. By February, 1861, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas had also withdrawn. Virginia did not secede until April 17th. On February 4th a Confederate Congress met at Montgomery, Alabama, and on February 9th Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, became President, and Alexander H. Stephens, of Georgia, became Vice-President of the Confederate States of America. The breaking up of the Union did not go on without some attempts at compromising the situation, but all such efforts failed. The House and the Senate appointed special committees, who were either unable to agree or whose conclusions were not adopted. On December 18th the Crittenden Compromise Measures were introduced, and after long debate were rejected March 2, 1861. Dramatic withdrawals from Congress were made by the Southern Senators and Representatives, and this enabled Kansas to be admitted, on January 29, 1861, as a free State. Far from attempting to stop this breaking up of the Union, Buchanan's Administration did everything it could to aid it. Treason ran free in Washington; the Navy was scattered and rendered unavailable; the Army was demoralized, and thousands of stands of arms and other military equipment were removed from the Northern arsenals and sent South; and President Buchanan, through his Cabinet, announced the remarkable doctrine that any State could strike at the Union, appropriate the arms and property of the Government, and that nothing could be done to stop it. It was not treason for South Carolina to act as she did, but it would be treason to attempt to stop her course. Such was the situation when Mr. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4, 1861; seven States were out of the Union, a Southern Confederacy had been established with an organized Government, and its President inaugurated; the Army and Navy were crippled, the Treasury drained, and treason and assassination threatened on all sides. From the east portico of the Capitol, with Senator Douglas standing behind holding Mr. Lincoln's hat, the President delivered his first Inaugural Speech. Calm, clear, wise and firm were the words. It concluded, "I am loath to close. We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angel of our nature."