29. He was responsible for Armed Liberty on the Capitol having a helmet of eagle feathers instead of the cap of a pagan goddess.
30. He had Cabin John Bridge with a span of 220 feet built.
31. He was United States Senator under President Buchanan.
32. He was nominated for President by Massachusetts men in 1860.
33. He refused to allow his name to be presented for President at the Charleston Convention.
34. He stood strongly for the Union, but stressed the constitutional right of a state to secede if it wished.
35. He did secede with Mississippi, as he had been taught at West Point.
36. Nowhere did his genius display itself more significantly than as Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce.
37. When it was known that he was to make his “Farewell Speech” to the Senate in 1861, the building was crowded to overflowing. He was one of the most gifted orators of the Congress. At West Point he studied “Rawle’s View of the Constitution” and was taught that if a state seceded the duty of a soldier reverted to his state—hence Davis, Robert E. Lee, Thomas J. Jackson, the Johnstons, and others acting upon this instruction cast their lot with their States in 1861.