The Peace Conference of 1861 aimed to prevent the impending American Civil War through compromise. It convened at the Willard Hotel in Washington, D.C., on the 4th of February 1861 with delegates from eight border states.
Former President John Tyler emerged from private life to lead a final effort at peace for the Peace Conference of 1861. He served as a special envoy before becoming the delegate to head the new gathering convened by Governor John Letcher of Virginia.
The Senate voted 25, 23 against the Crittenden Compromise proposal on January 16. A modified version also failed when the House rejected it on January 7 after the Committee of Thirteen had already rejected the original plan on December 22.
One hundred thirty-one leading politicians gathered at the Willard Hotel for three weeks of debate during the Peace Conference of 1861. The group included six former cabinet members, nineteen ex-governors, fourteen former senators, fifty former representatives, twelve state supreme court justices, and one former president.
Congress rejected the compromise in a Senate vote of 28, 7 before it ever reached the House floor. Republicans refused to support any measure that did not limit slavery's expansion into new territories, causing the final convention of slave states scheduled for June never to occur due to events at Fort Sumter.