[AUTOGRAPH ALBUM]. THIRTY-FIFTH CONGRESS. Autograph album containing some 300 signatures of Senators and Representatives from the 35th Congress (7 December 1857-3 March 1859). Written in ink on about 180 pages of an autograph book, 8vo, 187 x 122 mm. (7 1/4 x 4 3/4 in.), bound in red morocco gilt, spine gilt-lettered "Autographs 35th Congress," edges and spine worn. CONGRESS ON THE EVE OF THE CIVIL WAR: JEFFERSON DAVIS, SAM HOUSTON AND ANDREW JOHNSON. Extensive collection of signatures from the troubled 35th Congress, in session during the fateful years 1858-1859, in the wake of the Dred Scott decision, the bloody conflict in Kansas between opponents and proponents of slavery, and growing sectional division. Included are: Stephen A. Douglas (Lincoln's debating partner), J. P. Fessenden (Lincoln's Secretary of Treasury) Benjamin Franklin Wade (radical abolitionist), Judah P. Benjamin (Confederate Secretary of Treasury and State), J. Crittenden, Simon Cameron (Lincoln's Secretary of War) Hannibal Hamlin (later Vice-President under President Lincoln), Sam Houston, Jefferson Davis (future President of the Confederacy), John Pinckney of Texas, William H. Seward (Lincoln's Secretary of State), Andrew Johnson (Vice-President under and successor of President Lincoln), Lyman Trumbull (friend and political ally of Abraham Lincoln), Robert Toombs (ardent secessionist), Daniel Sickles (Union General), and many others.