On December 12, 1860, before any state seceded, Texas Senator Louis Wigfall projected what the future vote counts would be on contentious issues. Before the new Congress convened Southern senators had the votes to stop the Morrill Tariff from being approved by the Senate as they had done earlier in that Congress. On the other hand, once the new Congress convened, Wigfall's vote projections indicated that the new makeup of Congress would pass the Morrill Tariff. The Morrill Tariff had already passed the House earlier in 1860. The country was going to get the impending Morrill Tariff whether Southern senators stayed for the rest of the outgoing session or not.
From an old post by GOPcapitalist quoting Wigfall on December 12, 1860 [Link]:
Tell me not that we have got the legislative department of this Government, for I say we have not. As to this body, where do we stand? Why, sir, there are now eighteen non-slaveholding States. In a few weeks we shall have the nineteenth, for Kansas will be brought in. Then arithmetic which settles our position is simple and easy. Thirty-eight northern Senators you will have upon this floor. We shall have thirty to your thirty-eight. After the 4th of March, the Senator from California, the Senator from Indiana, the Senator from New Jersey, and the Senator from Minnesota will be here. That reduces the northern phalanx to thirty-four...There are four of the northern Senators upon whom we can rely, whom we know to be friends, whom we have trusted in our days of trial heretofore, and in whom, as Constitution-loving men, we will trust. Then we stand thirty-four to thirty-four, and your Black Republican Vice President to give the casting vote. Mr. Lincoln can make his own nominations with perfect security that they will be confirmed by this body, even if every slaveholding State should remain in the Union, which, thank God, they will not do.
But the obvious response is, "so what"? Lately the pubbies have gotten a raw deal on a number of fronts, notably Øbamacare but that shouldn't mean that we blow up the country.