twelve
o'clock
The intense breathless excitement of that time , when scarcely a Senator left his seat from ten in the morning till some late hour of the night , except to snatch a meal ; the psychological effect of the silent excited crowds in the galleries and corridors of the Capitol and on its lawns and the immensity of its steps ; the solemnity and incalculable significance of the approaching crisis , and the complete gravity of the man who possessed her mind , carried her out of herself and merged her personality for a brief while into the great personality of the nation . It was half-past one o'clock in the morning of the nineteenth of April . A thousand people , weary and breathless but intensely silent , were crowded together in the galleries of the Senate . They had been there all night , some of them since early afternoon , a few since twelve o'clock . Outside , the corridors were so packed with humanity that it was a wonder the six acres of building did not sway . For the first time in hours they were silent and motionless , although they could hear nothing . On the floor of the Senate almost every chair was occupied , and every Senator was singularly erect ; no one was lounging , or whispering , or writing to-night .