This book deals with the 14 Senators expelled, 6 Senators whose seats the body declared vacant and another Senator whom the Senate refused to expel during the Civil War. The Senate charged all 21 of these with one form or another of disloyalty to the Federal Union. The author looks at the proceedings taken against these twenty-one men, most of whom who had departed Washington and taken up arms against the United States before the Senate acted. However, the author delves deeper than just reviewing the individual cases. He also looks at the other motives involved in the Senate expelling the Senators.