Chapter Review 367the Union save that of honour. If a disruption takes
place, I shall go back in sorrow to my people & share
the misery of my native state.”
In the North there was a foolish but understand-
able reluctance to believe that the South really
intended to break away. President-elect Lincoln was
inclined to write off secession as a bluff designed to
win concessions he was determined not to make. He
also showed lamentable political caution in refusing to
announce his plans or to cooperate with the outgoing
Democratic administration before his inauguration.
In the South there was an equally unrealistic expec-
tation that the North would not resist secession forcibly.
The “Yankees” were timid materialists who would nei-
ther bear the cost nor risk their lives to prevent seces-
sion. It was commonly believed that “a lady’s thimble
will hold all the blood that will be shed.” President
Buchanan recognized the seriousness of the situation
but professed himself powerless. Secession, he said, was
illegal, but the federal government had no legal way to
prevent it. (This was the same dilemma that had sur-
faced during the nullification crisis, but as Senator
Douglas had reminded him, Buchanan was no Andrew
Jackson.) He urged making concessions to the South
yet lacked the forcefulness to take the situation in hand.
Of course he faced unprecedented difficulties.
His term was about to run out—Lincoln’s inaugura-
tion day was March 4—and since he could not com-
mit to his successor, his influence was minuscule. Yet
a bolder president would have denounced secession
in uncompromising terms. Instead Buchanan vacil-
lated between compromise and aimless drift.
Appeasers, well-meaning believers in compro-
mise, and those prepared to fight to preserve the
Union were alike—incapable of effective action. A
group of moderates headed by Henry Clay’s disciple,
Senator John J. Crittenden of Kentucky, proposed a
constitutional amendment in which slavery would be
“recognized as existing” in all territories south of lati-
tude 36°30’. Crittenden had a special reason for seek-
ing to avoid a conflict. His oldest son was about to
become a southern general, another son a northern
general. His amendment also promised that no future
amendment would tamper with the institution in the
slave states and offered other guarantees to the South.
But Lincoln refused to consider any arrangement that
would open new territory to slavery. “On the territor-
ial question,” he wrote, “I am inflexible.” The
Crittenden Compromisegot nowhere.
The new southern Confederacy set vigorously
to work drafting a constitution, choosing Jefferson
Davis as provisional president, seizing arsenals and
other federal property within its boundaries, and
preparing to dispatch diplomatic representatives to
enlist the support of foreign powers. Buchanan
bumbled helplessly in Washington. And out in
Illinois, Abraham Lincoln juggled Cabinet posts
and grew a beard.South Carolina Declaration of the Causes of
Secessionatwww.myhistorylab.comWhat Caused the Civil War?at
http://www.myhistorylab.comWatchtheVideoReadtheDocument1850 Compromise of 1850 preserves Union; United
States and Great Britain sign Clayton-Bulwer
Treaty on interoceanic canal
1851– Northerners resist enforcement of Fugitive Slave Act
1860
1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, a novel depicting slavery
Franklin Pierce is elected president
1854 United States disavows secret Ostend Manifesto
on Cuba
Kansas-Nebraska Act repeals Missouri Compromise
Commodore Matthew Perry forces Japan to open
its ports to U.S. trade
Senate ratifies Gadsden Purchase of Mexican territory
1855 William Walker seizes power in Nicaragua
1856– Proslavery forces oppose Free Soilers in “Bleeding
1858 Kansas” Territory
1856 John Brown and followers murder five proslavery
men in Pottawatomie Massacre
South Carolina’s Preston Brooks canes Senator
Charles Sumner of Massachusetts on Senate floor
James Buchanan is elected president
1857 U.S. Supreme Court issues decision in Dred Scott
case, declaring slaves are not citizens
Panic of 1857 collapses economy
1858 Abraham Lincoln loses Senate race to Stephen
Douglas after Lincoln-Douglas Debates, but
wins national attention
1859 John Brown raids Harpers Ferry, Virginia, arsenal
1860 Abraham Lincoln is elected president
South Carolina secedes from Union
1861 Seven southern states establish Confederate States
of America
Lincoln rejects Crittenden Compromise, last
peaceful attempt to save UnionMilestones
Chapter Review