ry out one bit of their policy. In their platform they had declared
that they had no intention to interfere with slavery in the states.
Lincoln had said over and over again that Congress had no right to
meddle with slavery in the states. The Southern leaders knew all these
things. But they made up their minds that now the time had come to
secede from the Union and to establish a Southern Confederacy. For the
first time all the southernmost states were united. No matter what
Lincoln and the Republicans might say, the Southern slaveholders
believed that slavery was in danger. In advising secession, many of them
thought that by this means they could force the Northerners to accept
their terms as the price of a restored Union. Never were political
leaders more mistaken.

[Sidenote: Southern conventions.]

374. Threats of Secession, November, 1860.--The Constitution
permits each state to choose presidential electors as it sees fit. At
the outset these electors had generally been chosen by the state
legislatures. But, in the course of time, all the states save one had
come to choose them by popular vote. The one state that held to the old
way was South Carolina. Its legislature still chose the state's
presidential electors. In 1860 the South Carolina legislature did this
duty and then remained in session to see which way the election would
go. When Lincoln's election was certain, it called a state convention to
consider the question of seceding from the United States. In other
Southern states there was some opposition to secession. In Georgia,
especially, Alexander H. Stephens led the opposition. He said that
secession "was the height of madness." Nevertheless he moved a
resolution for a convention. Indeed, all the southernmost states
followed the example of South Carolina and summoned conventions.

[Sidenote: Buchanan's compromise plan.]

[Crittenden's plan of compromise. _McMaster_, 380-381.]

[Sidenote: It fails to pass Congress.]

375. The Crittenden Compromise Plan.--Many men hoped that even now
secession might be stopped by some compromise. President Buchanan
suggested an amendment to the Constitution, securing slavery in the
states and territories. It was unlikely that the Republicans would
agree to this suggestion. The most hopeful plan was brought forward in
Congress by Senator Crittenden of Kentucky. He proposed that amendments
to the Constitution should be adopted: (1) to carry out the principle of
the Misso