sposition to make further concessions and compromises to appease
the disunion sentiment of the South. His administration was weak
and vacillating. Two serious attempts at conciliation were made.
President Buchanan, in his last Annual Message (December 4, 1860),
while declaring that the election of any one to the office of
President was not a just cause for dissolving the Union, and while
denying that "Secession" could be justified under the Constitution,
yet announced his conclusion that the latter had not "delegated to
Congress the power to coerce a State into submission which is
attempting to withdraw, or has actually withdrawn, from the
Confederacy"; that coercion was "not among the specific and enumerated
powers granted to Congress." He did not think it was constitutional
to preserve the Constitution or the Union of the States. This view
was held by most leaders of his party at the time and throughout
the ensuing war; not so, however, by the rank and file.

Buchanan did not believe that self-preservation inhered in the
Constitution or the Union.

The President in this Message suggested an explanatory amendment
to the Constitution: (1) To recognize the right of property in
slaves in the States where it existed; (2) to protect this right
in the Territories until they were admitted as States with or
without slavery; (3) a like recognition of the right of the master
to have his escaped slave delivered up to him; and (4) declaring
all unfriendly State laws impairing this right unconstitutional.

This was the signal for the presentation of a numerous brood of
propositions to amend the Constitution in the interest of slavery,
and by way of concessions to the South.

A committee of thirty-three, one from each State, of which Thomas
Corwin of Ohio was chairman, was (December 4, 1860) appointed to
consider the part of the President's Message referred to.

Mr. Noel of Missouri proposed to instruct this committee to report
on the expediency of abolishing the office of President, and in
lieu thereof establishing an Executive Council of three, elected
by districts composed of contiguous States--each member armed with
a veto power; and he also proposed to restore the equilibrium of
the States by dividing slave States into two or more.

Mr. Hindman of Arkansas proposed to amend the Constitution so as
to expressly recognize slavery in the States; to protect it in the
Territories; to allow slaves to be transported through