...arguments of the Southern radicals. Buchanan, however, blamed the crisis entirely upon the 'long continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery." The danger, he said, did not "proceed solely from the claim on the part of Congress or the territorial...

...deep of winter had come the somewhat bewildered voice of President Buchanan asking, "Why is it ... that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the...the source of all these blessings is threatened with destruction?"3 Spiritually and morally, the city, indeed the nation, were out of tune, cacophonous,...

...electoral loss, to promote a nationkeeping plan. Buchanan began by identifying the problem. "Why is it ... that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the Union of the States, which is the source of all ... blessings, is threatened with destruction?," the president asked. He had a simple answer. "The...

...presented a spectacle of greater material prosperity than we have done until within a very recent period. Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively...Southern States has at length produced its natural effect- The different sections of the Union are now arrayed against each other, and the time has arrived,...

...as an appeal for the Union, his message resolved nothing and instead provoked widespread anger. To the "long-continued and intemperate interference of...with the question of slavery in the Southern States," he assigned sole responsibility for the crisis. Twenty-five years of such "agitation" had fed disunion...

...tide of time has ever presented a spectacle of greater material prosperity than we have done. . . . Why is it then that discontent now so extensively prevails, and the union of these States, which is the source of all these blessings, is threatened with destruction?"25 His answer...

...employment of military force." He also blamed the current crisis entirely on the North, tracing it to "the long-continued and intemperate interference of...with the question of slavery in the Southern states." This one-sided analysis, which was indicative of his long-standing view of the antislavery movement,...

...President Buchanan, after describing the great prosperity of the United States, asks the question, "Why is it then that discontent now so extensively prevails?" And the true answer is given that " the long continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people...

...President began the message with a declaration that the threatened danger to the Union was caused by " the long-continued and intemperate interference of...with the question of slavery in the Southern States." He said that the immediate peril arose neither from the claims that Congress or the Territorial Legislatures...

...until within a very recent period.115 Still, a crisis faced the country, which Buchanan describes thus: Why is it, then, that discontent now so extensively...States, which is the source of all these blessings in threatened with destruction? The long continued and intemperate interference of the northern people...