WI: Buchanan uses force to bring back the South

U.S David

Banned
What if James Buchanan sent in Federal Troops to bring South Carliona back to the Union, or even saying he would before they do.


So, what happens?
 
I was actually thinking about this just today -- in fact, I was thinking of posting an AHC on if there was any way to keep the country peacefully together after the election of Lincoln. Of course, I was so inspired because of a book I'm reading as part of an ongoing discussion.

"...for Buchanan intended no 'coercion'. And even if he had, the resources were pitifully inadequate. Most of the tiny 16,000 man army was scattered over two thousand mile of frontier, while most of the navy's ships were patrolling distant waters or laid up for repair. The strongest armed forces during the winter of 1860-61 were the militias of the seceding states." (Battle Cry of Freedom, James McPherson, pg 250)

For anyone who happens to have access to a copy, this weekend we're discussing Chapters 5-8.
 
I read somewhere their was about 1 soldier per 187 square miles west of the Mississippi and 1 soldier for every 1200 east of it.
 

Redhand

Banned
Buchanan maybe could have had the North Carolina and Virginia Militias move South to put down the Rebellion. This backfired big time on Lincoln in OTL but Buchanan was a Democrat who carried the South to victory in his election while Lincoln was viewed as an illegitimate president seeing as he wasnt even on the ballot in most southern states.

The idea I had in mind was for the Marine Regiment out of Annapolis, the 1st US Infantry out of New York, and whatever Northern Militia groups, most likely from NYC, to quickly get on transports and travel to Charleston and reatore order in te city before any forts fall while a simultaneous invasion of the state happens from the North Carolina an Virginia Militias, which were relatively well armed and led. To be honest this seems ASB, but I don't think Buchanan had any better plans in store other than to hide in his office until Lincoln took over.
 
I don't think Buchanan had any better plans in store other than to hide in his office until Lincoln took over.

A perfectly reasonable attitude.

A decision as momentous as starting a war (or taking action liable to trigger it) was surely one for the new POTUS, not the retiring one.
 
For this to happen, it's almost ASB. Buchanan, while a unionist in the broadest sense of the word, did not see the Union as sacred as did Lincoln and the other followers of Clay's American System ideology. Instead Buchanan placed the Southern view of "states rights" as superior to the Unionist cause. This essentially boiled down to...the nation as a whole bowed the will of the individual states versus the states bowed to the will of the nation. Of course Buchanan and the South always included the caveat that everyone bowed to the will of the slaveocrats.

While he may have been bullied by Northern Democrats into sending Marines and Regulars to numerous federal forts throughout the South, it is nearly impossible to rationalize his sending Northern militia or making active moves to surpress the militia. The idea of secession already had a large and dedicated following in the South, and Buchanan though a Southern sympathizer was not trusted as he was from the North. So really once Lincoln was elected secession was imminent. Any half hearted effort made by Buchanan would have only made Virginia, North Carolina and other Upper South states secede earlier.

I don't like Buchanan at all (I would list him as one of the four worst presidents) but had he attempted to half-heartedly surpress South Carolina it's possible he could done such damage that even KY, MO and MD would have bolted.

Benjamin
 
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