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 448 Attempts at compromise. attempted to enter Charleston Harbour, with the men and supplies, she was fired upon by a Confederate battery, and, turning back, abandoned the attempt. A new crisis and cabinet reorganisation grew out of this attempt and failure; and for the first time President Buchanan had a council of united and loyal constitutional advisers. All their patriotism however could only nerve the timid and vacillating President to a few minor and secondary measures of national defence. The most important of these was his permission to Secretary Holt to concentrate at Washington 480 men of the regular United States army, and organise a supplementary force of 925 men of the Volunteer Militia of the District of Columbia, to secure the peace and order of the national capital during the official counting of the presidential vote by the two houses of Congress on February 13, 1861, as well as at the inauguration of the new executive on the 4th of March. During this long interim the public opinion of the Free States, or as they were called, the North, had been in a somewhat conflicting state between apprehension, doubt, and lethargy. In the presidential election the existence of four parties and four candidates had greatly complicated party organisation, and produced sectional jealousy and dissension. The Southern threat of disunion had long served merely as a party menace. The recent more formal proceedings of Southern legislatures and con- ventions appeared only a prolongation of well-worn spectacular manifes- tations to extort compromise and concession from Northern voters. It seemed incredible that the South would resist with arms the lawful authority of a President, after having herself taken part in the election by which he was chosen. Vigorous as were the expressions of political defiance, neither North nor South believed that they would end in bloodshed and war. The people of both parties not only hoped but believed that again, as on former occasions, some compromise would allay the quarrel. Congress also reflected this phase of public feeling. During the month of December the House of Representatives appointed a committee of thirty-three, and the Senate a committee of thirteen, to bring about such a result. Continuous failure, however, attended the proceedings of both committees. No single plan among the seven presented to the Senate committee, nor among the forty or fifty suggested to the House committee, could obtain the assent of the majority; nor did any better success attend the efforts of a peace convention composed of delegates sent by the governors of fourteen States of the Union, all prominent, able and influential men, which met in Washington City, and held earnest debate from the 4th to the 27th of February. Amid all this babel of demand and refusal, accusation and recrimina- tion, there were but two undercurrents of logical and consistent action. The South, persisting in her demand for the full statutory protection of