Proven, but not necessarily proven to be good. It's a lot more subjective than some are willing to admit. A lot of people are apparently willing to vote for a lot more abrasive and unstable candidate than to put up with 4 years of that "proven" record.
Buchanan didn't do ANYTHING. A third of the country was in a state of open revolt and he did zilch. Didn't call up the army, didn't arrest the traitors, didn't do one single thing except throw up his hands. He and Pierce had continually enabled and coddled the Slave Power, despite the fact that they were burning down towns in Kansas and murdering abolitionists and Free Soilers.
There were negotiations taking place to resolve the slavery issue during the crisis, meaning preserve it at least for the time being, but they couldn't agree on how. Calling up the army and arresting people just starts the war early.
But would calling up the army work? It's quite an escalation to send in the army esp. 19th century version of it, that wasn't instruction nor trained to show restraint. Add that lot of soldiers and officers did join up for the confederates, so ordering what was formally federal forces might have escalated into conflict, because they might not follow orders.
Sesesh has to be cleared away by the hand of God like the Jews of old.
Indeed, as you say, what historically occurred in 1861 was quite different from 1832. Andrew Jackson had the advantage that the South as a whole wasn't openly interested in a violent confrontation, despite their rhetoric. In 1832, South Carolina found little overt support from its fellow Southern states, was carefully avoiding drawing together the military troops it had ordered raised (ordering them to train in their own homes instead of bringing them together to Charleston, apparently), and dithered on actually implementing the provisions of its tariff nullification even once it has resolved on that course. In 1861, the Deep South was united, multiple border states and the Upper South wavering, Southern military forces raised, armed, and training together, and the decisiveness of their will to maintain the antebellum slave state was certainly not going to be called into question.
Sesesh has to be cleared away by the hand of God like the Jews of old.
We need more civil war movies to show how virtuous we are now. Remake Glory into a trilogy and start an entire cinematic universe around it. Get on it Hollywood.
The internet thinks your two posts was a quote from Glory. Is that what you were going for?
