Mr. Botts did not agree with Mr. Seward that there was any "irrepresible conflict", or that any could arise.
"As we had lived together eighty years with slave and free labor, we could live thus together eight hundred years longer, if people would discard canting politicians who continually agitate the subject of slavery."
So.......was it Bott's opinion that the slavery issue was orchestrated by both North and South?
How did the issues represented so strongly by Calhoun, Webster, and Clay stay stagnate for almost a decade? These men were dead by 1853. Was there nothing in the intervening almost-decade that could portend a destructive war?
Were mindsets allowed to become so galvanized and polarized that an immediate war following secession was a fait accompli?