All of them, more or less, were playing a game.

If sectional war, which was incessantly threatened by the two extremes, had been keenly realized and seriously considered it might have been averted.

Very few believed that it would come to actual war.
A convention of Border State men, over which ex-President John Tyler presided, was held in Washington.

It might as well have been held at the North Pole.

Moderate men were brushed aside, their counsels whistled down the wind.