The difference between North and South was thus sharp and clear. The North desired to maintain the _status quo_ with regard to slavery, and to prohibit the extension of its area. The South demanded the extension of its area into the Territories, and all new States that might be carved out of them. Lincoln’s election was followed, at the beginning of 1860, by the secession of South Carolina. By the end of February, 1861, her example was imitated by Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Georgia, and Alabama. Tennessee, North Carolina, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Missouri were wavering. When Congress met, President Buchanan, in his last Message, explained how events were drifting, denied the right of the Southern States to secede, but doubted the power of Congress to levy war on seceding States. The Crittenden compromise was now proposed, but it came too late.[126] Another attempt was made to conciliate the South by an amendment to the Constitution, prohibiting Congress from ever meddling with slavery in the United States. By this time the seceding States had met at Montgomery, and had organised the Government of the Confederate States of America. The constitution adopted differed from that of the United States in that it recognised slavery, extended the term of the President’s office, and prohibited tariffs for other purposes than raising revenue.[127] Being producers, not of manufactured goods, but of raw material, the governing class in the South were naturally Free Traders. Mr. Jefferson Davis was chosen President, and Mr. Alexander H. Stephen Vice-President, and their Government prepared to carry on war. In Congress, the withdrawal of the Southern representatives enabled the Republicans by large majorities to admit Kansas as a Free State, to organise Nevada, Colorado, and Dakota as Territories, and to adopt a new protective tariff mainly in the interests of the Eastern States and Pennsylvania.