They didn't have the military power to defend themselves.
There were two leaders during this time: Thaddeus Stevens in the House, and Charles Summer in the Senate.
Milestones: 1830–1860.Gadsden Purchase, 1853–1854. The Gadsden Purchase, or Treaty, was an agreement between the United States and Mexico, finalized in 1854, in which the United States agreed to pay Mexico $10 million for a 29,670 square mile portion of Mexico that later became part of Arizona and New Mexico.
"It represented a major setback for the federal government due to public suspicion."
Obviously Watergate was huge and it had the public worrying that they could not trust their government anymore.
