President James Buchanan used force to try to prevent the southern states from seceding?

Just prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War, President James Buchanan did not use force to try to prevent the Southern states from seceding from the Union. Believing secession to be illegal, but also believing that the Federal government had no right to use force to prevent secession, President Buchanan alienated both Southerners and Northerners in his final months in office before Abraham Lincoln was sworn in (in March 1865) as the country's next president.