During the 1860 campaign, Donald Trump refused to say where he stood on the slavery issue. He simply insisted that he would reveal a plan that would be really great, and that everyone would love, after he was elected.
The voters took him at his word and elected him. What was his plan? Noting that one side viewed slaves as people, and the other as property, he proposed to split the difference. A slave would henceforth be treated as a person from the waist up, but an object from the waist down.
To Trump’s surprise, nobody embraced his proposal, the South seceded, and, well, you know the rest.