Why were politicians unable to find a political solution to this crisis when the South seceded?

Politicians were unable to find a political solution to
this crisis because the enmity between the North and the South had gone to far to be
resolved.  There had been all sorts of political solutions that had been tried in the
past and now there were simply no more solutions that had much of a hope of solving the
crisis.

The history of the United States for the 40 years
before the secession was one of compromises and political solutions between the two
sections.  There had been the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850.  There had
been the Kansas-Nebraska Act.  Things like these had been tried as ways to find a
political solution to the sectional issue.

By 1861, there
were no more ideas.  Compromise had been tried and had failed (and the Dred Scott case
made it harder to be able to compromise).  The degree of animosity between the two sides
(built up over at least 40 years) had also increased to the point where political
solutions were impossible.

So the politicians couldn't find
a solution because A) the two sides hated each other so much and B) all the good ideas
for solutions had been tried and had failed.