He almost had a leg amputated and verged on the brink of death several times. Confrontations verged on open warfare in the late 1850s as President Buchanan sent in troops. Stanton's sorrow "verged on insanity", say historians Benjamin P. Thomas and Harold M. Hyman. Brownlee had an interventionist style as President, which Foster acknowledged sometimes "verged on outright interference". It was a rebuff that verged on an insult. Newspapers warned that he verged on treason. Puritans in England were threatened as England verged on civil war. Its lyrics verged on punk, though Coghill denied that Powderfinger were a punk band. Even when he verged on any such activity, God intervened. McMahon's early work was characterised by a quick, spontaneous approach that verged on the messy. Moore's humour was a throwaway, and certainly in the later films, verged on self-parody. Some have gone smoothly, many have been bumpy and a few verged on catastrophic. In 1661, the treasury verged on bankruptcy. Relations with Britain verged on war in 1794. Their assessments of the air battle verged on pure fantasy.