James Buchanan (1791-1868)/biography

James Buchanan (, –, ) was the fifteenth  (–). He was the only President from and the only President to never marry. As president he was a "" who battled for control of the. Scholars consistently rank him as one of the two or three. As southern states declared their secession in the lead-up to the, he held that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal.

Early career
Buchanan was a Representative and a from Pennsylvania. He was born in a at Cove Gap, near, , on , , to James Buchanan and Elizabeth Spear as the second of ten children (two of whom did not survive past infancy). The Buchanan family claims direct descent from King. In, he moved to Mercersburg with his parents, where he was privately tutored. He later attended the village academy and graduated from, in. At one point, he was expelled from Dickinson for wild behavior and bad conduct, but after pleading for a second chance he graduated with honors three years later on,. Later that year he moved to. For the next three years he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He then opened a practice in Lancaster. A dedicated, he strongly opposed the on the grounds that it was an unnecessary conflict. Nevertheless, when the British invaded neighboring Maryland, he joined a volunteer light dragoon unit and served in the defense of.



Political career
Buchanan started his political career in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1814–1820. He was elected to the Seventeenth and to the four succeeding Congresses (, –, ). He was chairman of the (Twenty-first Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in. Buchanan served as one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1830 to conduct the proceedings against, judge of the  for the District of. Buchanan served as minister to from  to.

With his original party of choice, the Federalists, long defunct, Buchanan was elected as a to the United States Senate to fill a vacancy and served from December 1834; he was reelected in 1837 and 1843, and resigned in 1845. He was chairman of the (Twenty-fourth through Twenty-sixth Congresses).

After death of Supreme Court Justice in 1844, Buchanan was nominated (and refused the nomination) by President Polk to serve as a Justice of the Supreme Court (seat was filled by ).

Buchanan served as in the Cabinet of President  from  to, during which time he negotiated the   establishing the  as the northern boundary in the western U.S. No Secretary of State has become President since James Buchanan, although , the 27th U.S. President of the United States, often served as Acting Secretary of State during the  administration.

In, Buchanan was named president of the Board of Trustees of in his hometown of. He served in this capacity until.

He served as minister to the Court of St. James (Britain) from 1853 to 1856, during which time he helped to draft the, which proposed the purchase of from Spain in order to extend slavery. The Manifesto was a major blunder for the Pierce Administration, and greatly weakened support for.

Election of 1856
The Democrats nominated Buchanan in largely because he was in  during the  debate and thus remained untainted by either side of the issue. He was nominated on the 17th ballot. Although he did not want to run, he accepted the nomination.

Former president 's "" candidacy helped Buchanan defeat, the first Republican candidate for president in , and he served from , to ,.

With regard to the growing schism in the country, as, he intended to sit out the crisis by maintaining a sectional balance in his appointments and persuading the people to accept constitutional law as the interpreted it. The court was considering the legality of restricting in the territories and two justices hinted to Buchanan what the decision would be.

The Dred Scott case
In his, besides promising not to run again, Buchanan referred to the territorial question as "happily, a matter of but little practical importance" since the Supreme Court was about to settle it "speedily and finally." Two days later, Chief Justice (a fellow alumnus of ) delivered the, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Much of Taney’s written judgment is widely interpreted as  &mdash; statements made by a judge that are unnecessary to the outcome of the case, which in this case, while they delighted Southerners, created a furor in the North. Buchanan was widely believed to have been personally involved in the outcome of the case, with many Northerners recalling Taney whispering to Buchanan during Buchanan's inauguration. Buchanan wished to see the territorial question resolved by the Supreme Court. To further this, Buchanan personally lobbied his fellow Pennsylvanian Justice to vote with the majority in that case to uphold the right of owning slave property. denounced him as an accomplice of the, which Lincoln saw as a conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and nationalize slavery.

Bleeding Kansas
Buchanan, however, faced further trouble on the territorial question. Buchanan threw the full prestige of his administration behind congressional approval of the in, which would have admitted Kansas as a slave state, going so far as to offer patronage appointments and even cash bribes in exchange for votes. The Lecompton government was unpopular to Northerners, as it was dominated by slaveholders who had enacted laws curtailing the rights of non-slaveholders. Even though the voters in Kansas had rejected the Lecompton Constitution, Buchanan managed to pass his bill through the House, but it was blocked in the Senate by Northerners led by. Eventually, Congress voted to call a new vote on the Lecompton Constitution, a move which infuriated Southerners. Buchanan and Douglas engaged in an all-out struggle for control of the party in 1859–60, with Buchanan using his patronage powers and Douglas rallying the grass roots; Buchanan lost control of the greatly weakened party.

Views on slavery
Buchanan personally favored the rights of slave owners and he sympathized with the slave-expansionists who coveted. In opposition to his great enemy, Buchanan shared the southern view of , believing the residents of a territory could not prohibit slavery until they were ready for statehood. Douglas fought him on this issue and prevailed, at the cost of ripping the Democratic party apart. Buchanan despised both abolitionists and free-soil Republicans, lumping the two together. Seeing no injustice in the slave system, and no problem with slaveowner control of the government, he fought the opponents of the. In his third annual message Buchanan claimed that the slaves were "treated with kindness and humanity....Both the philanthropy and the self-interest of the master have combined to produce this humane result." Shortly after his election, he assured a southern Senator that the "great object" of his administration would be "to arrest, if possible, the agitation of the Slavery question at the North and to destroy sectional parties. Should a kind Providence enable me to succeed in my efforts to restore harmony to the Union, I shall feel that I have not lived in vain." As historian Kenneth Stampp concludes, "Buchanan was the consummate '', a northern man with southern principles."

Financial Panic
Economic troubles also plagued Buchanan's administration with the outbreak of the. The government suddenly faced a shortfall of revenue, partly because of the Democrats' successful push to lower the. Buchanan's administration, at the behest of Treasury Secretary, began issuing deficit financing for the government, a move which flew in the face of two decades of Democratic support for hard-money policies and allowed Republicans to attack Buchanan for financial mismanagement.

Utah War
In the 1850s, responding to reports that Governor was planning revolt, Buchanan sent the Army to oust the Mormon leader.

1860–1861: The nation disintegrates
When Republicans won a plurality in the House in, every significant bill they passed fell before southern votes in the Senate or a Presidential. The Federal Government reached a stalemate. Bitter hostility between Republicans and Southern members prevailed on the floor of Congress.

To make matters worse, Buchanan was dogged by the partisan, which was investigating the administration for evidence of impeachable offenses.

Sectional strife rose to such a pitch in 1860 that the Democratic Party split. Buchanan played little part as the national convention meeting in Charleston deadlocked. The southern wing walked out of the Charleston convention and nominated its own candidate for the presidency, incumbent Vice President, whom Buchanan refused to support. The remainder of the party finally nominated Buchanan's archenemy, Douglas. Consequently, when the Republicans nominated, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be elected even though his name appeared on no southern ballot. Buchanan watched silently as South Carolina seceded on December 20, followed by six other, and by February, they formed the. Eight slave states refused to join.

In Buchanan's Message to Congress, he denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them. He hoped for compromise, but secessionist leaders did not want it.

Beginning in late December, Buchanan reorganized his cabinet, ousting Confederate sympathizers and replacing them with hard-line nationalists, , and. These conservative Democrats strongly believed in American nationalism and refused to countenance secession. At one point, Treasury Secretary Dix ordered Treasury agents in New Orleans, "If any man pulls down the American flag, shoot him on the spot".

Before Buchanan left office, seven seceded, the Confederacy was formed, all arsenals and forts in the seceded states were lost (except  and two remote ones), and a fourth of all federal soldiers surrendered to  troops. The government decided to hold on to Fort Sumter, which was located in harbor, the most visible spot in the Confederacy. On, Buchanan sent a civilian steamer  to carry reinforcements and supplies to. On, , state batteries opened fire on the Star of the West, which returned to. Paralyzed, Buchanan made no further moves to prepare for war.

Historians in 2006 voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made. 

On Buchanan's final day as president, he remarked to the incoming, "If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland you are a happy man."

James Buchanan's by scholars considering presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults (such as corruption), is a lowly 36.58 (with smaller numbers reflecting better scores), placing him 41st out of a total of 42 presidents.

Supreme Court appointments
Buchanan appointed the following Justice to the :

Personal relationships
In 1819 Buchanan was engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of a wealthy manufacturing businessman and sister-in-law of  judge, a colleage of Buchanan's from the House of Representatives. However, Buchanan spent little time with her during the courtship; Buchanan was extremely busy with his law firm and political projects at the time, taking him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Conflicting rumors abounded, opining that he was marrying for her money as he came from a less affluent family, or that he was involved with other women. Buchanan, for his part, never publicly spoke of his motives or feelings, however, letters from Ann revealed she was paying heed to the rumors, and after Buchanan paid a visit to the wife of a friend, Ann broke off the engagement. Ann soon after died; the records of Dr. Chapman, who looked after Ann in her final hours, and who said just after her passing that this was "the first instance he ever knew of hysteria producing death," reveal that he theorized the woman's demise was caused by an overdose of.

His fiancée's death struck Buchanan. In a letter to her father – which was returned to him unopened – Buchanan said "It is now no time for explanation, but the time will come when you will discover that she, as well as I, have been much abused. God forgive the authors of it... I may sustain the shock of her death, but I feel that happiness has fled from me forever." The Coleman family became bitter towards Buchanan, and denied him a place at Ann's funeral. Buchanan vowed he would never marry, though he continued to be flirtatious, and some pressed him to seek a wife. In response he said "Marry he could not, for his affections were buried in the grave." He preserved Ann Coleman's letters, kept them with him throughout his life, and requested they be burned upon his death.

For fifteen years in, prior to his presidency, Buchanan lived with his close friend, Alabama Senator. King had been under. He took ill and died shortly after Pierce's inauguration, and four years before Buchanan became President. Buchanan and King's close relation prompted to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy," while  spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife." Further, some of the contemporary press also speculated about Buchanan and King's relationship. Buchanan and King's nieces destroyed their uncles' correspondence, leaving some questions as to what relationship the two men had, but surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship", and Buchanan wrote of his "communion" with his housemate. Such expression, however, was not unusual amongst men at the time. Though the circumstances surrounding Buchanan and King have led some to speculate that he was America's first president, there is currently no evidence that King and Buchanan had a sexual relationship.

The only President never to marry, Buchanan turned to, an orphaned niece whom he had earlier adopted, to act as his First Lady. "I feel that it is not good for man to be alone", he wrote, "and [I] should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection."

Post-presidency, death, and legacy
In 1866 Buchanan published Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion &mdash; the first presidential memoir. He died, , at the age of 77 at his home at. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery, in Lancaster. On the day before his death, he predicted that "history will vindicate my memory." Nevertheless, historians continue to emphasize his failure to deal with secession. The policy of appeasement practiced by Buchanan and his predecessor, Franklin Pierce, toward the pro-slavery lobby is often criticized. There is no evidence, however, that Pierce and Buchanan taking a harder line against slavery would have done anything but provoke the Southern states to secede a few years earlier than they eventually did. Whether America's slide toward secession during his administration was Buchanan's fault, or whether it was simply his bad luck to have presided over it, remains a matter for debate. Nonetheless, consistently rank Buchanan among the five worst presidents.

A bronze and granite memorial residing near the Southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist. Commissioned in 1916, but not approved by the until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930, the memorial features a statue of Buchanan bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with the engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law," a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet,. The memorial in the nation's capital complemented an earlier monument, constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in. Part of an 18.5-acre memorial site, the monument is a 250-ton pyramid structure designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.

An active during his lifetime, he was master of a  Lodge in Lancaster and a District Deputy  of the.

Three counties are named in his honor: in, , and.