'James Buchanan' (
April 23,
1791 –
June 1,
1868) was the fifteenth
President of the United States (
1857–
1861). He was the only President from
Pennsylvania and the only President to never marry. As president he was a "
doughface" who battled
Stephen A. Douglas for control of the
Democratic Party. Scholars consistently rank him as one of the two or three
worst American presidents; although he claimed secession was illegal, he claimed going to war to stop it was also illegal. This inaction laid the grounds for
President Abraham Lincoln to fight the
American Civil War.
Early career
Buchanan was a
Representative and a
Senator from Pennsylvania. He was born in a
log cabin at Cove Gap, near
Mercersburg,
Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on
April 23,
1791, 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
James I of Scotland. In
1802, he moved to Mercersburg with his parents, where he was privately tutored. He later attended the village academy and graduated from
Dickinson College, in
Carlisle, Pennsylvania. 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
September 7,
1809.
[1] Later that year he moved to
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. 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
Federalist, he strongly opposed the
War of 1812 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
Baltimore, Maryland.
''A Serviceable Garment or Reverie of a Bachelor''
An
1856 cartoon depicts Buchanan sitting in his room examining the "
Cuba" patch he has sewn on his jacket. As
Minister to Britain, he pressed unsuccessfully for the purchase of Cuba in what is known as the
Ostend Manifesto. He says, "My old coat was a very fashionable federal coat when it was new, but by patching and turning I have made it quite a
Democratic Garment. That Cuba patch to be sure is rather unsightly, but it suits Southern fashions at this season, and then, if I am elected, let me see,
$25,000 pr. annum and no rent to pay and no women and babies about, I guess I can afford a new outfit."
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 (
March 4,
1821 –
March 4,
1831). He was chairman of the
U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary (Twenty-first Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in
1830. Buchanan served as one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1830 to conduct the
impeachment proceedings against
James H. Peck, judge of the
United States District Court for the District of
Missouri. Buchanan served as minister to
Russia from
1832 to
1834.
Portrait of Buchanan as a younger man.
With his original party of choice, the Federalists, long defunct, Buchanan was elected as a
Democrat 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
Committee on Foreign Relations (Twenty-fourth through Twenty-sixth Congresses).
After death of Supreme Court Justice
Henry Baldwin 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
Robert Cooper Grier).
Buchanan served as
Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President
James K. Polk from
1845 to
1849, during which time he negotiated the
1846 Oregon Treaty establishing the
49th parallel as the northern boundary in the western U.S. No Secretary of State has become President since James Buchanan, although
William Howard Taft, the 27th U.S. President of the United States, often served as Acting Secretary of State during the
Theodore Roosevelt administration.
In
1853, Buchanan was named president of the Board of Trustees of
Franklin and Marshall College in his hometown of
Lancaster. He served in this capacity until
1865.
He served as minister to the Court of St. James (Britain) from 1853 to 1856, during which time he helped to draft the
Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the purchase of
Cuba from Spain in order to extend slavery. The Manifesto was a major blunder for the Pierce Administration, and greatly weakened support for
Manifest Destiny.
Election of 1856
Main articles: United States presidential election, 1856
The Democrats nominated Buchanan in
1856 largely because he was in
England during the
Kansas-Nebraska 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
Millard Fillmore's "
Know-Nothing" candidacy helped Buchanan defeat
John C. Frémont, the first Republican candidate for president in
1856, and he served from
March 4,
1857 to
March 4,
1861.
With regard to the growing schism in the country, as
President-elect, 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
Supreme Court interpreted it. The court was considering the legality of restricting
slavery in the territories and two justices hinted to Buchanan what the decision would be.
Presidency 1857–1861
Views on slavery
Buchanan personally favored the rights of slave owners and he sympathized with the slave-expansionists who coveted
Cuba. In opposition to his great enemy
Stephen Douglas, Buchanan shared the southern view of
popular sovereignty, 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
Slave Power. 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 '
doughface', a northern man with southern principles."
[2]
The Dred Scott case
In his
inaugural address, 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
Roger B. Taney (a fellow alumnus of
Dickinson College) delivered the
Dred Scott Decision, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Much of Taney’s written judgment is widely interpreted as ''
obiter dictum'' — 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
Robert Cooper Grier to vote with the majority in that case to uphold the right of owning slave property.
Abraham Lincoln denounced him as an accomplice of the
Slave Power, which Lincoln saw as a conspiracy of slave owners to seize control of the federal government and nationalize slavery. Buchanan's friends did a poor job defending him.
Bleeding Kansas
Buchanan, however, faced further trouble on the territorial question. Buchanan threw the full prestige of his administration behind congressional approval of the
Lecompton Constitution in
Kansas, 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
Stephen A. Douglas. 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.
Financial Panic
Economic troubles also plagued Buchanan's administration with the outbreak of the
Panic of 1857. The government suddenly faced a shortfall of revenue, partly because of the Democrats' successful push to lower the
tariff. Buchanan's administration, at the behest of Treasury Secretary
Howell Cobb, 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
Main articles: Utah War
In the 1850s, responding to reports that Governor
Brigham Young 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
1858, every significant bill they passed fell before southern votes in the Senate or a Presidential
veto. 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
Covode committee, 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
John C. Breckinridge, whom Buchanan refused to support. The remainder of the party finally nominated Buchanan's archenemy, Douglas. Consequently, when the Republicans nominated
Abraham Lincoln, 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
cotton states, and by February, they formed the
Confederate States of America. Eight slave states refused to join.
In Buchanan's Message to Congress (
December 3,
1860), 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
Jeremiah S. Black,
Edwin M. Stanton,
Joseph Holt and
John A. Dix. 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
slave states seceded, the Confederacy was formed, all arsenals and forts in the seceded states were lost (except
Fort Sumter and two remote ones), and a fourth of all federal soldiers surrendered to
Texas troops. The government decided to hold on to Fort Sumter, which was located in
Charleston harbor, the most visible spot in the Confederacy. On
January 5, Buchanan sent a civilian steamer ''
Star of the West'' to carry reinforcements and supplies to
Fort Sumter. On
January 9,
1861,
South Carolina state batteries opened fire on the ''Star of the West'', which returned to
New York. 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.
[1]
On Buchanan's final day as president, he remarked to the incoming
Abraham Lincoln, "If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland you are a happy man."
[3]
James Buchanan's
average historical ranking by scholars considering presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults (such as corruption), is a lowly 36.58 out of 42 total candidates (with smaller numbers reflecting better scores).
Administration and Cabinet
Supreme Court appointments
Buchanan appointed the following Justice to the
Supreme Court of the United States:
★ '
Nathan Clifford' –
1858
States admitted to the Union
★ '
Minnesota' –
May 11,
1858
★ '
Oregon' –
February 14,
1859
★ '
Kansas' –
January 29,
1861
Personal relationships
In 1819 Buchanan was engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of a wealthy
iron manufacturing businessman and sister-in-law of
Philadelphia judge
Joseph Hemphill, 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
laudanum.
[4]
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."
[5] The Coleman family became bitter towards Buchanan, and denied him a place at Ann's funeral.
[6] 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.
4
For fifteen years in
Washington, D.C., prior to his presidency, Buchanan lived with his close friend, Alabama Senator
William Rufus King[7]. King had been
Vice President under
Franklin Pierce. He took ill and died shortly after Pierce's inauguration, and four years before Buchanan became President. Buchanan and King's close relation prompted
Andrew Jackson to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy," while
Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife."
[8][9] 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"
8, 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
homosexual president, there is currently no evidence that King and Buchanan had a sexual relationship.
8
The only President never to marry, Buchanan turned to
Harriet Lane, 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."
[10][11]
Post-presidency, death, and legacy
In 1866 Buchanan published ''Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion'' — the first presidential memoir. He died
June 1,
1868, at the age of 77 at his home at
Wheatland. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery, in Lancaster. On the day before his death, he predicted that "history will vindicate my memory": but historians continue mainly to emphasize his failure to deal with secession, with the policy of appeasement practiced by Buchanan and his predecessor, Franklin Pierce, toward the pro-slavery lobby being heavily censured. 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,
surveys of Presidential scholars consistently rank Buchanan among the five worst presidents.
A bronze and granite memorial residing near the Southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s
Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist
Hans Schuler. Commissioned in 1916, but not approved by the
U.S. Congress 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,
Jeremiah S. Black. 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
StonyBatter, Pennsylvania. 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
Freemason during his lifetime, he was master of a
Masonic Lodge in Lancaster and a District Deputy
Grand Master of the
Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
Three counties are named in his honor:
Buchanan County in
Iowa,
Missouri, and
Virginia.
Bibliography
★ Baker, Jean H. ''James Buchanan.'' Henry Holt, 2004. 192 pp.
★ Binder, Frederick Moore. "James Buchanan: Jacksonian Expansionist" ''Historian'' 1992 55(1): 69-84. Issn: 0018-2370 Fulltext: in Ebsco
★ Binder, Frederick Moore. ''James Buchanan and the American Empire.'' Susquehanna U. Press, 1994. 318 pp.
★ Birkner, Michael J., ed. ''James Buchanan and the Political Crisis of the 1850s.'' Susquehanna U. Press, 1996. 215 pp.
★ Meerse, David E. "Buchanan, the Patronage, and the Lecompton Constitution: a Case Study" ''Civil War History'' 1995 41(4): 291-312. Issn: 0009-8078
★
Nevins, Allan. ''The Emergence of Lincoln'' 2 vols. (1960) highly detailed narrative of his presidency
★ Nichols, Roy Franklin; ''The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854'' (1923),
detailed narrative; online
★ Potter, David Morris. ''The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861'' (1976). ISBN 0-06-013403-8 Pulitzer prize.
★ Rhodes, James Ford ''History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896'' Volume: 2. (1892)
★ Smith, Elbert B. ''The Presidency of James Buchanan'' (1975). ISBN 0-7006-0132-5, standard history of his administration
★ Stampp, Kenneth M. ''America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink'' (1990). ISBN 0-19-503902-5
online version
★
Updike, John ''Buchanan Dying'' (1974). ISBN 0-8117-0238-3
Primary sources
★ Buchanan, James. ''
Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion'' (1866)
References
1. Paletta, Lu Ann and Worth, Fred L. (1988). "The World Almanac of Presidential Facts".
2. Stampp (1990) p. 48
3. Baker, Jean H., ''James Buchanan'', New York: Henry Holt, 2004, pg 140
4. Klein, Philip Schriver; ''American Heritage Magazine'': The Lost Love of a Bachelor President; December, 1955; Vol. 7, Issue 1
5. The Lost Love of a Bachelor President americanheritage.com. Retrieved June 18, 2007.
6. [University of Virginia: Miller Center of Public Affairs: James Buchanan: Life Before the Presidency]
7. Klein, Philip S., ''President James Buchanan: A Biography'', Newtown, CT: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962, pg 111
8. Baker, Jean H.; ''James Buchanan''; Henry Holt and Company; 2004; pages 25-26
9. Boller, Paul F., ''Not So!'', New York: Oxford University Press, 1995, pg 75
10. Klein, Philip, ''President James Buchanan: A Biography'', University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1962, pg 156
11. Curtis, George Ticknor, ''Life of James Buchanan'', New York: Harper's, 188, 1:519
External links
★
Extensive essay on James Buchanan and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
★
Inaugural Address
★
The Other Buchanan Controversy
★
First State of the Union Address of James Buchanan
★
Second State of the Union Address of James Buchanan
★
Third State of the Union Address of James Buchanan
★
Fourth State of the Union Address of James Buchanan
★
University of Virginia article: Buchanan biography
★
White House Biography
★
Wheatland
★
''Mr. Buchanans Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion''. President Buchanans memoirs.
★
James Buchanan at tulane.edu
★
★
Buchanan Memorial in Washington, D.C.
العربية
中国
Français
Deutsch
Ελληνική
हिन्दी
Italiano
日本語
Português
Русский
Español
