James Buchanan

President of the United States (1857–61)

• Born: April 23, 1791
• Birthplace: Cove Gap, near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
• Died: June 1, 1868
• Place of death: Lancaster, Pennsylvania

The last man to serve as president before the Civil War, Buchanan worked hard to preserve the Union. His presidency was devoted to trying to maintain the Democratic Party’s North-South coalition.

Early Life

James Buchanan was the second child of James and Mary Buchanan, both of whom were from strong northern Irish-Scottish Presbyterian families. The year James was born, his elder sister died, so, understandably, James received an unusual amount of attention and affection. After James, the Buchanans had nine more children: five girls followed by four boys. One of the girls and one of the boys did not live to be one year old. The arrival of so many brothers and sisters, however, did not diminish the special place James held in the Buchanan household.

James’s formal education began at the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg. In the autumn of 1807, he entered the junior class at Dickinson College. Although he was expelled once for disorderly conduct, he still managed to be graduated in 1809. James’s personality was the source of most of his difficulties in college: He had a high opinion of himself and was quite obnoxious at times.

Buchanan’s self-confidence was at least partially justified. He was an able student who became an extremely successful lawyer. Along with his intellectual ability, Buchanan was distinguished in appearance. He was tall with broad shoulders, had wavy blond hair, blue eyes, and fine features. He walked in a distinctive manner, with his head tilted slightly forward. His size, appearance, and mannerisms made him stand out, even in large crowds. After college, Buchanan studied law in the office of James Hopkins of Lancaster and was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar in 1812. He quickly established a successful law practice. The two main ingredients of his success were his knowledge of the law and his talent for oral presentation.

Life’s Work

The political career of James Buchanan began with his election to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1813. As a Federalist, he opposed the war with England, but once war was declared, he became a volunteer in a company of dragoons. In 1815, he was reelected. During this period, he spent considerable time and energy trying to delay the return of specie payment to protect the Bank of the United States.

Buchanan emerged on the national political scene in 1820 as a member of the US House of Representatives. In 1824, with the demise of the Federalist Party, he found himself increasingly at odds with President John Quincy Adams. By 1826, Buchanan was working on a new Amalgamation Party in Pennsylvania, a mixture of Federalist Congressmen and old-line Democrats. What held the group together was its desire for a new political party and its support of Andrew Jackson . The main result of the creation of this new, vaguely defined party was that Buchanan became the primary dispenser of patronage in Pennsylvania.

After ten successful years in the House of Representatives, Buchanan was offered and accepted the ambassadorship to Russia. Before taking this post, he had been giving serious thought to leaving public life and returning to private law practice.

Buchanan stayed in St. Petersburg (now Leningrad) until August of 1833, returning home to run for the US Senate. By that time, Buchanan was clearly identified with the Democratic Party, and he realized that this meant supporting President Jackson, which included following Vice President Martin Van Buren’s lead in the Senate.

Buchanan was quickly recognized as a loyal and principled partisan. Although the Bank of the United States was located in his home state, Buchanan remained true to the Jackson administration’s commitment to getting the federal government out of the banking business. Everyone knew that destroying the bank would move the financial center of the United States from Philadelphia to New York; still, Buchanan believed that the interests of the nation should come before the interests of his home state. Buchanan’s ability to place the nation’s interests above those of his state or region were motivated, at least in part, by his political ambitions. In 1838, many of his friends encouraged him to run for the office of governor of Pennsylvania; he chose instead to remain in the Senate and focus his attention on national issues.

President James K. Polk appointed Buchanan to serve as his secretary of state in 1844. Buchanan shared Polk’s desire to expand the territory of the United States, but negotiating treaties for the rigid Polk was difficult at times. Buchanan’s skills at settling disputes and striking compromises were perfected during his tour of duty at the State Department.

Buchanan’s friends were surprised to learn that he was considering retirement as the 1848 presidential race approached. Whether it was the bitter division in the Democratic Party or the heightened concern over sectional rivalry, Buchanan sensed that 1848 would not be a good year for the Democratic Party. His instincts were correct. Buchanan’s retirement from the State Department left him time to take care of some private affairs. He purchased his country estate, Wheatland, and began the groundwork for the 1852 presidential race. Buchanan’s four years of retirement were some of the happiest he had known: He pursued the life of a gentleman farmer and spent time with the niece and nephew he was rearing. Unfortunately, his presidential ambitions were not well served by his temporary retirement.

The 1852 Democratic Convention was greatly divided. After some political maneuvering, much heated debate, and many caucuses, Franklin Pierce received the party’s nomination. Pierce defeated Winfield Scott in the general election and then persuaded Buchanan to end his political retirement and serve as ambassador to Great Britain. Though Buchanan accepted this assignment reluctantly, it proved to be a good decision for him politically.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854, repealing the Missouri Compromise and leaving both the nation and the Democratic Party bitterly divided. Buchanan’s chief rivals for the 1856 Democratic presidential nomination were damaged by the sectional strife. When Buchanan returned home from London, many believed that he was the only candidate who could mend the Democratic Party’s wounds and save the Union.

The 1856 party nomination did not come easily. Only after Stephen A. Douglas withdrew from the race was Buchanan able to acquire the 60 percent of the vote needed for the nomination. Fortunately for Buchanan, it was a transitional year for those who opposed the Democratic Party. Buchanan did not get a majority of the popular votes but was able to secure enough electoral college votes to win the presidency.

Buchanan’s long journey to the White House was over. His quest for the presidency had been difficult, and so were his years in the White House. Buchanan’s administration was haunted by the question of slavery in the United States territories. He hoped that the Supreme Court’s Dred Scott decision would settle the issue once and for all, but his hopes were in vain. In many respects the Court’s decision complicated the issue. Stephen Douglas found the Court’s ruling to be a thorn in his side throughout the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of 1858. The battle raging within the Democratic Party was over the same issue. Douglas believed that “popular sovereignty” was the solution to the slavery controversy. Buchanan, like Abraham Lincoln, did not accept Douglas’s solution. Unlike Lincoln, Buchanan believed that the Dred Scott decision denied the federal government authority over the institution of slavery in the territories and that only states had the authority to prohibit slavery within their boundaries. The end result was that Buchanan, the great compromiser and diplomat, could not settle the controversy.

Buchanan believed that the Democratic Party had held the Union together for the past decade; as president, he believed that it was his job to unite the party before 1860. However, Buchanan was unable to unify his party, and the Democrats lost the 1860 presidential campaign; then, as he expected, the Union came to face its greatest threat ever: civil war. Buchanan himself lived until June, 1868—long enough to observe the war and the beginnings of Reconstruction.

Significance

Buchanan realized that the nation’s strength was its ability to strike a compromise among conflicting interests. The Constitutional Convention of 1787 succeeded because it was able to forge a consensus among the different groups represented at the convention. The Democratic Party’s success had been built upon its ability to rise above sectional disputes and focus on national issues. The United States, according to Buchanan, was a compromise republic that had succeeded in bending when necessary so that it would not break. Buchanan’s unswerving commitment to the Union kept him from seeing that many Americans were tired of compromises. The old North–South coalition had been pushed to the breaking point, and the westward expansion had given the North a decided advantage. Those in the North knew this; those in the South knew this; but Buchanan seemed not to know.

What are often interpreted as Buchanan’s southern sympathies were really little more than his sense of fair play coupled with his sincere desire to preserve the Union. One of the nation’s great compromisers had the misfortune of being president at a time when compromise was no longer possible. Unfortunately, James Buchanan is remembered not for his thirty-eight successful years in politics but for his four unsuccessful years. Buchanan, like most other politicians in the United States, is remembered for what he did last.

Bibliography

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Birkner, Michael J., ed. James Buchanan and the Political Crisis of the 1850’s. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna UP, 1996. Print.

Connolly, Michael J. "'Tearing Down the Burning House': James Buchanan's Use of Edmund Burke." American Nineteenth Century History 10.2 (2009): 211–21. Print

Curtis, George Ticknor. The Life of James Buchanan. 2 vols. New York: Harper, 1883. Print.

Horrocks, Thomas A. "Could This Man Have Stopped the War?" America's Civil War 23.3 (2010): 36–41. Print.

Jaffa, Harry. Crisis of the House Divided. New York: Doubleday, 1959. Print.

Klein, Philip. President James Buchanan: A Biography. University Park: Pennsylvania State UP, 1962. Print.

Malanowski, Jamie. "Was War Inevitable?" Civil War Times 52.2 (2013): 58–65. Print.

Moore, John Bassett, ed. The Works of James Buchanan. 12 vols. Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1908. Print.

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Reisman, David A. The Political Economy of James Buchanan. College Station: Texas A&M UP, 1990. Print.

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