James Buchanan

Buchanan (often called Buck-anan by his contemporaries) was a popular and experienced state politician and a successful attorney before his presidency.  He represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Minister to Russia under President Andrew Jackson.  He also was Secretary of State under President James K. Polk.  After turning down an offer for an appointment to the Supreme Court, President Franklin Pierce appointed him Minister to the United Kingdom, in which capacity he helped draft the controversial Ostend Manifesto.

Buchanan was nominated in the 1856 election. Throughout most of Franklin Pierce‘s term he was stationed in London as a Minister to the Court of St. James’s and therefore was not caught up in the crossfire of sectional politics that dominated the country.  Buchanan was viewed by many as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery question.  His subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race with John C. Frémont and Millard Fillmore.

As President, he was often called a “doughface“, a Northerner with Southern sympathies, who battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan’s efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War. Buchanan’s view of record was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. Buchanan, first and foremost an attorney, was noted for his mantra, “I acknowledge no master but the law.”

When he left office, popular opinion had turned against him, and the Democratic Party had split in two. Buchanan had once aspired to a presidency that would rank in history with that of George Washington.  However, his inability to negotiate peace on sharply divided partisans on the brink of the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents.  Buchanan biographer Philip Klein puts these rankings into context: “Buchanan assumed leadership … when an unprecedented wave of angry passion was sweeping over the nation. That he held the hostile sections in check during these revolutionary times was in itself a remarkable achievement.  His weaknesses in the stormy years of his presidency were magnified by enraged partisans of the North and South.  His many talents, which in a quieter era might have gained for him a place among the great presidents, were quickly overshadowed by the cataclysmic events of civil war and by the towering Abraham Lincoln.”

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Posted by RobertButler on Sep 13 2011. Filed under 19th Century Presidents, James Buchanan, The Democratic Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry