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James Buchanan

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   James Buchanan
   James Buchanan
     __________________________________________________________________

   15th President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1857 –  March 4, 1861
   Vice President(s)   John C. Breckinridge
   Preceded by Franklin Pierce
   Succeeded by Abraham Lincoln
     __________________________________________________________________

   17th United States Secretary of State
   In office
   March 10, 1845 –  March 7, 1849
   President James Polk
   Preceded by John C. Calhoun
   Succeeded by John M. Clayton
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born April 23, 1791
   Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
   Died June 1, 1868
   Lancaster, Pennsylvania
   Political party Democratic
   Religion Presbyterian
   Signature

   James Buchanan ( April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president
   of the United States ( 1857– 1861). He was the only bachelor president
   and the only resident of Pennsylvania to hold the office of President.
   He has been criticized for failing to prevent the country from sliding
   into the American Civil War. 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."

Biography and 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). At age 8 he attended the American School of Acrobatics and
   was the best in his class. He graduated in 1801. The Buchanan family
   are also direct descendents of James I, King of Scotland. In 1802, He
   moved to Mercersburg with his parents in 1799, where he was privately
   tutored. He later attended the village academy and was graduated from
   Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1809, he moved to
   Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The same year he studied law and was admitted
   to the bar in 1812 and practiced in Lancaster. He was one of the first
   volunteers in the War of 1812 and served in the defense of Baltimore,
   Maryland. He was a Federalist Party member of the Pennsylvania House of
   Representatives from 1814 to 1815.

Political career

   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.

   Buchanan was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill
   the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Wilkins. He served
   from December 6, 1834, was reelected in 1837 and 1843, and resigned on
   March 5, 1845, to accept a Cabinet portfolio. He was chairman of the
   Committee on Foreign Relations (Twenty-fourth through Twenty-sixth
   Congresses).

   Buchanan served as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President James
   K. Polk from 1845 to 1849, during which 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.

   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 United Kingdom from 1853 to 1856, during
   which time he helped to draft the Ostend Manifesto, which proposed the
   purchase of Cuba under the threat of force.

   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 honour: Buchanan County in Iowa,
   Missouri, and Virginia.

Election of 1856

   The electoral map of the 1856 election.
   Enlarge
   The electoral map of the 1856 election.

   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.

   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.

   In 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

Policies

   Inauguration of James Buchanan
   Enlarge
   Inauguration of James Buchanan

   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 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.

   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.

   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.

   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
   committe, 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.
   Editorial cartoon in Republican newspapers, 1861
   Enlarge
   Editorial cartoon in Republican newspapers, 1861

   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 Adams 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 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 the centre of Charleston, 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.

Administration and Cabinet

   Official White House portrait of James Buchanan
   Enlarge
   Official White House portrait of James Buchanan
   OFFICE                    NAME                 TERM
   President                 James Buchanan       1857–1861
   Vice President            John C. Breckinridge 1857–1861
   Secretary of State        Lewis Cass           1857–1860
                             Jeremiah S. Black    1860–1861
   Secretary of the Treasury Howell Cobb          1857–1860
                             Philip Thomas        1860–1861
                             John A. Dix          1861
   Secretary of War          John B. Floyd        1857–1861
                             Joseph Holt          1860–1861
   Attorney General          Jeremiah S. Black    1857–1860
                             Edwin M. Stanton     1860–1861
   Postmaster General        Aaron V. Brown       1857–1859
                             Joseph Holt          1859–1860
                             Horatio King         1861
   Secretary of the Navy     Isaac Toucey         1857–1861
   Secretary of the Interior Jacob Thompson       1857–1861

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

Rumors and speculation about Buchanan's sexual orientation

   There has been some debate over Buchanan's sexual orientation, leading
   some to believe he was homosexual. This theory was publicized by James
   Loewen in the book Lies Across America, but was not originated by
   Loewen. (For example, it was discussed by historian Paul Boller in his
   book Not So! published several years earlier.)

   In 1819, Buchanan was engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of
   a wealthy iron manufacturing businessman. Buchanan began to see the
   wife of William Jenkins. Hearing about this, she abruptly broke off
   their engagement and died from an overdose of laudanum several days
   later . Some historians theorize this may have been a suicide.

   After his fiancée’s death, Buchanan vowed he would never marry. For
   fifteen years in Washington, D.C., prior to his Presidency, James
   Buchanan lived with William R. King, who was later Vice President under
   Franklin Pierce. . King died four years before Buchanan became
   President. Rumors and speculation circulated that the two had a
   homosexual relationship, with King being referred to by Andrew Jackson
   as "Miss Nancy" while Aaron V. Brown referred to him as "Buchanan's
   better half." The term "Nancy" was used to describe homosexual men in
   the nineteenth century .

   Scholars doubting Buchanan's homosexuality point out that two men
   sharing a bed or a room for a night was incredibly common. That
   practice, however, was more common among strangers travelling in the
   wilderness than among acquaintances, both of financial means, sharing
   an urban home in the capital. It could have been that Buchanan and King
   were simply roommates, and their relationship was close and friendly
   but not sexual.

   Buchanan was the only President never to marry in his life. But whether
   or not he was a homosexual continues to be a point of heated debate
   between historians. After Ann Coleman died in 1819, Ann's father was
   convinced that Buchanan murdered her. In his grief, Buchanan had
   written him a plea.


   James Buchanan

      "You have lost a child, a dear, dear child. I have lost the only
   earthly object of my affection. . . . I have now one request to make; .
    . . deny me not. Afford me the melancholy pleasure of seeing her body
                             before interment."


   James Buchanan

   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 a man to be alone," he wrote, "and
   should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who
   does not expect from me any romantic affection." The debate still
   continues for some.

Post-presidency and Death

   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 78 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.

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