Consistently ranked near the bottom of presidential polls, (40th in the latest USPC poll) Buchanan entered the White House as one of the most experienced with over 40 years of public service. As a young man Buchanan practiced law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and by the age of thirty, he estimated his wealth at $300,000 (that’s at least $6,000,000 in 2011 dollars using CPI). His first elected office was in the Pennsylvania State Legislature in 1814 (at the age of 23). Once reelected in 1815, he set his sights on, and won, a seat in the US House of Representatives in 1820.
It was around this time that personal tragedy struck. At the time, he was engaged to the daughter of Pennsylvania’s first millionaire. Anne Coleman’s family did not approve of the union and she, giving in to the family wishes, broke off the engagement. There were also rumors at the time that Buchanan was only marrying her for the political connections and, of course, money. During the courtship Buchanan was busy with his law practice, and would be away from her for weeks at a time. Whatever the cause of the break-up, Anne died soon after. There some speculation that she died from suicide. He never considered marriage to another woman (he kept the letters from Anne for the rest of his life and had them burned upon his death).
Originally elected as a Federalist, Buchanan became a Jacksonian Democrat and was appointed by Jackson to be Minister to Russia. In 1834, Buchanan was elected to fill a vacant seat in the United States Senate, where he served until 1845 (this involved winning 3 elections, a partial in 1834, a full term in 1836 and 1840). After the death of Supreme Court Justice Henry Baldwin in 1844 President Polk nominated Buchanan to fill the vacant seat. Buchanan declined, due to the need to complete his work on the Oregon Treaty negotiations (he was chairman of the Senate committee on Foreign Relations). He did resign his Senate seat in 1845 to become Secretary of State for James K. Polk. As Secretary of State he assisted in the completion of the treaty with Great Britain that located the northern border of the United States at the 49th parallel.
With the election of Zachary Taylor in 1848, Buchanan retired from public life, purchasing a large estate near Lancaster. Even though Buchanan had never married, he had a large extended family from his ten brothers and sisters (all but one of his siblings had died by 1840). He had twenty-two nieces and nephews, in addition to many of their children; his home was never quiet.
Franklin Pierce appointed Buchanan to be the Minister to Great Britain. It was during this period that Buchanan was involved in the Ostend Manifesto which I covered in the write up of Franklin Pierce. On a side note, when Buchanan was Minister to Great Britain his secretary was a man named Daniel Sickles. Sickles was quite the character. He murdered the son of Francis Scott Key for having an affair with his wife, was a regular attendee at the séances with Mary Todd Lincoln and lost his leg at the Battle of Gettysburg. If you’re interested there is a great book about him called American Scoundrel.
Pierce had become increasingly unpopular by this time, thus the Democratic nomination went to Buchanan in the election of 1856. Because Buchanan had been in England during all of the debates on the Kansas-Nebraska act, he had not had to publically state a position on slavery. This kept him as a viable option for people on both sides of the issue. Buchanan defeated John C. Fremont and Millard Fillmore in the election. Fremont was the first presidential candidate from the new Republican party and former President Fillmore was—this is a bit confusing—running as both a Whig and a Know-Nothing candidate. (I’m not sure who the marketing genius was that came up with the Know-Nothing party, but it certainly doesn’t seem like a selling tag line.)
The issue of slavery had dominated national politics for decades at this point. Buchanan was a Northerner, but believed that slavery should be allowed to exist in the South. In the days between his election and inauguration the Supreme Court was about to release their decision on the Dred Scott case. Buchanan had been in discussions with one of the justices where he stated that the court should take a broad view on the topic. He was told that most of the justices wanted to take a broad view, but that some of the Northern justices were opposed to such a thing. He convinced the justice from Pennsylvania to support the broad view and it passed. The decision was announced by Chief Justice Taney just two days after the inauguration. The Dred Scott case had far reaching effects. It stated that slaves were not and could never be United States citizens, that the federal government had no constitutional authority to prohibit slavery in the new territories (or states), and that slaves were property and could not be taken away from their owners without due process. The Supreme Court has never overturned the Dred Scott decision; instead Congress and the states passed the 14th amendment.
The slavery question continued to get emotions raging on both sides of the question. In 1859, John Brown seized the arsenal at Harpers Ferry. Buchanan sent in the army to put down the action. The officer in charge of the troops was Colonel Robert E. Lee.
Buchanan did not run for reelection in the 1860 election, the one that made Abraham Lincoln the next president. Starting in December 1860, seven states seceded from the Union. In spite of this, Buchanan did not make any effort to fortify the federal forts and arsenals in the south, claiming that it would just incite them to violence. By the time he left office all federal property was in the hands of the Confederacy, with the exception of Fort Sumter. He had made an agreement with the Governor of South Carolina that the garrison at Fort Sumter would not be reinforced. However he failed to mention this to Major Anderson, the commander at Charleston, who decided to move his troops to Fort Sumter as it could be more easily defended than Fort Moultrie.
It is easy to imagine what a stronger president would have done in the same situation. Would Andrew Jackson have let the Southern states secede so easily? While Buchanan believed that what the Southern states did by seceding was illegal, but didn’t believe that the federal government could do anything about it outside the courts. He did not believe that the federal government had the constitutional right to send federal troops into a state without permission from that state.
Could he have averted the Civil War? Possibly. It certainly would have made a difference had he acted aggressively to reinforce the federal forts and armories, but would that have just started the war earlier?
More facts to amaze and inspire your friends:
- He is the only president elected from Pennsylvania
- He has been the last US Secretary of State to become president (so far)
- In 1852, Buchanan was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in his hometown of Lancaster, Pennsylvania; he served in this capacity until 1866.
- The only bachelor president
- The presidential election of 1856 was the last time the Whig party fielded a candidate (Millard Fillmore)
- Buchanan is the last of only two Democratic presidents to win election following the term of another Democratic president (Van Buren was the other). This does not account for Democrats that became president after a death.
- When he was a Senator, and during his Presidency, Buchanan quietly, but consistently, bought slaves in DC to then set them free in Pennsylvania.
Vital Stats:
- Wife: None
- Children: None
- Party affiliation: Democratic Party
- Presidency: 1857-1861
- Born: April 23rd, 1791 (Cove Gap, Pennsylvania)
- Died: June 1st, 1868 (Lancaster, Pennsylvania)
Very interesting!
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