James Buchanan

: For the economist of this name, see James M. Buchanan.

Presidency

Buchanan was elected as a Democratic President of the United States in 1856 and served from March 4, 1857 to March 4, 1861.

Related Topics:
1856 - March 4 - 1857 - 1861

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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.

Related Topics:
Supreme Court - Slavery

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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."

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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 dicta — 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 slave property.

Related Topics:
Roger B. Taney - Dred Scott Decision - Dicta - Robert Cooper Grier

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Buchanan, however, faced further hardship 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 wildly 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 ram 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, meanwhile, was by now tremendously unpopular in the North.

Related Topics:
Lecompton Constitution - Kansas - Stephen A. Douglas

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Economic troubles also plagued Buchanan's administration with the outbreak of the Panic of 1857. The government suddenly faced a shortfall of revenue, due in part to 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.

Related Topics:
Panic of 1857 - Tariff - Howell Cobb

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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 Northern and Southern members prevailed on the floor of Congress, where memories of the caning of Charles Sumner in 1856 by a Southern Democrat still burned.

Related Topics:
1858 - Charles Sumner - 1856

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Sectional strife rose to such a pitch in 1860 that the Democratic Party split. The southern wing walked out of the convention and nominated its own candidate for the presidency, incumbent vice-president John C. Breckinridge, whom Buchanan refused to support. 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. Rather than accept a Republican administration, the southern "Fire-Eaters" advocated secession.

Related Topics:
1860 - John C. Breckinridge - Abraham Lincoln - Fire-Eaters - Secession

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President Buchanan, dismayed and hesitant, 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.

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Then Buchanan took a more militant tack. As several Cabinet members resigned, he appointed Northerners, and chartered the civilian steamer Star of the West to secretly carry reinforcements and supplies to Fort Sumter. However, the attempt to maintain secrecy failed. Newspapers published stories that the ship was headed for Charleston, and South Carolina officials received confirmation from Louis T. Wigfall, still a United States senator from Texas, as well as from Buchanan's Secretary of the Interior, Jacob Thompson of Mississippi. In the early morning of January 9, 1861, South Carolina's batteries opened on the Star of the West. The unarmed ship was caught in a crossfire. Receiving no assistance from Fort Sumter, it turned back to New York after suffering minor damage. As a result of the operation, Thompson resigned from the cabinet.

Related Topics:
Star of the West - Fort Sumter - Charleston - South Carolina - Louis T. Wigfall - Texas - Jacob Thompson - Mississippi - January 9 - 1861 - New York

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As such, the first shots of the American Civil War were fired during the Buchanan Administration. Before he left office, seven slave states seceded, several seizing other federal forts and property within their boundaries.

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Buchanan retired to his home "Wheatland," near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he died June 1, 1868, at the age of 77. He was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery, in Lancaster. "Wheatland" should not be confused with the Wheatland musical organization.

Related Topics:
Lancaster, Pennsylvania - June 1 - 1868 - Wheatland

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Cabinet

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Supreme Court appointments

Buchanan appointed the following Justice to the Supreme Court of the United States:

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• Nathan Clifford - 1858

States admitted to the Union

• Minnesota – May 11, 1858
• Oregon – February 14, 1859
• Kansas – January 29, 1861