Home About Chat Users Issues Party Candidates Polling Firms Media News Polls Calendar Key Races United States President Senate House Governors International

New User Account
"A comprehensive, collaborative elections resource." 
Email: Password:

  Buchanan, James
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationDemocratic  
<-  1865-01-01  
 
NameJames Buchanan
Address
Lancaster, Pennsylvania , United States
EmailNone
Website [Link]
Born April 23, 1791
DiedJune 01, 1868 (77 years)
ContributorJake
Last ModifedNJLBT
Feb 17, 2021 05:22pm
Tags English - Irish - Scottish - Single - Special Forces - Freemason - Presbyterian - Disputed -
InfoTall, stately, stiffly formal in the high stock he wore around his jowls, James Buchanan was the only President who never married.

Presiding over a rapidly dividing Nation, Buchanan grasped inadequately the political realities of the time. Relying on constitutional doctrines to close the widening rift over slavery, he failed to understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments which favored the South. Nor could he realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to the Republicans.

Born into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family in 1791, Buchanan, a graduate of Dickinson College, was gifted as a debater and learned in the law.

He was elected five times to the House of Representatives; then, after an interlude as Minister to Russia, served for a decade in the Senate. He became Polk’s Secretary of State and Pierce’s Minister to Great Britain. Service abroad helped to bring him the Democratic nomination in 1856 because it had exempted him from involvement in bitter domestic controversies.

As President-elect, Buchanan thought the crisis would disappear if he maintained a sectional balance in his appointments and could persuade 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.

Thus, in his Inaugural the President 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 deprive persons of their property rights in slaves in the territories. Southerners were delighted, but the decision created a furor in the North.

Buchanan decided to end the troubles in Kansas by urging the admission of the territory as a slave state. Although he directed his Presidential authority to this goal, he further angered the Republicans and alienated members of his own party. Kansas remained a territory.

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.

Sectional strife rose to such a pitch in 1860 that the Democratic Party split into northern and southern wings, each nominating its own candidate for the Presidency. 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.

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 compromise.

Then Buchanan took a more militant tack. As several Cabinet members resigned, he appointed northerners, and sent the Star of the West to carry reinforcements to Fort Sumter. On January 9, 1861, the vessel was far away.

Buchanan reverted to a policy of inactivity that continued until he left office. In March 1861 he retired to his Pennsylvania home Wheatland–where he died seven years later–leaving his successor to resolve the frightful issue facing the Nation.

[Link]

JOB APPROVAL POLLS
DateFirmApproveDisapproveDon't Know
06/13/2007-06/24/2007 Rasmussen Reports 28.00% ( 0.0) 32.00% ( 0.0) 40.00% ( 0.0)

BOOKS
Title Purchase Contributor

EVENTS
Start Date End Date Type Title Contributor

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor
Apr 12, 2011 07:00pm Study How to Run for President (And Still Have Been Born in Pennsylvania)  Article Scott³ 
Jun 28, 2004 12:00am News The Other Buchanan Controversy Was the Fifteenth President of the United States Gay?  Article Thomas Walker 

DISCUSSION
Importance? 9.66670 Average

FAMILY
Father James Buchanan, Sr. 0000-
Sister Jane Buchanan Lane 0000-
Niece Harriet Rebecca Lane Johnston 1830-1903

INFORMATION LINKS
James Buchanan - First Annual Message (December 8, 1857)  Discuss
James Buchanan - Fourth Annual Message (December 3, 1860)  Discuss
James Buchanan - Second Annual Message (December 6, 1858)  Discuss
James Buchanan - Third Annual Message (December 19, 1859)  Discuss
President James Buchanan Inaugural Address March 4, 1857  Discuss
RACES
  12/03/1856 US President Won 58.78% (+20.27%)
  11/04/1856 DE US President Won 54.83% (+11.84%)
  11/04/1856 ME US President Lost 35.66% (-25.64%)
  11/04/1856 NY US President Lost 32.84% (-13.43%)
  11/04/1856 WI US President Lost 43.85% (-11.82%)
  11/04/1856 FL US President Won 56.81% (+13.63%)
  11/04/1856 MD US President Lost 45.03% (-9.61%)
  11/04/1856 PA US President Won 50.11% (+18.07%)
  11/04/1856 GA US President Won 57.14% (+14.28%)
  11/04/1856 MA US President Lost 23.07% (-40.54%)
  11/04/1856 RI US President Lost 33.70% (-24.15%)
  11/04/1856 NC US President Won 56.78% (+13.56%)
  11/04/1856 IA US President Lost 40.66% (-8.22%)
  11/04/1856 MI US President Lost 41.52% (-15.63%)
  11/04/1856 SC US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/04/1856 AL US President Won 62.08% (+24.16%)
  11/04/1856 IL US President Won 44.09% (+3.87%)
  11/04/1856 MS US President Won 59.44% (+18.89%)
  11/04/1856 TN US President Won 52.18% (+4.36%)
  11/04/1856 AR US President Won 67.12% (+34.24%)
  11/04/1856 IN US President Won 50.41% (+10.32%)
  11/04/1856 MO US President Won 54.43% (+8.86%)
  11/04/1856 TX US President Won 66.65% (+33.30%)
  11/04/1856 OH US President Lost 44.09% (-4.49%)
  11/04/1856 CA US President Won 48.38% (+15.55%)
  11/04/1856 KY US President Won 52.43% (+5.08%)
  11/04/1856 NH US President Lost 45.71% (-8.00%)
  11/04/1856 VT US President Lost 20.87% (-57.18%)
  11/04/1856 CT US President Lost 43.59% (-9.57%)
  11/04/1856 LA US President Won 51.70% (+3.39%)
  11/04/1856 NJ US President Won 47.23% (+18.72%)
  11/04/1856 VA US President Won 59.96% (+19.92%)
  11/04/1856 US President National Vote Won 45.28% (+12.18%)
  06/06/1856 US President - D Convention Won 54.21% (+31.87%)
  04/11/1853 US Ambassador to United Kingdom Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  06/05/1852 US President - D Convention Lost 13.21% (-22.62%)
  05/26/1848 US President - D Convention Lost 11.34% (-50.17%)
  03/06/1845 U. S. Secretary of State Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  05/30/1844 US President - D Convention Lost 4.28% (-39.47%)
  01/10/1843 PA US Senate Won 56.06% (+15.15%)
  12/14/1836 PA US Senate Won 64.39% (+46.21%)
  12/06/1834 PA US Senate - Special Election Won 49.62% (+26.32%)
  12/31/1832 PA US Senate Lost 3.76% (-51.88%)
  01/04/1832 US Ambassador to Russia Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  10/14/1828 PA District 4 Won 17.62% (+0.13%)
  12/12/1826 PA US Senate Lost 5.52% (-54.14%)
  10/10/1826 PA District 4 Won 18.50% (+0.68%)
  10/12/1824 PA District 4 Won 17.97% (+0.43%)
  10/08/1822 PA District 4 Won 18.60% (+0.40%)
  10/10/1820 PA District 3 Won 27.88% (+0.36%)
ENDORSEMENTS
US President - Dec 05, 1860 D John C. Breckinridge
US Vice President - Senate Runoff - Feb 08, 1837 D Richard Mentor Johnson