Mid-Term Elections: 1858
James Buchanan is the only US President to have fewer states in the union at the end of his presidency than he had at the start. This is one of a number of reasons why Buchanan is regularly ranked last in presidential rankings. When he was elected president in 1856, it looked as if the reverse might be true. Buchanan came to the office with an impressive resume and even he himself had suggested that his presidency might rival that of George Washington. In the end, Buchanan's prediction might appear laughable if it wasn't for the tragic war that followed, in large measure because of his inaction.
After Franklin Pierce was elected President in 1852, Buchanan agreed to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, a move that turned out to be a good one in terms of his presidential aspirations. Buchanan was out of the country while a very contentious and divisive debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act was occurring. When the 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, Buchanan seemed to be an attractive candidate because his name was not associated with any of what had occurred in the territory. Buchanan was selected as the Democratic presidential nominee on the seventeenth ballot of the convention.
Buchanan was what is pejoratively referred to as a "doughface" (a northerner who was sympathetic to southern slaveholding interests) and in the election of 1856, Buchanan carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and 174 electoral votes, enough for victory at the polls.
Buchanan's presidency began ominously. He took the oath of office as president on March 4, 1857, and Chief Justice Roger Taney administered the Oath of office. In his inaugural address, Buchanan spoke critically about the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories. He asserted that a federal slave code should protect the rights of slave-owners in any federal territory and referred to a pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he stated would permanently settle the issue of slavery. In one of the most shocking and unethical acts in the history of the court, Buchanan already knew the outcome of the case, and had even played a part in its disposition by lobbying some of the justices to bring about a result favorable to slaveholders.
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, which held that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Before his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquiring about the outcome of the case and suggesting a result which, in Buchanan's opinion, would be more beneficial for the nation. Catron, a southernor from Tennessee, replied on February 10 that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but the decision would likely have to decided on narrow grounds unless there was support from the Court's northern justices. He asked Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority. Buchanan wrote to Grier and successfully convinced him to join the majority in a more sweeping decision that went so far as to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
Rumors of Buchanan's interference in the court's decision in order to further the interests of slaveholders hurt his reputation among northerners. But he also had a sluggish economy to contend with. A recession known as the Panic of 1857 began in the middle of Buchanan's first year in office and was marked by the collapse of fourteen hundred state banks and five thousand businesses. The South escaped the worst of the recession, but Northern cities saw a huge jump in the unemployment rate with many unemployed men and women taking to the streets to beg. Buchanan seemed unsympathetic to their plight, claiming that the government was "without the power to extend relief." Buchanan discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank notes issued. The economy would recover by 1859, but not before the mid-term elections of 1858.
The recession worsened sectional tensions. Many northerners blamed the Southern-backed Tariff of 1857 (passed on Franklin Pierce's last day in office) for the panic. Buchanan and the southerners who supported him blamed Northern bankers. The deficit grew under Buchanan's presidency.
Buchanan also lost credibility in the dispute in the Kansas-Nebraska territory by supporting the Lecompton Constitution, one written by those supporting slavery, and obtained by fraud and violence. He ignored the reports of two former Democratic governors of the territory who disputed the legitimacy of the Lecompton constitution and on February 2, 1858, he sent it to Congress and urged its adoption. He offered political favors, patronage appointments, and even cash bribes for votes. The Lecompton Constitution was approved by the Senate in March, but was defeated in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan supported an alternate bill which offered Kansans immediate statehood and public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. This bill won passage in both houses of Congress. But despite congressional approval, Kansas voters held a referendum in August of 1858 and strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The 1858 mid-term elections are famous for one particular race, that being the race for the Senate in Illinois where incumbent Democrat Stephen Douglas debated his Republican opponent, the former Whig Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Douglas's Senate term ended in 1859, and the Illinois legislature that would be elected in 1858 would determine whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate election was the primary issue of the legislative election, andthe Lincoln-Douglas debates between the two candidates sought to convince voters as to their desired outcome. Buchanan used federal patronage appointees in Illinois to run candidates for the legislature to compete with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. In his 1858 re-election bid, Douglas defeated Lincoln, and Douglas forces took control of the Democratic Party throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. But Douglas's support in the South was non-existent because of his refusal to support the Lecompton Constitution.
In the House of Representatives, the newly formed Republican party won a majority, gaining 23 seats and increasing their number form 90 to 113. Democrats lost 49 seats and dropped from 132 to 83 seats. Republicans benefited from the collapse of the nativist American Party, as well as from sectional strife in the Democratic Party. Northerners were angry over the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, and blamed Democrats for the violence in Kansas, and for the Democrats' perceived attempts to impose slavery against the express will of a majority of its settlers. Republicans even made large gains in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania.
Democrats maintained control of the Senate, but lost 4 seats while Republicans gained 5. After the elections Democrats still have a majority of 38 to 25. As this election was prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, senators were chosen by state legislatures.
Republicans were united in opposing slavery in the territories and fugitive slave laws, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision. Though not yet abolitionist, Republicans demonstrated a hostility to slavery. Democrats remained divided and politically trapped. Eight Northern Anti-Lecompton Democrats favored a ban on slavery in Kansas. Democrats lacked credible leadership. Democrats also lost seats in some slave states as many southerners feared that Stephen Douglas, Buchanan's perceived successor and the Democrats leader in the Senate, was not supportive of southern slaveholding interests.
Governing became more difficult for Buchanan as Republican control of the House allowed Republicans to block much of Buchanan's agenda in the second half of his term. A number of Democrats would resign from Congress near the end of the session following their states' secession from the Union. Buchanan had once predicted that his presidency would be as successful as that of Washington. Nothing could be further from the truth.
After Franklin Pierce was elected President in 1852, Buchanan agreed to serve as the United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom, a move that turned out to be a good one in terms of his presidential aspirations. Buchanan was out of the country while a very contentious and divisive debate over the Kansas–Nebraska Act was occurring. When the 1856 Democratic National Convention met in June 1856, Buchanan seemed to be an attractive candidate because his name was not associated with any of what had occurred in the territory. Buchanan was selected as the Democratic presidential nominee on the seventeenth ballot of the convention.
Buchanan was what is pejoratively referred to as a "doughface" (a northerner who was sympathetic to southern slaveholding interests) and in the election of 1856, Buchanan carried every slave state except for Maryland, as well as five free states, including his home state of Pennsylvania. He won 45 percent of the popular vote and 174 electoral votes, enough for victory at the polls.
Buchanan's presidency began ominously. He took the oath of office as president on March 4, 1857, and Chief Justice Roger Taney administered the Oath of office. In his inaugural address, Buchanan spoke critically about the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories. He asserted that a federal slave code should protect the rights of slave-owners in any federal territory and referred to a pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v. Sandford, which he stated would permanently settle the issue of slavery. In one of the most shocking and unethical acts in the history of the court, Buchanan already knew the outcome of the case, and had even played a part in its disposition by lobbying some of the justices to bring about a result favorable to slaveholders.
Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, which held that Congress had no constitutional power to exclude slavery in the territories. Before his inauguration, Buchanan had written to Justice John Catron in January 1857, inquiring about the outcome of the case and suggesting a result which, in Buchanan's opinion, would be more beneficial for the nation. Catron, a southernor from Tennessee, replied on February 10 that the Supreme Court's Southern majority would decide against Scott, but the decision would likely have to decided on narrow grounds unless there was support from the Court's northern justices. He asked Buchanan could convince his fellow Pennsylvanian, Justice Robert Cooper Grier, to join the majority. Buchanan wrote to Grier and successfully convinced him to join the majority in a more sweeping decision that went so far as to declare the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional.
Rumors of Buchanan's interference in the court's decision in order to further the interests of slaveholders hurt his reputation among northerners. But he also had a sluggish economy to contend with. A recession known as the Panic of 1857 began in the middle of Buchanan's first year in office and was marked by the collapse of fourteen hundred state banks and five thousand businesses. The South escaped the worst of the recession, but Northern cities saw a huge jump in the unemployment rate with many unemployed men and women taking to the streets to beg. Buchanan seemed unsympathetic to their plight, claiming that the government was "without the power to extend relief." Buchanan discouraged the use of federal or state bonds as security for bank notes issued. The economy would recover by 1859, but not before the mid-term elections of 1858.
The recession worsened sectional tensions. Many northerners blamed the Southern-backed Tariff of 1857 (passed on Franklin Pierce's last day in office) for the panic. Buchanan and the southerners who supported him blamed Northern bankers. The deficit grew under Buchanan's presidency.
Buchanan also lost credibility in the dispute in the Kansas-Nebraska territory by supporting the Lecompton Constitution, one written by those supporting slavery, and obtained by fraud and violence. He ignored the reports of two former Democratic governors of the territory who disputed the legitimacy of the Lecompton constitution and on February 2, 1858, he sent it to Congress and urged its adoption. He offered political favors, patronage appointments, and even cash bribes for votes. The Lecompton Constitution was approved by the Senate in March, but was defeated in the House. Rather than accepting defeat, Buchanan supported an alternate bill which offered Kansans immediate statehood and public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution. This bill won passage in both houses of Congress. But despite congressional approval, Kansas voters held a referendum in August of 1858 and strongly rejected the Lecompton Constitution.
The 1858 mid-term elections are famous for one particular race, that being the race for the Senate in Illinois where incumbent Democrat Stephen Douglas debated his Republican opponent, the former Whig Congressman Abraham Lincoln. Douglas's Senate term ended in 1859, and the Illinois legislature that would be elected in 1858 would determine whether Douglas would win re-election. The Senate election was the primary issue of the legislative election, andthe Lincoln-Douglas debates between the two candidates sought to convince voters as to their desired outcome. Buchanan used federal patronage appointees in Illinois to run candidates for the legislature to compete with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats. In his 1858 re-election bid, Douglas defeated Lincoln, and Douglas forces took control of the Democratic Party throughout the North, except in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania. But Douglas's support in the South was non-existent because of his refusal to support the Lecompton Constitution.
In the House of Representatives, the newly formed Republican party won a majority, gaining 23 seats and increasing their number form 90 to 113. Democrats lost 49 seats and dropped from 132 to 83 seats. Republicans benefited from the collapse of the nativist American Party, as well as from sectional strife in the Democratic Party. Northerners were angry over the Dred Scott Supreme Court decision, and blamed Democrats for the violence in Kansas, and for the Democrats' perceived attempts to impose slavery against the express will of a majority of its settlers. Republicans even made large gains in Buchanan's home state of Pennsylvania.
Democrats maintained control of the Senate, but lost 4 seats while Republicans gained 5. After the elections Democrats still have a majority of 38 to 25. As this election was prior to ratification of the seventeenth amendment, senators were chosen by state legislatures.
Republicans were united in opposing slavery in the territories and fugitive slave laws, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the Dred Scott decision. Though not yet abolitionist, Republicans demonstrated a hostility to slavery. Democrats remained divided and politically trapped. Eight Northern Anti-Lecompton Democrats favored a ban on slavery in Kansas. Democrats lacked credible leadership. Democrats also lost seats in some slave states as many southerners feared that Stephen Douglas, Buchanan's perceived successor and the Democrats leader in the Senate, was not supportive of southern slaveholding interests.
Governing became more difficult for Buchanan as Republican control of the House allowed Republicans to block much of Buchanan's agenda in the second half of his term. A number of Democrats would resign from Congress near the end of the session following their states' secession from the Union. Buchanan had once predicted that his presidency would be as successful as that of Washington. Nothing could be further from the truth.