Remembering James Buchanan
On June 1, 1868 (144 years ago today), James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States (and the man rated by the members of this community as the worst of the Presidents) died from respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was buried in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.
Buchanan had been a popular state politician in Pennsylvania as we as a successful attorney. He represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Minister (Ambassador) to Russia under President Andrew Jackson. He was also Secretary of State under President James K. Polk, although Polk was a fastidious micro-manager who considered Buchanan to be a ditherere when it came to diplomacy. Polk wrote in his diary: "Mr. Buchanan is an able man, but is in small matter without judgment and sometimes acts like an old maid."
President Franklin Pierce offered Buchanan an appointment to the US Supreme Court, but Buchanan turned it down and instead became Minister (Ambassador) to the United Kingdom. Being away from the US became an asset when it was time for the Democrats to select their candidate for the 1856 election and Buchanan was nominated as their candidate. Throughout most of Pierce's term he was not caught up in the crossfire of sectional politics that dominated the country. Buchanan was viewed by many as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery question. His election victory occured in a three-man race with John C. Frémont and Millard Fillmore.
As President, he was often called a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies. He battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South pleased neither and alienated both. A number of Southern states declared their secession at the end of his term and Buchanan did nothing to stop them. Buchanan's view was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal.
Buchanan was the only bachelor President and that has led to speculation that he may have been gay and may have had an intimate relationship with his "room-mate" Senator William Rufus King. If you want to read more about this, I refer you to this earlier journal entry.
When he left office, popular opinion had turned against him, and the Democratic Party had split in two. On Buchanan's final day as president, March 4, 1861, he remarked to his successor 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. Buchanan had once imagined a presidency that would rank him with George Washington. But his inability to address a fractured nation has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents.
Buchanan was the last president born in the 18th century. He lived through the Civil War and in 1866 he published Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, in which he defended his actions. The day before his death he predicted that "history will vindicate my memory". I don't think it did.
Buchanan had been a popular state politician in Pennsylvania as we as a successful attorney. He represented Pennsylvania in the U.S. House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Minister (Ambassador) to Russia under President Andrew Jackson. He was also Secretary of State under President James K. Polk, although Polk was a fastidious micro-manager who considered Buchanan to be a ditherere when it came to diplomacy. Polk wrote in his diary: "Mr. Buchanan is an able man, but is in small matter without judgment and sometimes acts like an old maid."
President Franklin Pierce offered Buchanan an appointment to the US Supreme Court, but Buchanan turned it down and instead became Minister (Ambassador) to the United Kingdom. Being away from the US became an asset when it was time for the Democrats to select their candidate for the 1856 election and Buchanan was nominated as their candidate. Throughout most of Pierce's term he was not caught up in the crossfire of sectional politics that dominated the country. Buchanan was viewed by many as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery question. His election victory occured in a three-man race with John C. Frémont and Millard Fillmore.
As President, he was often called a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies. He battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South pleased neither and alienated both. A number of Southern states declared their secession at the end of his term and Buchanan did nothing to stop them. Buchanan's view was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal.
Buchanan was the only bachelor President and that has led to speculation that he may have been gay and may have had an intimate relationship with his "room-mate" Senator William Rufus King. If you want to read more about this, I refer you to this earlier journal entry.
When he left office, popular opinion had turned against him, and the Democratic Party had split in two. On Buchanan's final day as president, March 4, 1861, he remarked to his successor 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. Buchanan had once imagined a presidency that would rank him with George Washington. But his inability to address a fractured nation has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents.
Buchanan was the last president born in the 18th century. He lived through the Civil War and in 1866 he published Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, in which he defended his actions. The day before his death he predicted that "history will vindicate my memory". I don't think it did.