Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion
I'm currently reading Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion, by James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, and the man many blame for failing to prevent the Civil War. But in this book, Buchanan blames everyone but himself for the bloody conflict. The book is written in very lawyerly prose with long tortured sentences that are overly formal. He speaks of himself in the third person. The first chapter opens with Buchanan pointedly telling the reader that the founders contemplated slavery and left the question of allowing or abolishing slavery up to the states and not the federal government. The book starts as follows:
"That the Constitution does not confer upon Congress power to interfere with slavery in the States is admitted by all parties and confirmed by all judicial decisions ever since the origin of the Federal Government. The doctrine was emphatically recognized by the House of Representatives in the days of Washington during the first session of the first Congress and has never been seriously called into question. Hence it becomes necessary for the abolitionists, in order to furnish a pretext for their assaults on southern slavery to appeal to a law higher than the Constitution. Slavery according to them is a grievous sin against God and therefore no human Constitution should rightfully shield it from destruction."
From what I've read so far (I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book), Buchanan has no problem with the notion of slavery. He doesn't think it to be evil, or speak of it in any negative manner. He sees the abolitionists as the villain of the piece, and sees everything they do as contemptible and as the cause of the nation's problems. He concludes that if they had only stated out of the south's business, slavery would have died through attrition and nobody would have had to die in the civil war.
He sides with the pro-slavery forces in Kansas and sees the abolitionist forces as the cause of all the violence in "bleeding Kansas." Buchanan never expresses any regrets for any of his public acts, and he predicts that history will vindicate his memory. It's too bad for Buchanan that most modern historians don't agree. An article from one historian at Tulane University sums it up this way:
"But while he has been credited with good intentions in his efforts to avert civil war and achieve a compromise, his general handling of the sectional crisis has been criticized. The reasons vary. Some scholars find fault in Buchanan's character. They portray Buchanan as timid, weak, and indecisive. Insecure and excessively reliant on the opinions of others, he was also prone at times to adhere stubbornly to a decision however flawed. Others emphasize Buchanan's reliance on legalistic thinking and the power of reason, which hampered his ability to deal with the intense passions and emotions that infused sectional politics. Still others claim that Buchanan was unable to comprehend the nature of the sectional dispute over slavery. He never gave to the North's concerns about slavery and southern power the same sympathy and understanding that he gave to the South's complaints."
Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion.was published in 1866. Buchanan died two years later on June 1, 1868, at the age of seventy-seven. This book is available as a free ebook which can be found in several places on the web including here.
"That the Constitution does not confer upon Congress power to interfere with slavery in the States is admitted by all parties and confirmed by all judicial decisions ever since the origin of the Federal Government. The doctrine was emphatically recognized by the House of Representatives in the days of Washington during the first session of the first Congress and has never been seriously called into question. Hence it becomes necessary for the abolitionists, in order to furnish a pretext for their assaults on southern slavery to appeal to a law higher than the Constitution. Slavery according to them is a grievous sin against God and therefore no human Constitution should rightfully shield it from destruction."
From what I've read so far (I'm only about a quarter of the way through the book), Buchanan has no problem with the notion of slavery. He doesn't think it to be evil, or speak of it in any negative manner. He sees the abolitionists as the villain of the piece, and sees everything they do as contemptible and as the cause of the nation's problems. He concludes that if they had only stated out of the south's business, slavery would have died through attrition and nobody would have had to die in the civil war.
He sides with the pro-slavery forces in Kansas and sees the abolitionist forces as the cause of all the violence in "bleeding Kansas." Buchanan never expresses any regrets for any of his public acts, and he predicts that history will vindicate his memory. It's too bad for Buchanan that most modern historians don't agree. An article from one historian at Tulane University sums it up this way:
"But while he has been credited with good intentions in his efforts to avert civil war and achieve a compromise, his general handling of the sectional crisis has been criticized. The reasons vary. Some scholars find fault in Buchanan's character. They portray Buchanan as timid, weak, and indecisive. Insecure and excessively reliant on the opinions of others, he was also prone at times to adhere stubbornly to a decision however flawed. Others emphasize Buchanan's reliance on legalistic thinking and the power of reason, which hampered his ability to deal with the intense passions and emotions that infused sectional politics. Still others claim that Buchanan was unable to comprehend the nature of the sectional dispute over slavery. He never gave to the North's concerns about slavery and southern power the same sympathy and understanding that he gave to the South's complaints."
Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion.was published in 1866. Buchanan died two years later on June 1, 1868, at the age of seventy-seven. This book is available as a free ebook which can be found in several places on the web including here.