James Buchanan - Biography and early career, Election of 1856, Presidency 1857-1861

US statesman and 15th president (1857–61), born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, USA. Building on a successful law career, he entered politics and served as a Federalist in the Pennsylvania legislature (1815–17) and the US House of Representatives (1821–31), where he went over to the Democratic Party. In 1832–3 he served as ambassador to Russia and returned to serve Pennsylvania in the US Senate (1834–45) until becoming a most effective secretary of state under President Polk (1845–9). After a period of retirement and as ambassador to Great Britain (1854–6), he showed a willingness to accommodate slavery that gained him the presidency in 1856 with the solid backing of the South. During his term (1857–61) he supported laws protecting slavery in the attempt to establish Kansas as a slave state. When pressed by anti-slavery Americans, he fell back on narrow legal defences such as the Compromise of 1850 and the Dred Scott decision (1857). All this split the Democratic Party, allowing Lincoln to win the election of 1860. As a ‘lame duck’ president, he professed the government's helplessness to prevent secession and turned the problem over to his successor. He returned to his Pennsylvania estate but he did support Lincoln throughout the war.

James Buchanan
15th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1857 – March 4, 1861
Vice President(s)   Breckinridge
Preceded by	Franklin Pierce
Succeeded by	Abraham Lincoln
17th United States Secretary of State
In office March 10, 1845 – March 7, 1849
President	James Polk
Preceded by	John C. Calhoun
Succeeded by	John M. Clayton
Born	April 23, 1791 Mercersburg, Pennsylvania
Died	June 1, 1868 Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Political party	Democratic
Religion	Presbyterian
Signature

This article is about the United States President.

Biography and early career

Buchanan was a Representative and a Senator from Pennsylvania.

Buchanan was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Wilkins.

Buchanan served as Secretary of State in the Cabinet of President James K. Polk from 1845 to 1849, during which he negotiated the 1846 Oregon Treaty establishing the 49th parallel as the northern boundary in the western U.S. No Secretary of State has become President since James Buchanan.

In 1853, Buchanan was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College in his hometown of Lancaster.

Election of 1856

The Democrats nominated Buchanan in 1856 largely because he was in England during the Kansas-Nebraska debate and thus remained untainted by either side of the issue.

Millard Fillmore's "Know-Nothing" candidacy helped Buchanan defeat John C.

Presidency 1857-1861

Policies

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." 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 and Douglas engaged in an all-out struggle for control of the party in 1859-60, with Buchanan using his patronage powers and Douglas rallying the grass roots;

Economic troubles also plagued Buchanan's administration with the outbreak of the Panic of 1857. 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.

To make matters worse, Buchanan was dogged by the partisan Covode committe, which was investigating the administration for evidence of impeachable offenses.

In Buchanan's Message to Congress (December 3, 1860), he denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them.

Beginning in late December, Buchanan reorganized his cabinet, ousting Confederate sympathizers and replacing them with hard-line nationalists Jeremiah S.

Before Buchanan left office, seven slave states seceded, the Confederacy was formed, all arsenals and forts were lost (except Fort Sumter and two remote ones), and a fourth of all federal soldiers surrendered to Texas troops.

Administration and Cabinet

OFFICE	NAME	TERM
President	James Buchanan	1857–1861
Vice President	John C. Breckinridge	1857–1861
Secretary of State	Lewis Cass	1857–1860
	Jeremiah S. Black	1860–1861
Secretary of the Treasury	Howell Cobb	1857–1860
	Philip Thomas	1860–1861
	John A. Dix	1861
Secretary of War	John B. Floyd	1857–1861
	Joseph Holt	1860–1861
Attorney General	Jeremiah S. Black	1857–1860
	Edwin M. Stanton	1860–1861
Postmaster General	Aaron V. Brown	1857–1859
	Joseph Holt	1859–1860
	Horatio King	1861
Secretary of the Navy	Isaac Toucey	1857–1861
Secretary of the Interior	Jacob Thompson	1857–1861

Supreme Court appointments

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

Nathan Clifford – 1858

States admitted to the Union

Minnesota – 1858 Oregon – 1859 Kansas – 1861

Rumors and speculation about Buchanan's sexual orientation

There has been some debate over Buchanan's sexual orientation, leading some to believe he was homosexual. (For example, it was discussed by historian Paul Boller is his book Not So! published several years earlier.)

In 1819, Buchanan was engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of a wealthy iron manufacturing businessman.

After his fiancée’s death, Buchanan vowed he would never marry.

Scholars doubting Buchanan's homosexuality point out that two men sharing a bed or a room for a night was incredibly common.

Buchanan was the only President to never marry in his life.

"You have lost a child, a dear, dear child.

The only President never to marry, Buchanan turned to Harriet Lane, an orphaned niece whom he had earlier adopted, to act as his First Lady.

Post-presidency and Death

In 1866 Buchanan published Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion- the first presidential memoir.