James Buchanan: A Second Opinion

I live in Pennsylvania and enjoy history, so today we will be talking about a famous Pennsylvanian, in fact, the only person from this state to serve as President of the United States. James Buchanan served as Commander-In-Chief from 1857 to 1861. I thought it would be fitting to honor one of the Commonwealth’s most famous sons. Buchanan was born on April 23rd, 1791 in Cove Gap. His family later moved to Mercersburg, where Buchanan was privately tutored. He graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle and moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania in 1809, where he studied law.

In 1812, he was admitted to the bar and opened his practice in Lancaster. Buchanan served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1814 to 1820. In 1821, he was elected to the 17th Congress. He was re-elected four more times to this governmental body and during his tenure in the 21st Congress, he was appointed Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. From 1832 to 1834, Buchanan served as the minister to Russia. From 1834 until 1845, he was elected to the Senate as a Democrat. From 1845 until 1849, Buchanan served as the Secretary of State under the administration of James K. Polk. He was instrumental in the negotiation of the Oregon Treaty with Britain which established the 49th parallel as the northern boundary of the Western United States. He also was a big proponent of having the United States purchase Cuba from Spain. An offer of $120 million dollars was turned down and a deal could never been reached.

In 1856, Buchanan was nominated by the Democrats to run for President. He defeated the Republican candidate, John C. Fremont, and took office on March 4, 1857. During his four years as President, Buchanan witnessed the ever-widening disagreement between the North and South over the issue of slavery. He relied on the Supreme Court to decide the matter. In the Dred Scott case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Congress had no constitutional authority to exclude slavery in the territories. This decision angered many Northerners. Tensions between the North and South escalated to the point where, in the winter of 1860, seven southern states ceded from the union. The Democratic Party was split and Buchanan, while denying the right of states to leave the union, also believed that the Federal government had no authority to prevent them from doing so.

Many historians regard Buchanan’s failure to act on the secession of the southern states one of the worst Presidential decisions in history. Primarily because of this issue, his ranking among the 43 presidents is generally low. I think what has unfortunately happened with Buchanan is that he has become the focal point for all the failures of the administrations that preceded him when it comes to the issue of slavery. He was not the first politician in the 1800’s to pursue the resolution of the slavery issue through compromise and conciliation. Even Lincoln, who took over for Buchanan in the spring of 1861, tried to remedy the situation through negotiation.

Another thing that doesn’t help Buchanan in the eyes of historians is the fact that his presidency directly preceded that of maybe the greatest President in the history of our country, Abraham Lincoln. But history is not black and white. While Lincoln is the favorite President of many Americans, and he gets the credit for ending slavery, his views on the issue were not much different than Buchanan’s and many others of his day. While he felt slavery was morally wrong, he tolerated it. But what Lincoln would not tolerate was the secession of the Southern states. He made the tough call to go to war for the sake of preserving the Union. The country paid a dear price for that war, with generations of Southerners and Northerners still harboring ill feelings long after 1865. And while slavery ended, it was almost another 100 years before the African-American was awarded full legal rights under the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And it wasn’t until 1976 that a candidate from a Southern state, Jimmy Carter, was elected president.

While some may consider James Buchanan’s presidency a failure because of his inability to deal with the secession of the southern states, his political career, which spanned a half-century, has to be considered a success. He was a skilled diplomat and deserves much credit for his handling of the Oregon Treaty. Some historians even give him credit for helping to keep the states of Kentucky, Missouri, Delaware, Maryland and the western part of Virginia from joining the confederacy. He was also a staunch supporter of Lincoln during the war. While Buchanan may not be at the top of the list of the most celebrated Presidents, he is still a Pennsylvanian that deserves our respect and admiration for his service to our country.