James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 - June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States from 1857-1861. He is the only president to have never married and to have remained a bachelor. His handling of the crisis preceding the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst presidents.
James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 - June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States from 1857-1861. He is the only president to have never married and to have remained a bachelor. His handling of the crisis preceding the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst presidents.
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James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 - June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States from 1857-1861. He is the only president to have never married and to have remained a bachelor. His handling of the crisis preceding the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst presidents.
Copyright:
Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
• James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was
the 15th President of the United States from 1857–1861 and the last to be born in the 18th century. • To date he is the only president from the state of Pennsylvania and the only president to have never married and to have remained a bachelor. • A popular and experienced politician prior to his presidency, Buchanan represented Pennsylvania in the House of Representatives and later the Senate, and served as Secretary of State under President James K. Polk. • After turning down an offer for an appointment to the Supreme Court, he served as Minister to the United Kingdom under President Franklin Pierce, in which capacity he helped draft the inflammatory Ostend Manifesto, which suggested the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused to sell Cuba. • The Ostend Manifesto was never acted upon and greatly damaged the Pierce administration. • Despite unsuccessfully seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1844, 1848, and 1852, Buchanan was nominated in the election of 1856 as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery issue; this occurred while he was away on business. • His subsequent election was largely due to the even more divided state of the opposition. • As President he was a "doughface", a Northerner with Southern sympathies who battled with Stephen A. Douglas for the control of the Democratic Party. • Buchanan's efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and as the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War, Buchanan's opinion was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal; hence, he remained inactive. • By the time he left office, popular opinion had turned against him, and the Democratic Party had split in two. • Buchanan had once hoped that his presidency might rank in history with that of George Washington. • However, his handling of the crisis preceding the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents. • James Buchanan, Jr., was born in a log cabin in Cove Gap, near Harrisburg (now James Buchanan Birthplace State Park), Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1791, to James Buchanan, Sr. (1761–1833), and Elizabeth Speer (1767–1833). • His parents were both of Scotch-Irish descent, the father having emigrated from northern Ireland in 1783. • He was the second of eleven children, three of whom died in infancy. Buchanan had six sisters and four brothers, only one of whom lived past 1840. • In 1797, the family moved to nearby Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. • he home in Mercersburg was later turned into the James Buchanan Hotel. • Buchanan attended the village academy and later Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. • Expelled at one point for poor behavior, after pleading for a second chance, he graduated with honors on September 19, 1809. • Later that year, he moved to Lancaster, where he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1812. • A dedicated Federalist, he strongly opposed the War of 1812 on the grounds that it was an unnecessary conflict. • Nevertheless, when the British invaded neighboring Maryland, he joined a volunteer light dragoon unit and served in the defense of Baltimore. • An active Freemason during his lifetime, he was the Master of Masonic Lodge #43 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and a District Deputy Grand Master of theGrand Lodge of Pennsylvania.