James Buchanan

James Buchanan Jr. ( bew-KAN-ən; April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He also served as the 17th United States secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. Buchanan was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and argued for limiting the role of the federal government preceding the American Civil War.

Born in Pennsylvania, Buchanan was a lawyer and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a member of the Federalist Party. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and served for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia in 1832. He was elected a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania in 1834 and served for 11 years. He was appointed as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was appointed as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.

Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He was nominated and won the 1856 presidential election. As President, Buchanan supported the Supreme Court's majority ruling in the pro-slavery decision in the Dred Scott v. Sandford case. He supported efforts to admit the Kansas Territory into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term and supported his Vice President John C. Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He did not reconcile the fractured Democratic Party amid divisions involving Stephen A. Douglas, contributing to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.

Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He faced criticism from both the North and South during the secession crisis. Buchanan supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise took limited action to prepare the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been widely criticized, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. Historians and scholars rank him as among the worst presidents in American history.