James Buchanan was born into a well-to-do family in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, on April 23, 1791. His father, James Buchanan Sr., was a successful merchant and farmer, while his mother, Elizabeth Speer, was the daughter of a wealthy businessman. Buchanan was the second of eleven children, and his parents emphasized education and hard work in their household.
James was well-prepared and received high marks in his studies. However, he was nearly expelled for bad behavior while attending Dickinson College. He was a distinguished-looking man with blonde hair and blue eyes, standing over six feet tall. After graduating, James, ambitious, hard-working, and somewhat cocky, became a successful lawyer before entering politics.
He entered the political world as a Federalist and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814. By 1824 the Federalist Party was on the decline, and Buchanan would refer to himself as a Federal-Republican before later becoming a Jacksonian Democrat. Buchanan served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1821 to 1831 and then in the U.S. Senate from 1834 to 1845. He would also serve as Minister to Russia under Andrew Jackson, Secretary of State under James K. Polk, and Minister to Great Britain under Franklin Pierce. Buchanan was what we now call a career politician, prioritizing how to retain his power first and governing second.
Buchanan was known for his social skills and ability to connect with influential people. As Minister to Russia, he developed close relationships with several Russian officials, including the Russian Foreign Minister, and used these connections to advance American interests. James didn’t enter politics with the aspiration of becoming President. But, after his success as Minister to Russia negotiating the first commercial treaty between the United States and Russia, he could see himself in the seat of any power.
Buchanan didn’t have any strong convictions as a politician. He was a devil’s advocate to an extent. While working as Secretary of State, each time Polk would make a new proposal on Mexico or Texas, Buchanan would suggest something different. When working on the Oregon territory between the United States and Great Britain, he changed his mind about the boundaries three different times.
In 1852 James was maneuvering to be the Democratic nominee for President. He led the other candidates in the convention but failed to secure enough votes for victory. He had his emissaries put up a long-shot candidate Franklin Pierce to pull votes away from his competition. However, his maneuvering backfired, and the young, handsome Pierce was nominated on the 49th ballot.
James finally reached the pinnacle of power in March of 1857 when he was sworn in as President. The country was deeply divided over the issue of slavery. The bandaid that was the compromise of 1850 was negated by the Kanasas-Nebraska Act in 1854. Buchanan's positions on slavery never were square. He didn’t believe slavery was a moral right but a right granted by the Constitution to the Southern states. He was considered a “Doughface,” a Northern politician who sympathized with the interests of the Southern states and was willing to compromise on issues related to slavery, and also a “Unionist,” a person who supported the preservation of the United States as a single, indivisible nation during times of political crisis. The only problem with this was the South had proven that it would only make compromises that protected their minority right of ownership of other individuals. Silencing any debate that would curb or limit the growth of slavery.
Before entering office as President, Buchanan put his thumb on the power scale. Reaching out to Associate Justice John Catron to discuss the deliberations of the Dred Scott case. Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom on the grounds that his owner had taken him into free territory. Buchanan and Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wanted a sweeping resolution to settle the slavery debate once and for all. The ruling was released two days after Buchanan’s inauguration. In a broad decision, the Supreme Court ruled against him, stating that he was not a citizen and had no legal standing to sue in federal court and that Congress had no power to prohibit slavery in any territory. In the annals of history, there are many bad or biased court rulings, but Dred Scott may be the worst.
Like any weak leader, Buchanan filled his cabinet with men of lesser-known distinction. Men who were from the South or sympathized with the South. Men who were just there to follow orders and men thought too incompetent to fulfill their duties. Men like his Secretary of War John B. Floyd, who was caught in scandal after scandal, from using government power to create personal wealth to shipping federal arms to Southern arsenals in anticipation of the Civil War.
While in office, Buchanan sought to annex or conquer Cuba to split it into two slave states to appease the South. He also dispatched 2,500 marines and 19 warships to Paraguay because the Spanish colony had fired on an American surveying ship. The spread of power was so far that even the most ardent supporters of slavery expansion hardly supported the invasion. When the ship arrived, it was turned around nearly immediately to return home. At home, Buchanan's support for the pro-slavery government in Kansas was seen by many as legitimizing its illegal and undemocratic actions, such as the suppression of anti-slavery newspapers and the use of force to prevent free-soil settlers from voting.
Buchanan's weak, ineffective leadership, unpopularity, and the democratic party's divide on slavery led him not to run for re-election. On November 6th, 1860, the people elected Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln won the electoral and popular vote over four other candidates, including his former senatorial rival Stephan A. Douglas. On December 6th, South Carolina representatives informed Buchanan of their intent to secede. In the wake, Howell Cobb resigned as Secretary of the Treasury. On December 20th, South Carolina officially seceded from the Union.
Buchanan and the incoming President Lincoln understood that secession violated the Constitution. They agreed it was illegal but differed on what could be done. Buchanan held that the President was powerless to stop it. Buchanan instead allowed several Southern states to begin seizing federal military installations within their borders, including forts, arsenals, and other facilities. Lewis Cass, the Secretary of State, resigned because Buchanan would not defend the Union forts in South Carolina. The most famous of these forts was Fort Sumpter which the South would attack to begin the Civil War in April of 1861. The undermanned Union fort would be forced to surrender.
Buchanan considered himself a strict constitutionalist but failed to understand the Constitution's intent. The intent was to protect the Union. Each State individually was susceptible to the European powers. Harnessing each state's power and joining into a union kept them safe and secure. The Constitution provides no power for a state to secede because each state that leaves the Union would make the Union less secure. However, Article II Section 2 states, “The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States.” So, when several militias of South Carolina decided to mobilize against the Federal Union, of which they are a part, they committed an act of treason and sedition, also betraying the Commander and Chief.
The Constitution and Bill of Rights are woven with a blend of natural law and common law. Natural law recognizes universal, inherent principles of justice and morality rooted in nature and can be discovered through reason and observation. Common law is a legal system developed in England and other English-speaking countries based on judicial decisions and customs. The founders made clear during the debate of the constitution that the 3/5 compromise and the preservation of slavery in the southern states was a necessary evil, not a natural right. When written into the Constitution, it was written as common law, not natural law. Since slavery was a “right” granted to the southern states by citizens, citizens had the right to change it, should the people and the states of the federal union debate and agree.
The Sothern strategy used federal power during the Tyler, Polk, Pierce, and Buchanan administrations to expand slavery into more states to preserve slavery. They knew a generation of people who grew up without slavery would see it for its evil and want to abolish it. They did not want to sit passively while their right to own another person was slowly stripped. So they worked actively to manipulate public opinion and government power in their favor. When they saw they had lost the debate, they did what is expected when people lose. They deflected and abdicated their responsibilities. If South Carolina did not like the law or direction of the country’s leadership, the constitution provided a way to debate and change leadership and laws. South Carolina does not get to take the ball and go home. They must debate. The Constitution was designed to end that type of short-sighted thinking.
When Buchanan became President, he swore this oath "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." He had a constitutional responsibility to act. In 1794 President George Washington ordered a military force of 13,000 troops to be raised and sent to western Pennsylvania to put down the insurrection known as the Whiskey Rebellion. The precedent was in Buchanans’ favor should he have acted, but instead, he remained ineffective as a leader.
Buchanan was an ambitious man who lacked family or strong ties in any community. He was hard-working and self-assured. Another weak leader who assumed the presidency during the Antebellum period because the American people were too divided to elect a competent leader. Buchanan wanted the power but did not understand it or wield it responsibly.