In the introduction to this blog I
posed three random questions to illustrate my presidential illiteracy: “…what
did James Monroe do? What was going on during Buchanan’s presidency as the
country moved to the precipice of civil war? Who the heck is Chester Arthur?”
We’ve answered the first question already and now it’s time to move on to the
second.
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| Buchanan is the third oldest president at the time of their inauguration. However, the current front-runners for the 2016 election, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, would both be older. |
In 1791 James Buchanan was born in
Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, about 40 miles west of what would become the deadliest
battlefield of the Civil War. It would be another 66 years before he reached
the White House and in that time Buchanan witnessed and participated in much of
the American experiment. In all likelihood his family met President Washington
when he stayed at Buchanan’s uncle’s tavern during the Whiskey Rebellion.
Buchanan began practicing law out of college but quickly became interested in
politics and sought a seat in the state assembly. His electioneering consisted involved
a stint volunteering in the War of 1812 where he saw no fighting. From the
state assembly, the young Buchanan went on to serve in the House of
Representatives for four terms representing the dying Federalist Party before
being elected as a Democrat for his fifth and final term. While in the House,
Buchanan became wrapped up in the “Corrupt Bargain” which gave John Quincy
Adams the presidency over Andrew Jackson in the 1824 campaign, he tangled with
another young congressman and future president James Polk, and he chaired the
Judiciary Committee during his final term.
When Andrew Jackson was elected
Buchanan was asked to serve as Minister to Russia. The Russian post was political
exile and it indicates that Jackson may have put some stock in the rumor that
Buchanan was involved in the Corrupt Bargain. His Russian job lasted less than
two years, but it was a difficult two years to be away from Pennsylvania.
During that time two of his siblings married; his mother, brother, and good
friend died; and another friend became critically ill. Adding to the distress,
he learned that his sister had married into a slave owning family, potential
political dynamite for the ambitious young man. Buchanan quietly arranged to
buy the family’s two slaves into freedom. With his personal affairs sorted out,
Buchanan turned his attention to an available seat in the US Senate which he
would hold for the next decade. Buchanan’s time in the Senate was a golden age
for the institution. He served with five future presidents; Van Buren, Tyler,
Polk, Fillmore, and Pierce; as well as the “Great Triumvirate” of Henry Clay,
Daniel Webster, and John Calhoun. Buchanan was very much a legislative
role-player during these years and never sponsored any important bills or involved
himself in any high profile debates.
The 1884 election of a Democrat, James
Polk, brought about patronage for Buchanan and he was asked to join the
cabinet. He wavered, hinting he might be more interested in a seat on the
Supreme Court, but ultimately joined as Secretary of State. His time in the
Polk administration was anything but a honeymoon. The two men often disagreed
and Polk’s diary indicates that he did not trust Buchanan. The next Democrat in
the White House was Franklin Pierce and he appointed Buchanan to Minister of
England. This was another post that Buchanan wasn’t thrilled with, but accepted
nonetheless.
Buchanan’s removal from American
politics during the Pierce administration proved to be fortuitous. The Kansas-Nebraska
Act led to a bitter fight staining those associated with Pierce’s
administration. In fact, Buchanan had the good fortune to be removed from domestic
politics during the four great political crises of his age. Buchanan was
between the Pennsylvania Legislature and the House of Representatives during
the Missouri Compromise; during the nullification crisis he was serving in
Russia; and during the Compromise of 1850 he was not serving in Fillmore’s Whig
administration. This string of good luck undoubtedly aided his electability in
1856.
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| Political cartoon from the election of 1856 depicting Fillmore as the level-headed option between abolitionist (Fremont) and status quo (Buchanan) forces. |
By the election of 1856, there
was no doubt that it was Buchanan’s turn as the Democratic nominee. He squared
off against the Republican John Fremont who ended up splitting votes with
Millard Fillmore running for the American (or Know-Nothing) Party. The
Republican Party’s platform called for the arresting, jailing, and possibly
execution of those who supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In short, the
Republican Party platform seemed to criminalize Southern slaveholding states
and the mere election of a Republican was likely to push a teetering country
into disunion. Under those circumstances Buchanan went about setting up his
administration. He formed a cabinet excluding Northern and Southern partisans.
The mood in Washington was dour at the time of his inauguration and it did not
improve. His presidency began with the Dred Scott decision, ended with an
impending battle in the Charleston Harbor, and was absorbed by the Kansas
controversy throughout. In Kansas rival governments had set up in Lecompton
(pro-slavery) and in Topeka (anti-slavery). Buchanan’s support of the Lecompton
constitution using a pedantic legal argument split the Democratic party and
stranded Buchanan’s administration as the country headed toward Civil War.
Buchanan struggled with the
constitutionality of South Carolina’s secession and the reality of conflict at either
Fort Sumter or Fort Moultrie. He also struggled with what the Federal
government could legally do in dealing with secession in the event of, or absence
of, armed rebellion. On the day after Abraham Lincoln was elected all federal
employees save the post office workers resigned in South Carolina. It was the
beginning of the end. His cabinet imploded and Buchanan worked to at least prevent
Fort Sumter from turning into a battle until after he left office.
In hindsight, war was likely
inevitable by the time Buchanan ascended to the presidency. Buchanan was a
compromiser and a compromiser was not going to be the person to save the union.
Like many Americans at the time, Buchanan felt slavery would die away if the
country could just run out the clock. Whether or not this would have happened
is irrelevant, to modern eyes (and many contemporaries) the inhumanity of this
policy is difficult to see beyond. However, the way Buchanan is derided as the
country’s worst president seems unfair to me. I think Pierce’s leadership was
much weaker. Buchanan has the historical bad luck of being followed by one of
the two greatest leaders to hold that office. Buchanan may have been dealt an unwinnable
hand, but so was Lincoln and he still won. For that reason, history has judged
Buchanan harshly.
With 15 presidents down, it is finally
time to move on to Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War.
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