15) James Buchanan - 10 Cent Jimmy

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.

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.

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.

13) Millard Fillmore - The Compromiser

Millard Fillmore marks the halfway point of the stretch of this project I was least excited about. I had pegged the four presidents leading up to Lincoln, of which I knew little about, as a dull period leading up to the Civil War. Taylor served as a nice surprise, filling in gaps about the goings on during the Mexican American War. Fillmore’s story has some color on the development of the Whig Party but, like Martin Van Buren’s story, it is largely focused on nineteenth century New York state politics which can get dry.

A statue of Fillmore that stands outside
Buffalo's imposing City Hall.

Like Andrew Jackson and Zachary Taylor, Millard Fillmore was born in a log cabin. Fillmore grew up on an unproductive farm in New York’s Finger Lakes region, his family then moved west to the Buffalo region in Fillmore’s late teens. It was there, in East Aurora, NY, that Fillmore made his mark as a lawyer. He went on to form a law practice with Nathan Hall and Solomon Haven. These men were instrumental in Buffalo’s development, particularly in education. Hall, who would serve as Fillmore’s Postmaster General, helped institute Buffalo’s fist free public school system and Fillmore was instrumental in the founding of the University of Buffalo. Hall would begin his own law office when Fillmore’s duties no longer allowed him to focus on the practice. The new firm went on to train future president Grover Cleveland. That two U.S. presidents came from essentially the same law practice in western New York is an interesting bit of presidential trivia.

Fillmore came of age at a time when Thurlow Weed was building the Whig Party’s base in New York. Fillmore rose through its ranks serving three terms in the House of Representatives and then running unsuccessfully for governor. Weed and Fillmore often battled due to what the author portrayed as Weed’s repeated backing of the other major New York Whig of the time, William Seward, often at Fillmore’s expense. After losing the bid for Governor, Fillmore was elected as the state’s Comptroller.

It is ironic that Fillmore ended up on the Whig ticket with Zachary Taylor in the election of 1848. Taylor was a slaveholding Southerner so to deliver the North in this tenuous period of American history the Whigs needed an anti-slavery Northerner. Fillmore fit the bill. The irony is that Taylor’s anti-slavery views and opposition to slavery in the newly acquired southwestern territories would soon be apparent. Further, when Taylor died and Fillmore assumed the reigns of the presidency he backed Henry Clay and Stephen Douglas’s efforts to broker a compromise between North and South. The compromise was viewed by many as strengthening the protection of slavery. What became known as the Compromise of 1850 was structured as a series of bills whereby:

• Texas surrendered its claim on New Mexico.
• California was admitted as a non-slave state.
• Utah and New Mexico were allowed to choose whether or not they wanted slavery to be  permitted (it was known both were unlikely to permit the practice).
• The slave trade, but not slavery itself, was outlawed in Washington DC.
• The Fugitive Slave Act was strengthened.

Given the political climate in which everyone was focused on the newly acquired Western territories, the likely abolition of slavery in these lands gave Southerners a sour feeling about the Compromise. Northerners were not happy with the strengthening of the Fugitive Slave Act which required law enforcement, even in jurisdictions where slavery was outlawed, to assist in the capture and return of runaway slaves. This had not been the practice in many Northern municipalities where a blind eye was turned to the efforts of abolitionists to aid escaped slaves. Northern abolitionists flouted the new law. A particular incident in Boston where the arrival of escaped slaves William and Ellen Crofts was loudly celebrated forced Fillmore to take a stand. Fillmore announced that he was prepared to use Federal troops to intervene and the Crofts were quickly and quietly moved to London.

It is important to keep in mind that Fillmore’s actions, both supporting the Compromise and his willingness to use force to protect it, were taken at a time when segments of the South were preparing for disunion. While history may remember Fillmore as a feckless doughface, he was attempting to save the Union. Fillmore’s anti-slavery credentials had been sufficient enough to get him on the ticket with Taylor as a sop to the abolitionist wing of the Whig party so branding him a lackey to slaveholders is lazy analysis.

Fillmore’s domestic failings are surely his presidential legacy. However, he did have a notable achievement in foreign policy when he sent Commodore Matthew Perry to Japan. Japan had been a closed society up to this point and America wanted to trade with them, particularly for their large supply of coal which could fuel new coal-powered ocean liners. Perry was successful in opening Japanese ports giving Fillmore a key diplomatic victory.

Fillmore may not have intended to run for a full term. Friends who had tried to convince him to run later said that he did not want to. The endorsement of party leader Henry Clay, on his death bed, finally convinced him to run. Fillmore did not receive the nomination, on the 53^rd ballot General Winfield Scott was nominated and he would go on to lose to another Mexican American War General, Franklin Pierce. But that is a story for the next post.

The Whig Party began to fracture following the defeat of General Scott. Perhaps the correct way to phrase it is that existing fractures could no longer be ignored after Scott’s defeat. The Whig party split largely over the issue of slavery into the Know-Nothings and the modern-day Republican Party. The Know-Nothings were a short-lived anti-Catholic / anti-immigrant party of which, unfortunately, Millard Fillmore joined and represented in the Presidential election of 1856. The Republican party would find presidential success in 1860 when Lincoln’s election raised the drumbeat of secession to fruition.

12) Zachary Taylor - Old Rough and Ready

Zachary Taylor was the first president for which I chose one of The American Presidents Series books. These biographies are meant to give the reader an overview of the major events in each presidents’ life and presidency in a quick, readable volume. John Eisenhower’s “Zachary Taylor” achieved this goal, however 140 pages was not enough to get a good sense of Taylor and his times. For that reason, this is likely the last of these books I’ll read during this project.

Born in Virginia, not far from Montpelier, Zachary Taylor was a distant cousin of James Madison. Taylor’s family moved west to Kentucky when he was young, so like Polk and Jackson before him, Taylor was raised on the frontier. At 23 years old in 1808, he joined the Army. The timing was fortuitous as the young country was about to go back to war with England in the War of 1812 and many proxy battles would occur on the frontier. Taylor’s gained notoriety in the Indiana Territory as he heroically defended Fort Harrison against natives led by William Henry Harrison’s oft antagonist, Tecumseh. Taylor’s performance ultimately led to his promotion to Major, however when the War ended and the size of the Army was reduced Taylor was demoted back to Captain. With his pride wounded he retired from the Army until his rank of Major was returned to him the next year.

Taylor's image seems to fit the nickname
"Old Rough and Ready"

Military life kept Taylor away from his family often and he was determined that his daughter never marry a military man for that reason. As fate would have it his daughter, Sarah, would fall in love with and marry an Army man and Taylor did not approve. Sarah married the future president of the breakaway Confederate States, Jefferson Davis. Tragically, both contracted malaria shortly after their marriage. Jefferson got better, but Sarah went quick. Taylor and Davis would find themselves on the same steamship about 12 years later in Louisiana as Davis was on his way to marry his second wife, Varina Howell. The animosity Taylor had felt toward Davis was gone and while they didn’t agree politically Taylor treated him like a son for the rest of his life.

By the time of the Mexican American War, Taylor was a General and deployed by President James Polk into contested territory in West Texas. When Taylor’s troops were engaged he wrote to his Commander in Chief that hostilities had begun, kicking off the war. Taylor would go on to win victories against the Mexicans, most notably at Palo Alto and Buena Vista.

During his military career Taylor had never made public his political leanings however his success during the war with Mexico had turned him into an American hero. The Whigs needed a viable candidate to challenge the Democrats and Kentucky senator John Crittenden acted as kingmaker pushing for Taylor on the 1848 ticket. The Whigs needed Taylor to declare his politics though. Knowing this, Crittenden deployed three of his aides to Taylor’s Mississippi home who cajoled him into writing a letter to his friend Captain J.S. Allison. The publishing of supposed private letters was a standard form of press release in 18^th and 19^th century American politics. The Allison letter served to establish Taylor’s Whig credentials and Taylor and Millard Fillmore were elected to the Whig ticket at the party’s convention in Philadelphia. As was customary of the time, the potential nominees did not attend the convention. Taylor was home in Mississippi and alerted by mail of his selection. However, more than a month past with no response and party officials began to get anxious. It turned out that the letter had been sitting at the Baton Rouge post office. In 1848 postage stamps were yet to be invented and Taylor had informed the postmaster that he would no longer accept incoming mail on which postage was due, so the postmaster had thrown the letter from Philadelphia into a dead letter file.

Taylor’s presidency was dominated by the issue of slavery. Despite a rush gold-seekers to the California Territory, Congress could not vote on statehood due to the implications of congressional imbalance between slave and non-slave states. The organization of the Oregon Territory was engulfed in the slave issue as well. Meanwhile, Texas had designs on the newly acquired New Mexico Territory and even threatened secession over the issue prompting one of my favorite presidential quotes to date: “If it becomes necessary I’ll take command of the Army myself and if you are taken in rebellion against the Union I will hang you with less reluctance than I hanged deserters and spies in Mexico.” Taylor’s desire was not to be questioned, despite Polk’s misgivings as discussed in the prior post.

Following July 4^th festivities in 1850, Taylor became ill. He would expire on July 9^th, less than a year and a half after taking office. It was likely cholera that killed him, the same ailment that killed his predecessor James Polk, however rumors persisted that he was poisoned by pro-slavery Southerners. This has never been substantiated despite testing. It seems odd that conspiracy theorists would hold that a slaveholder was killed by those with pro-slavery sympathies. Perhaps, Thomas Hart Benton’s effusive eulogy can shed some light. Benton was a congressional institution during the mid-1800s and a Democrat, who owed Taylor no favors in Eisenhower’s words. Benton said of Taylor:

“His death was a public calamity. No man could have been more devoted to the Union or more opposed to the slavery agitation, and his position as a Southern man and a slave-holder, his military reputation and his election by a majority of the people of the States would have given him a power in the settlement of these questions which no President without these qualifications would have possessed.”

Counterfactuals sometimes feel like a cheap attempt to rewrite history and it feels unfair to Lincoln and the other politicians and soldiers who gave their lives to preserve the Union to bestow on Taylor any credit toward that achievement. However, Benton’s words are about a man who does not get any credit. Taylor remains a president little remembered by history, in part due to Union soldiers destroying his son’s house during the Civil War and with it all of his personal papers. Benton’s words give us insight into the convictions of a president who, unlike his successor Millard Fillmore, believed that the Union must be preserved without slavery not preserved by allowing slavery to fester, ignored, in the South. Three presidents and ten-and-a-half years are all that would separate Taylor’s death and the first shots of the Civil War in South Carolina, whether the survival and reelection of Taylor could have altered that remains an unknowable what-if.