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.

10) John Tyler – The Accidental President

John Tyler’s presidency was a unique one that challenged the young democracy and the resiliency of its Constitution. Tyler assumed the presidency in 1841 following the death of William Henry Harrison, 126 years before the adoption of the 25^th Amendment to the Constitution, which would spell out the order of succession to the Presidency. Upon Tyler’s ascendency to the executive there were some, most notably Henry Clay, who asserted that Tyler was acting president only, devoid of authority to serve out Harrison’s term. Tyler rejected this idea and was ultimately granted legitimacy by Congress. The Tyler Precedent would define presidential succession until the Cold War.

In a time of bitter partisanship and splintering political parties, Tyler’s politics didn’t fit neatly in either of the major political parties of the day. The early part of his political career as a member of the House of Representatives, Virginia House of Delegates, Governor of Virginia, and the US Senate Tyler was a Democrat. Despite his party affiliation, Tyler often found himself at odds with the preeminent Democrat of the day, Andrew Jackson. Like Jackson, Tyler did not support the Bank of the US, however he didn’t agree with Jackson’s decision to strip the bank of its deposits. He also agreed with Jackson that South Carolina should not nullify Federal Law, however Tyler was a strict believer in state’s rights and the force with which Jackson came down on South Carolina didn’t sit well with Tyler. Tyler would fall

in with the nascent Whig party, found his way onto the Whig ticket in the 1840 Presidential election as William Henry Harrison’s running mate, and was President of the United States upon Harrison’s death shortly thereafter.

The Tyler / Whig love affair was short lived. Before his first year in office ended Tyler had vetoed two banking bills favored by Henry Clay and the congressional Whigs. All but one of his cabinet members resigned and Clay dubbed him “The President without a party.” Whig newspapers heaped vitriol on Tyler for the duration of his presidency.

The legacy of Tyler’s presidency is the annexation of Texas. Tyler worked hard to shepherd annexation legislation through congress and coordinate with the Texan government. This work was disrupted by the USS Princeton disaster wherein the newly built ship’s main gun backfired during a celebratory cruise down the Potomac. Thomas Gilmer and Abel Upshur, Tyler’s secretaries of the Navy and State, respectively died along with four others in the disaster. Both Gilmer and Upshur had been key players in annexation effort. Despite their differences, Tyler appointed John Calhoun to fill the position at State, and Calhoun helped devise a joint resolution of congress to back annexation just before Tyler left office.

Tyler once again identified as a Democrat after his break with the Whigs. He agreed, for the sake of the party, not to seek reelection and back James Polk. Polk angered Tyler by never living up to the unspoken agreement to repay some Tyler men through patronage.

Tyler is not highly regarded by historians. To his supporters he was unwavering supporter of state’s rights, however in the mid-19^th century supporting state’s rights was a euphemism for supporting slavery and when the Civil War came around Tyler ended up on the wrong side of history.

Photo of Tyler and Monroe's gravesite,
courtesy of http://www.presidentsgraves.com

In retirement, Tyler initially opposed war. He presided over the “Peace Convention” which proposed to President James Buchanan that slavery be prohibited in the North, that slavery be continued in the South, that questions involving slavery in the South be resolved by Federal courts according to common law, and that any new states decide on slavery themselves. Tyler changed his tack after the Senate overwhelmingly rejected these proposals. He now believed that if the South presented a united front, by seceding from the union, war would be avoided. He was wrong. Tyler lived long enough to see shots ring out at Fort Sumter, his home state of Virginia secede, and the Confederates triumph at Bull Run. Tyler likely died believing that the South could defeat the Union troops. Interestingly, Tyler is the only US president who was not buried under the American flag. In an attempt to galvanize Southerners, Jefferson Davis ordered a grand burial for Tyler, under the Confederate flag, next to James Monroe’s grave.

9) William Henry Harrison - Old Tippecanoe

William Henry Harrison, the ninth president of the United States, was in office for 31 days. Harrison was the first Whig to serve as president of the United States. The Whigs were a motley crew consisting of anti-Masons, national Republicans, and anti-Jackson Democrats. While there wasn’t a common platform to hold the Whigs together, they employed rhetoric and the press deftly. The election of 1840, in which Harrison defeated the incumbent Van Buren, was one of little substance. Oliver Perry Chitwood, John Tyler’s biographer, pointed out that the Whig press successfully framed Harrison as a rugged frontiersman while painting Van Buren as an aristocrat. In reality Van Buren was largely a self-made man, as you may recall from the prior post, and Harrison was a scion of Virginia gentry. Harrison’s campaign slogan, “Tippecanoe and Tyler, Too” was one of the most successful and enduring in American history.

There are contradictory accounts about Harrison’s death. The author, Robert Owens, tells the story you often hear; Harrison delivered a long inaugural speech in bad weather, contracted pneumonia, and died shortly thereafter. Chitwood tells a different story, which I’m more inclined to believe given the timeline. Chitwood says that Harrison’s inauguration took place on “beautiful day.” It wasn’t until March 24^th, 20 days after the inauguration, that Harrison contracted pneumonia. This makes the story that Harrison contracted his illness during the inauguration difficult to reconcile.

Owens’ book, Mr. Jefferson’s Hammer, was the first I read during this project that wasn’t a biography. I didn’t realize it when I picked the book up, but it’s really an account of Harrison’s time as governor of the Indiana Territory and his role in 19^th Century American Indian policy. The book spends very little time discussing his childhood and even less discussing his post-Indiana work.  While this was a bit of a divergence from the “presidential biography” tact, the book was still interesting and I certainly learned about a little known president.

Harrison’s father, Benjamin, was governor of Virginia, he was a leader in the House of Burgesses, and a signer of the Declaration of Independence. When Harrison applied to join the Army, Washington himself approved the application likely due to his friendship with Benjamin.

Harrison’s most famous military conquest was his role in the Battle of Tippecanoe. Owens tells a story not as glorious as one might expect. Harrison’s Indian adversaries attacked at night in an attempt to kill Harrison. Harrison likely escaped because his customary gray horse ran off earlier that day and he was riding another. Harrison’s men held off the Indians, but suffered dozens of deaths and injuries. Initial criticisms of Harrison’s ill preparation were quickly suppressed as Andrew Jackson defended his actions. 

Like Jackson, Harrison became involved in Aaron Burr’s failed attempt to split the union. Burr conspired with General James Wilkinson whom Harrison had served under at the beginning of his Army career. Wilkinson requested that Harrison send Burr to Congress as Indiana’s representative, a request that he didn’t oblige.

President Thomas Jefferson wrote to Harrison in 1803, which was early in Harrison’s tenure as governor, instructing him to acquire as much Indian land in the Mississippi Valley and to keep this plan secret. Jefferson wanted to secure the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the event that France (i.e. Napoléon) were to militarize their newly acquired Louisiana Territory. A common refrain in American history education is the story of unfair treaties that the American settlers coerced Indians in to in order to give legal cover to the subjugation of Indian land. Harrison’s time as Governor of Indiana is a case study in this practice. The common tactics seemed to be: (i) When possible negotiate with a tribe on friendly terms with the Americans, these tribes often had tenuous claims on the land that Americans were negotiating over. (ii) Institute an annuity system whereby the tribes were paid over time. This secured the dependence of that tribe on the American government and served as leverage over the tribe’s leadership. (iii) Try to structure payment for land to include farm equipment and/or livestock to help in the “civilizing” of the tribes.  The idea of protecting the Western border from France was to become a moot point soon as the Louisiana Purchase was completed by Jefferson’s administration later in 1803.

While Harrison's time in the highest office was brief, the role he played in the West is an important chapter in American history. Harrison was a slaveholder and a proponent of slavery and worked to institutionalize it in the Indiana Territory, a battle he lost as the country slowly marched toward a Civil War whose first shots would ring out 20 years, almost to the day, after Harrison's death.