The Fifteenth President Essays - Presidency Of James Buchanan

The 15th President : James Buchanan was born in a log cabin on April 23, 1791. His parents, James Buchanan and Elizabeth (Speer) Buchanan were Irish immigrants who had made a successful life for themselves as merchants in rural Pennsylvania. James was the second of eleven children and the oldest boy.(Uher) Always eager to learn, he was privately tutored at home, and then he attended the village academy. He later studied law and graduated from Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Soon after the War of 1812, Buchanan's venture into politics began. He was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives at age 23 and served from 1814-1819. In spite of a recent personal scandal, he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820. Buchanan served ten years as a Congressman from Pennsylvania (1821-1831). In 1832, President Jackson made him Ambassador to Russia, where he served 2 years. James Buchanan was well suited to the foreign posting. The two nations had been unable to negotiate a trade treaty, and Buchanan's legal skill enabled him to broker an agreement. In 1833,after returning from St. Petersburg he won a U.S. Senate seat. He served in the Senate from 1834-1845. President Polk named him to be the Secretary of State, from 1845-1849. When he did not win the Presidential nomination in 1852, President Pierce appointed him Ambassador to the Court of King James in England. He served in London, until the election of 1856. By the time Buchanan returned to Washington, slavery had become an important issue in American politics. He objected to slavery personally, but viewed the abolitionist movement as a greater threat to the Union. He claimed that the Constitution upheld the right of Southerners to own slaves and saw it as America's duty to protect slavery in the South. In 1856 Buchanan became the Democratic candidate for president. Having been a long time member of Congress and envoys to Russia and England, Buchanan had many political assets. He was a smooth, pleasantly dull conservative from the North with Southern support. Buchanan was the last president to support a legal recognition of slavery. When he took office the country remained dangerously divided between pro- and anti-slavery states, and he hoped to ease tensions. The situation was further inflamed, however, just two days into his term with the Supreme Court?s Dred Scott decision. The court declared that slaves and their descendents were property, not citizens. Furthermore, the court declared that the government could not dictate a white citizen?s right to own slaves based on where he lived. As a result, Northerners vowed to fight the decision and Southerners threatened to secede.."(Miller Center, U. of Virginia) In 1819, Buchanan became engaged to Anne Coleman, the daughter of a Philadelphia millionaire. She broke off the engagement after there was some speculation that Buchanan was only marrying her for her money. Coleman died a few days later, possibly a suicide . The physician's records list her cause of death as an overdose of laudanum, an opiate. Buchanan was not allowed to attend the funeral and his letter of sympathy was returned unopened by her father. James Buchanan swore "never to marry in honor of her memory."."(Miller Center, U. of Virginia) Although he remained a bachelor, James Buchanan did not lack for family life. When he was elected president he took his grown niece Harriet Lane, an attractive and popular woman in her twenties to be White house hostess. Buchanan loved to entertain and the White House saw a social season that rivaled the days of Julia Tyler.."(Miller Center, U. of Virginia) Numerous social events filled the ballrooms, and a Washington frightened by the impending war was only too glad to enjoy the hospitality While in Washington, Buchanan's "room mate" was Senator Rufus King of New York. The two men were virtually inseparable and were rumored to be lovers. They shared a house and a bedroom (this apparently was not uncommon for the time.) There are many written references of the close relationship and Historian James Loewen supports the theory that Buchanan and King were lovers. He notes that the two were referred to around Washington as "Siamese twins" which was contemporary slang for gay couples. Professor Loewen goes so far