James Buchanan
Ranked #42: Buchanan stood motionless while the Southern states seceded from the union because he felt that there was nothing he could do constitutionally. To be fair, he is not solely responsible for this, but he simply did not raise a finger to to stop it. This lead to the Civil War which cause the deaths of roughly 620,000 Americans.
Summary: He was a large, handsome fellow with a disorder where one eye was far sighted and the other was near sighted. Also, his left eye sat higher in it’s socket than the right eye. As a result, he would tilt his head to one side while he spoke with people. He somehow found a way to cope with this, not needing glasses until his later years while at the same time being an avid reader.
Bio: Buchanan will always go down in history as the President who let the Union split in two and therefore allowed the Civil War to rupture the fiber of the United States. In all fairness, many of his recent predecessors had made bigger contributions to divide the country in the mid 1800s. His biggest fault was that he felt that he was Constitutionally powerless to stop the secession of the southern states.
Buchanan also will always go down as the only bachelor US President. In his 20s, he was engaged to a young lady who died unexpectedly. To make matters worse, the girl’s father held him responsible for her death, because the couple had quarreled before this incident, despite the fact that she was visiting relatives miles away. This left him in a state of severe emotional grief; so much so that he decided to pursue a career in politics as opposed to the law career he had originally intended. He was not even allowed to attend the funeral of his one time finance. During his years in the White House, his niece, Harriet Lane, acted as the First Lady.
His post Presidency was difficult since he was blamed for the Civil War. It got so bad that his portrait had to be removed from the Capitol so vandals would not damage it. During the early to mid 1800’s, the slavery question made any presidency incredibly difficult. This is no doubt why many of the lowest-rated Presidents served during these years. Had Buchanan been President during a different time in history, he likely would had been successful because he was a skillful politician, had ample legal expertise and carried the gift of compromise.
Pros: Experienced politician.
Cons: Seven states seceded while he was in office. The Bleeding Kansas crisis. The Utah War. The Dredd Scott decisions.
Born: April 23, 1791, Cove Gap (near Mercersburg), Pennsylvania
Died: June 1, 1868 (aged 77) near Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Term: March 4, 1857 to March 3, 1861 (1 term)
Political Party: Democrat
Religion: Presbyterian
Education: Dickinson College (graduated 1809)
Marriage: None
Children: None
Career: Lawyer
Vice President: John C. Breckinridge
