The New International Encyclopædia/Buchanan, James
BUCHANAN,  (1791-1868). The
fifteenth President of the United States (1857-1861).
He was born near Mercersburg, Pa.,
April 23, 1791, graduated at Dickinson College
in 1809, was educated for the bar, and began to
practice law in Lancaster, Pa., in 1812. Though
a professed Federalist, he served as a private in
the second war with England. In 1814, as also
in 1815, he was a member of the Pennsylvania
legislature, and in 1820 was elected to Congress,
where he served through five terms. In 1828
he favored Jackson for President, and in the
Congress of 1829-1831 made important proposals
as chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary.

After leaving Congress he was sent by Jackson
as Minister to Russia, where he concluded the
first commercial treaty between the two countries,
securing valuable privileges in the Black
and Baltic seas. Returning home in 1833, he
was in the following year chosen to the United
States Senate, to which he was twice reëlected.
He uniformly supported Jackson, especially in
the latter's claim that as President he had power
to remove executive officers without reference to
the Senate, and in his financial measures.

When it was proposed to exclude from
Congress petitions for the abolition of slavery,
Buchanan upheld the right of petition, but declared
that Congress had no control over slavery in
the States, and that petitions for the abolition
of slavery in the District of Columbia should be
uniformly rejected. He favored the bill prohibiting
the use of the mails for the distribution of
abolitionist literature. He supported the
‘expunging resolution’ of Senator Benton, and in
the affair of the American claims on France
he supported Jackson's emphatic demand for
payment, and his implied threat of war in case
of a persistent refusal on the part of the French
Government. During Van Buren's administration
Buchanan supported the independent treasury
scheme and favored the preemption of public
lands.

He sustained the veto power under Tyler,
and opposed the ratification of the Ashburton
Treaty, which settled the dispute concerning the
northeastern boundary. When the question of
the annexation of Texas came to the Senate,
Buchanan was the only member of the Senate
Committee of Foreign Affairs to report in favor of
annexation. He had declined the office of
Attorney-General in 1839, and in 1844 was
mentioned for the Presidency. Finally he left the
Senate in 1845 to become Polk's Secretary of
State. In this capacity he had to deal with
the northwestern boundary question, whence
arose the famous partisan cry “54° 40' or fight.”
Both England and the United States had
formally claimed the territory between the Pacific
Coast and the Rocky Mountains up to the
Russian boundary, but after much negotiation the
line of 49° was agreed upon. During the war
with Mexico Buchanan was successful in avoiding
or preventing the interference of other
nations. He was in private life during the discussion
and adoption of the Compromise Measures
of 1850, but fully approved them. When Pierce
became President, in 1853, Buchanan was sent
as Minister to Great Britain, where he was
engaged in endeavors to settle a series of questions
concerning Central American affairs. With J.
Y. Mason and Pierre Soulé, he signed the
../Ostend Manifesto/ (q. v.), recommending the acquisition
of Cuba, but although the measure was so
evidently pro-slavery in tendency and unjust to
Spain that it met with the disapproval of Marcy,
the Secretary of State, nevertheless it helped
Buchanan to gain the Democratic nomination for
President, while his absence in England during
the Kansas-Nebraska excitement was also in his
favor, and he was nominated in 1856. The
electoral vote was: For Buchanan, 174; for John C.
Frémont (candidate of the newly organized
Republican Party), 114; for Millard Fillmore
(Native American), 8. The popular vote was:
Buchanan, 1,838,169; Frémont, 1,341,264; Fillmore,
874,534; majority against Buchanan,
377,629;
plurality for him. 496,905. He had the
votes of every slaveholding State except Maryland,
which went for Fillmore. The vote also
gave Buchanan Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania,
California, and New Jersey. In the executive
chair he was uniformly subservient to Southern
politicians, and allowed their threats of secession
to influence his actions. Among other acts
of his administration were the temporary
suppression of the Mormon troubles and the vetoing
of the Homestead Bill. After Lincoln's election
Buchanan was more than ever anxious to stifle
the slavery discussion, and in his last
message to Congress pointedly charged the North with
having brought about the existing crisis in
national affairs by a discussion which had
“produced its malign influence on the slaves, and
inspired them with a vague idea of freedom.”
While holding that the States had no right to
secede, he weakly added that the nation had no
power to prevent it; for it could not employ force,
he said, except upon the demand of the lawful
authorities of the State, and in South Carolina
no such authority then existed. A few days later
he was confronted by commissioners from South
Carolina (that State having passed an act of
secession on December 20, 1860), who came to
demand the surrender by the President to the
seceded State of all public property, and to
negotiate for the continuance of “peace and amity
between that Commonwealth and the Government
at Washington.” His reply was that he had no
power, and could only refer the matter to
Congress; he could only receive them as “private
gentlemen of the highest character,” and treat
respectfully such propositions as they might
make. He did, however, decline to accede to their
demand for the removal of the troops from
Charleston Harbor. The Cabinet was immediately
reorganized. Cass was Secretary of State, but
resigned when the President refused to order
reinforcements to the Charleston forts; the
Secretary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the
Interior had already gone, and the Secretary of
War also resigned. Under the influence of the
reorganized Cabinet, including J. S. Black, John
A. Dix, J. Holt, and E. M. Stanton, Buchanan
displayed less timidity, attempted a reinforcement
of Sumter, refused to surrender the
United States property to South Carolina, and
announced his intention to protect it itf assailed,
measures which gained for his administration,
during its last months, more of the confidence of
the nation. After the accession of Lincoln Mr.
Buchanan wrote to John A. Dix: “The present
administration had no alternative but to accept
the war initiated by South Carolina or the Southern
Confederacy. The North will sustain the
administration almost to a man, and it ought to
be sustained at all hazards.”

Buchanan's administration was marked by
considerable activity in diplomatic affairs. He
secured a satisfactory commercial treaty with
China and the recognition by England of the
rights of neutral ships. Relations with Mexico
continued to be important as well as unsatisfactory.
In his attitude toward the struggle in
Kansas and his action upon the ../Lecompton Constitution/
(q. v.) Buchanan subjected himself to
severe criticism. Shortly after his retirement,
he published what may be termed a defense,
entitled Mr. Buchanan's Administration on the Eve
of the Rebellion (New York, 1866). The chief

authority for his life is the Memoir by George
Ticknor Curtis (2 vols., New York, 1883). In
1888 the messages of Mr. Buchanan were
collected and published by J. Buchanan Henry, with
an appendix containing a number of letters from
members of his Cabinet at the close of his
Presidential term (New York, 1888). He died in
Lancaster, Pa., June 1, 1868. See
.