James Buchanan

James Buchanan Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the 15th president of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. A Democrat from Pennsylvania, he upheld a pro-slavery interpretation of the U.S. Constitution that did little to reverse the sectional crisis between the North and South. In his final months in office, seven Southern states seceded, forming the Confederacy. On April 12, 1861, Confederate forces attacked Fort Sumter, starting the American Civil War.

During his time as a member of the Federalist Party, Buchanan was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. He won five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, aligning with the Democratic Party of Andrew Jackson. Buchanan was appointed Minister to Russia by President Jackson in 1832 and became a U.S. senator in 1834. Serving in the Senate until 1845, he became the 17th U.S. secretary of state under President James K. Polk, and served as Minister to Britain under President Franklin Pierce from 1853 to 1856.

Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. He was nominated and won the 1856 presidential election. Before taking office as president, Buchanan intervened with the Supreme Court case of Dred Scott v. Sandford to secure its pro-slavery ruling, and this verdict was released two days after his inauguration. He supported efforts to admit the Kansas Territory into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution. Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term and supported his vice president John C. Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election. He did not reconcile the fractured Democratic Party amid divisions involving Stephen A. Douglas, contributing to the election of Republican and former congressman Abraham Lincoln.

Buchanan's leadership during his lame duck period, before the American Civil War, has been widely criticized. He faced criticism from both the North and South during the secession crisis. Buchanan supported the Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country. He made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise took limited action to prepare the military. His failure to forestall the Civil War has been widely criticized, and he spent his last years defending his reputation. Historians and scholars rank him among the worst presidents in American history.