115 Facts About James Buchanan

James Buchanan previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the US Congress.

James Buchanan was an advocate for states' rights, particularly regarding slavery, and minimized the role of the federal government preceding the Civil War.

James Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist.

James Buchanan was elected to the US House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for five terms, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party.

James Buchanan won the election in 1834 as a US senator from Pennsylvania and continued in that position for 11 years.

James Buchanan was appointed to serve as President James K Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom.

James Buchanan was finally nominated in 1856, defeating incumbent Franklin Pierce and Senator Stephen A Douglas at the Democratic National Convention.

James Buchanan benefited from the fact that he had been out of the country as ambassador in London and had not been involved in slavery issues.

James Buchanan acceded to Southern attempts to engineer Kansas' entry into the Union as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution, and angered not only Republicans but Northern Democrats.

James Buchanan honored his pledge to serve only one term and supported Breckinridge's unsuccessful candidacy in the 1860 presidential election.

James Buchanan failed to reconcile the fractured Democratic party amid the grudge against Stephen Douglas, leading to the election of Republican and former Congressman Abraham Lincoln.

James Buchanan simultaneously angered the North by not stopping secession and the South by not yielding to their demands.

James Buchanan supported the ineffective Corwin Amendment in an effort to reconcile the country.

James Buchanan made an unsuccessful attempt to reinforce Fort Sumter, but otherwise refrained from preparing the military.

James Buchanan died of respiratory failure in 1868 and was buried in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he had lived for nearly 60 years.

James Buchanan's parents were both of Ulster Scot descent, and his father emigrated from Ramelton, Ireland in 1783.

James Buchanan's father became the wealthiest resident there, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor.

James Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

James Buchanan was nearly expelled for bad behavior but pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809.

Many other lawyers moved to Harrisburg when it became the state capital in 1812, but James Buchanan made Lancaster his lifelong home.

James Buchanan handled various types of cases, including a much-publicized impeachment trial where he successfully defended Pennsylvania Judge Walter Franklin.

James Buchanan began his political career as a member of the Federalist Party, and was elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives in 1814 and 1815.

The legislature met for only three months a year, but James Buchanan's service helped him acquire more clients.

James Buchanan became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812.

James Buchanan was a Freemason, and served as the Master of Masonic Lodge No 43 in Lancaster and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.

James Buchanan is the only president with military experience who was not an officer.

James Buchanan is the last president who served in the War of 1812.

In 1820 James Buchanan was elected to the US House of Representatives, though the Federalist Party was waning.

In Washington, James Buchanan became an avid defender of states' rights, and was close with many southern Congressmen, viewing some New England Congressmen as dangerous radicals.

James Buchanan was appointed to the Agriculture Committee in his first year, and he eventually became Chairman of the Judiciary Committee.

James Buchanan declined re-nomination to a sixth term and briefly returned to private life.

James Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country but ultimately agreed.

James Buchanan served as an ambassador for 18 months, during which time he learned French, the trade language of diplomacy in the nineteenth century.

James Buchanan helped negotiate commercial and maritime treaties with the Russian Empire.

James Buchanan returned home and was elected by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the US Senate.

The Jacksonian James Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and sought to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War.

James Buchanan joined the majority in blocking the rule, with most senators of the belief that it would have the reverse effect of strengthening the abolitionists.

James Buchanan argued for the annexation of both Texas and the Oregon Country.

James Buchanan was offered the position of Secretary of State in the Polk administration, as well as the alternative of serving on the Supreme Court.

James Buchanan accepted the State Department post and served for the duration of Polk's single term in office.

However, as the war came to an end, James Buchanan argued for the annexation of further territory, and Polk began to suspect that he was angling to become president.

James Buchanan did quietly seek the nomination at the 1848 Democratic National Convention, as Polk had promised to serve only one term, but Senator Lewis Cass of Michigan was nominated.

James Buchanan bought the house of Wheatland on the outskirts of Lancaster and entertained various visitors while monitoring political events.

James Buchanan quietly campaigned for the 1852 Democratic presidential nomination, writing a public letter that deplored the Wilmot Proviso, which proposed to ban slavery in new territories.

James Buchanan became known as a "doughface" due to his sympathy toward the South.

James Buchanan sailed for England in the summer of 1853, and he remained abroad for the next three years.

James Buchanan met repeatedly with Lord Clarendon, the British foreign minister, in hopes of pressuring the British to withdraw from Central America.

James Buchanan focused on the potential annexation of Cuba, which had long interested him.

At Pierce's prompting, James Buchanan met in Ostend, Belgium, with US Ambassador to Spain Pierre Soule and US Ambassador to France John Mason.

James Buchanan was joined on the ticket by John C Breckinridge of Kentucky, placating supporters of Pierce and Douglas, allies of Breckinridge.

James Buchanan did not actively campaign, but he wrote letters and pledged to uphold the Democratic platform.

James Buchanan won 45 percent of the popular vote and decisively won the electoral vote, taking 174 of 296 votes.

James Buchanan's election made him the first president from Pennsylvania.

James Buchanan expressed abhorrence for the growing divisions over slavery and its status in the territories while saying that Congress should play no role in determining the status of slavery in the states or territories.

James Buchanan recommended that a federal slave code be enacted to protect the rights of slaveowners in federal territories.

James Buchanan alluded to a then-pending Supreme Court case, Dred Scott v Sandford, which he said would permanently settle the issue of slavery.

James Buchanan already knew what the Court was going to decide.

When James Buchanan urged the nation to support the decision, he already knew what Taney would say.

James Buchanan chose four Southerners and three Northerners, the latter of whom were all considered to be doughfaces.

James Buchanan's objective was to dominate the cabinet, and he chose men who would agree with his views.

James Buchanan appointed one Justice, Nathan Clifford, to the Supreme Court of the United States.

James Buchanan appointed seven other federal judges to United States district courts.

James Buchanan appointed two judges to the United States Court of Claims.

Two days after James Buchanan was sworn in as president, Chief Justice Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, which denied the petitioner's request to be set free from slavery.

James Buchanan hoped that a broad decision protecting slavery in the territories could lay the issue to rest, allowing him to focus on other issues.

James Buchanan then wrote to Grier and prevailed upon him, providing the majority leverage to issue a broad-ranging decision sufficient to render the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional.

James Buchanan's letters were not then public; he was seen at his inauguration in whispered conversation with the Chief Justice.

Rather than destroying the Republican platform as James Buchanan had hoped, the decision outraged Northerners who denounced it.

James Buchanan agreed with the southerners who attributed the economic collapse to over-speculation.

James Buchanan was offended by the militarism and polygamous behavior of Young.

James Buchanan reluctantly rejected it, and he dispatched federal agents to arrange a compromise.

James Buchanan transmitted a message that attacked the "revolutionary government" in Topeka, conflating them with the Mormons in Utah.

James Buchanan made every effort to secure congressional approval, offering favors, patronage appointments, and even cash for votes.

Rather than accepting defeat, James Buchanan backed the 1858 English Bill, which offered Kansans immediate statehood and vast public lands in exchange for accepting the Lecompton Constitution.

Douglas's faction continued to support the doctrine of popular sovereignty, while James Buchanan insisted that Democrats respect the Dred Scott decision and its repudiation of federal interference with slavery in the territories.

James Buchanan, working through federal patronage appointees in Illinois, ran candidates for the legislature in competition with both the Republicans and the Douglas Democrats.

James Buchanan's support was otherwise reduced to a narrow base of southerners.

James Buchanan, in turn, added to the hostility with his veto of six substantial pieces of Republican legislation.

James Buchanan took office with an ambitious foreign policy, designed to establish US hegemony over Central America at the expense of Great Britain.

James Buchanan sought to establish American protectorates over the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora, and most importantly, he hoped to achieve his long-term goal of acquiring Cuba.

James Buchanan considered buying Alaska from the Russian Empire, as a colony for Mormon settlers, but he and the Russians were unable to agree upon a price.

James Buchanan was offered a herd of elephants by King Rama IV of Siam, though the letter arrived after James Buchanan's departure from office.

The report included accusations from Republicans that James Buchanan had attempted to bribe members of Congress, in connection with the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution of Kansas.

James Buchanan Robinson, stated that he agreed with the Republicans, though he did not sign it.

James Buchanan claimed to have "passed triumphantly through this ordeal" with complete vindication.

James Buchanan became the last Democrat to win a presidential election until Grover Cleveland in 1884.

James Buchanan recommended that massive amounts of federal troops and artillery be deployed to those states to protect federal property, although he warned that few reinforcements were available.

James Buchanan's address was sharply criticized both by the North, for its refusal to stop secession, and the South, for denying its right to secede.

However, Unionist sentiment remained strong among many in the South, and James Buchanan sought to appeal to the Southern moderates who might prevent secession in other states.

James Buchanan proposed passage of constitutional amendments protecting slavery in the states and territories.

James Buchanan met with South Carolinian commissioners in an attempt to resolve the situation at Fort Sumter, which federal forces remained in control of despite its location in Charleston, South Carolina.

James Buchanan refused to dismiss Interior Secretary Jacob Thompson after the latter was chosen as Mississippi's agent to discuss secession, and he refused to fire Secretary of War John B Floyd despite an embezzlement scandal.

James Buchanan secretly asked President-elect Lincoln to call for a national referendum on the issue of slavery, but Lincoln declined.

When James Buchanan considered surrendering Fort Sumter, the new cabinet members threatened to resign, and James Buchanan relented.

James Buchanan chose not to respond to this act of war, and instead sought to find a compromise to avoid secession.

Three new states were admitted to the Union while James Buchanan was in office:.

James Buchanan was dedicated to defending his actions prior to the Civil War, which was referred to by some as "James Buchanan's War".

James Buchanan received threatening letters daily, and stores displayed Buchanan's likeness with the eyes inked red, a noose drawn around his neck and the word "TRAITOR" written across his forehead.

James Buchanan soon began writing his fullest public defense, in the form of his memoir Mr Buchanan's Administration on the Eve of Rebellion, which was published in 1866.

James Buchanan died on June 1,1868, of respiratory failure at the age of 77 at his home at Wheatland.

James Buchanan was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster.

James Buchanan was often considered by anti-slavery northerners a "doughface", a northerner with pro-southern principles.

James Buchanan was conflicted by free trade as well as prohibitive tariffs, since either would benefit one section of the country to the detriment of the other.

James Buchanan was torn between his desire to expand the country for the general welfare of the nation, and to guarantee the rights of the people settling particular areas.

In 1818, James Buchanan met Anne Caroline Coleman at a grand ball in Lancaster, and the two began courting.

James Buchanan was the sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, one of Buchanan's colleagues.

James Buchanan was busy with his law firm and political projects during the Panic of 1819, which took him away from Coleman for weeks at a time.

James Buchanan broke off the engagement, and soon afterward, on December 9,1819, suddenly died.

James Buchanan wrote to her father for permission to attend the funeral, which was refused.

One of his biographers, Jean Baker, suggests that James Buchanan was celibate, if not asexual.

James Buchanan had a close relationship with William Rufus King, which became a popular target of gossip.

James Buchanan described him as "among the best, the purest and most consistent public men I have known".

Biographer Jean Baker is less charitable to James Buchanan, saying in 2004:.

James Buchanan was that most dangerous of chief executives, a stubborn, mistaken ideologue whose principles held no room for compromise.

James Buchanan High School is a small, rural high school located on the outskirts of his childhood hometown, Mercersburg, Pennsylvania.