Luke+P.+-+JB+-+FA09

**Born:** April 23, 1791
 * James Buchanan **
 * Died:** June 1, 1868
 * Political Party:** Democrat
 * Term:** 1857-1861
 * Vice President:** John C. Breckinridge

James Buchanan deserves an F for his presidency. He simply was not the man for the job at the time. He accomplished little to nothing in his presidency and allowed the country to slip into civil war due to his lack of action. His main goals when going into office were to uphold the right of the people to govern themselves and to preserve the Union. However his actions did not lead anywhere towards achieving these goals and some actually went against his cause.

During Buchanan’s term in office there was a democratic majority in the Senate and a democratic majority in the House of Representatives (H.O.R. had a republican majority from 1859-1861). However, Buchanan did not cooperate well with congress and was at major differences with some members such as Stephen Douglas. In Kansas the Kansas-Nebraska Act was causing chaos over the issue of popular sovereignty which Buchanan strongly endorsed. When a vote was held over ratification of a territorial constitution (the Lecompton Constitution) many opposed since it was proslavery. However, the constitution was ratified due to people from Missouri going to Kansas to vote. Congress thought the vote, and therefore the constitution was flawed but Buchanan wanted it to stand. This went against his earlier remarks about the importance of popular sovereignty which he so strongly supported. Only a small minority of people from Kansas actually supported the constitution but Buchanan wanted it to stand. A revote was held and this time a non-slave constitution was ratified and Kansas was admitted as a free state. This showed the incompetence of Buchanan.

Buchanan had also endorsed a very important decision made by the Supreme Court. In the Dred Scott case a slave who had been living on free soil sued his master for freedom. The Supreme Court ruled that slaves were property which was protected by the constitution and therefore Scott had no right to sue and could not be set free. The court then went a step further and declared the Missouri Compromise unconstitutional saying the government had no right to ban slavery since slaves were personal property. Buchanan supported this decision and urged the country to accept it. This once again went against his beliefs of popular sovereignty and directly conflicted with the issue in Kansas where slavery had just been banned.

Buchanan didn’t really do anything that positively affected the country. Almost all of his actions ended up harming the country in some form. The least negative thing that he did was his lack of action during the depression in 1857. He simply let the depression ride itself out and took no action to try and help the country. The only reason this can be considered a positive is because he didn’t make it worse fore he intensified almost every other issue of the time. The worst thing he did while president was to not take a specific side on any issue. He wanted to keep the country together and tried to do so by not taking sides. As a result he contradicted himself and left the country ready for disaster. His decisions in the Dred Scott case and the Kansas issue led to extreme sectionalism. Abolitionists in the North were appalled by the Dred Scott case and refused to follow the Supreme Courts ruling. Another mistake of Buchanan’s was his lack of action after John Brown attempted to raise a slave rebellion. The North saw Brown as a heroic martyr while the South saw him as a crazy murderer. The Democratic Party was beginning to split as some sided with the abolitionists while others did not and wanted peace. The country was in an uproar as all these things happened at once and Buchanan simply stood on the side lines and did almost nothing to calm the issues down.

Buchanan’s entire presidency highly influenced the future of the nation. His decisions led to sectionalism and his lack of action led to violence. South Carolina had already begun to talk of secession before the election of 1860 and eventually it and ten other states would secede from the union in the civil war. The country was approaching the verge of war before Buchanan took over and he gave it a shove in the wrong direction and the bloodiest war in American history was the result.

The country was defiantly much worse off after Buchanan’s presidency. What little he did do in office had negative effects and he led the country into the civil war. Not to say that he caused the war, he simply did not manage to keep the country out of it and keep the union together. He was much too passive and was simply not the man for the job and he deserves an F.

"Historical Party Strength in Congress." Congress OL. House of Representatives, 22 Oct. 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009. .
 * Bibliography: **

"James Buchanan." Miller Center of Public Affairs. University of Virginia, 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009. .

"James Buchanan." Wikipedia. 20 Oct. 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009. .

"Party Division in the Senate, 1789-Present." United States Senate. United States Senate, 2009. Web. 22 Oct. 2009. .