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James Buchanan Term: 1857-1861 Party:Democrat Vice President: John C. Breckinridge

James Buchanan is a president of whom some consider an American tragedy. He played a big role in the future division of the Union and the eruption of the Civil War. That being said Buchanan was obviously not our greatest president and may possibly have been our worst. But Buchanan receives a D+ because he was a bad president but one man cannot solely take the blame for the division of a nation. Even though Buchanan is a scapegoat in our history he does not fail. With Union division an obvious possibility as Buchanan came into office he made poor decisions. This is one that was out of his control. The Dred Scott case was a crucial point in Buchanan’s presidency. This was the decision that slaves were property not people that shook up or rather split up the nation. The north grew even more furious and the south was appeased. That was big factor in the split of the nation. What was even more a problem was that factors out of Buchanan’s control like propaganda and books; an important one being Harriet Beecher Stowe’s //__Uncle Tom’s Cabin__//. This proved too be very detrimental to Buchanan. More important was that Buchanan tried to admit Kansas. Buchanan tried to end the problems in Kansas by getting it admitted to the Union as a slave state. The further angered the Republicans and alienated members of his own party. Kansas remained a territory. Moreover, the inactivity during the end of his presidency is what defines him as the worst most infamous president of all time. He sat back and just let tragedy happen and tried to push of division onto another president. Also the fact that there was a stalemate in the government at the time of his presidency didn’t help. Many laws and bills were being vetoed or denied by congress. This led to a split in the Democratic Party which left Buchanan with virtually no friends in government. Another reason Buchanan was a poor president was that he did not change with the times. His personal beliefs were those of racists people. This was a positive if he were just a southern president but in trying to run a semi divided country it was no good to have one personal feeling out at that time. All this together with the addition of winning the presidency at the wrong time made James Buchanan the worst president ever.

Bibliography http://www.usa-presidents.info/buchanan.htm http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/jamesbuchanan/ http://millercenter.org/academic/americanpresident/buchanan/essays/biography/1