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Born on April 23, 1791-Died on June 1, 1868 Political Party: Democrat Time in Office: March 4, 1857-March 3, 1861( one term) Vice President: John C Brekinridge
 * President James Buchanan

Although Buchanan had much experience in politics before his presidency he is known as one of the worst presidents in American history. Buchanan deserves a D+ for his term in office. He was unable to efficiently handle the disputes between the North and South leading up to the Civil War as well as his little input on the Dred Scott decision with the Supreme Court. Inevitably, Buchanan deserves the grade of a D+.

Buchanan's main goals during his Presidency included Manifest Destiny, maintain the country from corruption and to preserve the Union. Buchanan was impotent, to say the least, at achieving his goals. In spite of the fact that he acknowledged that slavery was wrong Buchanan felt that he was powerless in over ruling the Constitution and supported the South. Thus helping the North and South continue ther disputes that lead to succession. Furthermore, Buchanan was very bold in warning foreign countries to stay away from land in the south, he wanted it for America.

Initially, a large portion of Congress was Democratic. However, Buchanan often had trouble agreeing with Congress. Buchanan was not liked by Republicans, especially the in the North and mistrusted by the South. Buchanan found himself in disputes with Congress when he wanted to start a war against Mexico and admit Kansas as a slave state. Stepphen Douglas strongly challenged Buchanan's stance on Kansas and in the end Kansas was admitted to the Union as a slave free state. Throughout his presidency Buchanan vetoed a total of 7 bills, non of which were overrode.

A positive decision that was an outcome of Buchanan's presidency was his ability to strengthen American authority of southern nations. He was very shielding of Central America to the rest of the world. During his presidency he was quick to defend the area by sending ships down to the area and protecting American sovereignty from Britain. Britain was quick to realize the American threat and retreated from their hopeful expansion. In return for damages on American property Buchanan was able to gain compensation from Columbia, Costa Rica and Mexico. Through these accomplishments Buchanan was able to define American authority over southern nations.

Despite the fact that Buchanan believe succession to be illegal, he allowed six states to withdraw from the union during his presidency. Making no effort to stop succession was by far Buchanan's worst decision because it is clear that the succession was foreshadowing the Civil War to come in later years. Buchanan made the excuse that he believed the government had no power of keeping the states in the Union. He continued to disregard the issue and left Lincoln to handle the problem during his presidencies.

It is inevitable to not say that Buchanan's decisions in office to continuously ignore the growing conflict between the North and South was impacting what was to come in the future. While Buchanan felt that intervening with the North and South's disputes would start a civil war he almost, in a way, caused the civil war by not putting a foot down to try and create peace. If Buchanan had acted on the succession and tried to eliminate the primary problems the civil war might have been prevented.

In short, it is definite why Buchanan deserves the grade of a D+. His actions during his presidency were not beneficial to the country and at times caused the nation to become more segregated. Buchanan left turmoil be created and lef the next president in line, Lincoln, to have to handle all of his chaos.**

Biography

===="American President: James Buchanan." Miller Center of Public Affairs. Web. 16 Feb. 2010. <[]>. ====