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.
James Buchanan Jr. was born into a Scotch-Irish family on April 23, 1791, in a log cabin at the Stony Batter farm, near Cove Gap in the Allegheny Mountains of southern Pennsylvania. He was the second of eleven children, with six sisters and four brothers, and was the eldest son of James Buchanan Sr. and Elizabeth Speer. James Buchanan Sr. was an Ulster-Scot from just outside Ramelton, a small town in County Donegal, Ireland, who emigrated to the newly formed United States in 1783. Shortly after Buchanan's birth, the family relocated to a farm near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, and later settled in the town in 1794. His father became the area's wealthiest resident, working as a merchant, farmer, and real estate investor. Buchanan attributed his early education primarily to his mother, whereas his father had a greater influence on his character. His mother discussed politics with him as a child and had an interest in poetry, often quoting John Milton and William Shakespeare.
Buchanan attended the Old Stone Academy in Mercersburg and then Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. In 1808, he was nearly expelled for disorderly conduct. He and other students attracted attention for drinking in local taverns, disturbing the peace at night, and committing acts of vandalism, but he pleaded for a second chance and ultimately graduated with honors in 1809. Later that year, Buchanan moved to the state capital at Lancaster, to train as a lawyer for two and a half years with James Hopkins. He studied the United States Code and the Constitution of the United States as well as legal authorities such as William Blackstone during his education.
Early law practice and Pennsylvania House of Representatives
In 1812, Buchanan passed the bar exam and remained in Lancaster when Harrisburg became the new capital of Pennsylvania. He established a successful legal practice in the city. His income increased after he established his practice, and by 1821 he was earning over $11,000 per year (equivalent to $270,000 in 2025). Buchanan became a Freemason and served as Worshipful Master of Masonic Lodge No. 43 in Lancaster and as a District Deputy Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania.
He also served as chairman of the Lancaster chapter of the Federalist Party. Like his father, Buchanan supported the party's program, which provided federal funds for building projects and import duties as well as the re-establishment of a central bank after the First Bank of the United States' license expired in 1811. He became a strong critic of Democratic-Republican President James Madison during the War of 1812. Although he did not serve in a militia during the War of 1812, he joined a group of young men who seized horses for the United States Army in the Baltimore area during the British occupation. Buchanan was the last president involved in the War of 1812.
In 1814, he was elected as a Federalist to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and became its youngest member. He held this seat until 1816. Since sessions in the Pennsylvania General Assembly lasted only three months, Buchanan continued practicing law, and his service helped him acquire more clients. In 1815, he defended District Judge Walter Franklin in an impeachment trial before the Pennsylvania Senate, over alleged judicial misconduct. Buchanan persuaded the senators that only judicial crimes and clear violations of the law justified impeachment.
In the congressional elections of 1820, Buchanan ran for a seat in the House of Representatives. Shortly after his election victory, his father died in a carriage accident. As a young Representative, Buchanan was one of the most prominent leaders of Pennsylvania's "Amalgamator party", which included both Democratic-Republicans and former Federalists. Buchanan's Federalist convictions declined, and he switched parties after opposing a nativist Federalist bill. During the 1824 presidential election, Buchanan initially supported Henry Clay but switched to Andrew Jackson when it became clear that the Pennsylvanian public preferred Jackson. After Jackson lost the 1824 election, he joined his faction.
In Washington, Buchanan became a defender of states' rights, and was close with many southern Congressmen. Buchanan maintained strong ties to his constituency and helped build a Democratic coalition in Pennsylvania. In the 1828 presidential election, he supported Andrew Jackson and helped secure Pennsylvania.
Buchanan gained attention during an impeachment trial in which he prosecuted federal district judge James H. Peck, whom the Senate acquitted. He was appointed to a House committee on agriculture in his first year and later became chairman of the Judiciary Committee. In 1831, Buchanan declined a nomination for the 22nd United States Congress. He still had political ambitions and some Pennsylvania Democrats put him forward as a candidate for the vice presidency in the 1832 election.
In 1832, President Jackson offered Buchanan the position of United States Ambassador to Russia. Buchanan was reluctant to leave the country, viewing Saint Petersburg as a political exile, but ultimately agreed. His work focused on concluding a trade and shipping treaty with Russia. While Buchanan was successful with the trade treaty, negotiating an agreement on free merchant shipping with Foreign Minister Karl Nesselrode proved difficult. He had denounced Tsar Nicholas I of Russia as a despot the previous year during his tenure in Congress. Many Americans had reacted negatively to Russia's response to the 1830 Polish uprising.
Buchanan returned home and lost an election for a full Senate term, but was appointed by the Pennsylvania state legislature to succeed William Wilkins in the U.S. Senate. Wilkins, in turn, replaced Buchanan as the ambassador to Russia. Buchanan, who was re-elected in 1836 and 1842, opposed the re-chartering of the Second Bank of the United States and supported efforts to expunge a congressional censure of Jackson stemming from the Bank War. Buchanan served in the Senate until March 1845 and was twice re-elected. To unite Pennsylvania Democrats, he was chosen as their candidate for the Democratic National Convention. Buchanan followed the Pennsylvania State Legislature's guidelines and sometimes voted against positions he promoted in his own speeches, despite ambitions for the White House.