James Buchanan was the 15th president of the United States. Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791 in Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. He is the only President to have been born in Pennsylvania, and the only one never to marry. He was the second of ten children (although two died in infancy), and was a heavy-set man nearsighted in one eye, and farsighted in the other. He was an active Freemason and master of a Masonic lodge in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Buchanan has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the two or three worst American presidents.
Buchanan graduated from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania with a law degree, and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He strongly opposed the War of 1812, but eventually joined a volunteer unit to help defend Baltimore, Maryland. He was also a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1814 to 1820.
In 1819, he became engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, who died later that year after a quarrel with Buchanan, which some believe was a suicide. Buchanan was despondent, and vowed never to marry.
He became a Member of Congress from 1821 to 1831, and was the Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary. He later became Ambassador to Russia from 1832 to 1834, and while originally a Federalist, joined the Democratic Party and became a Senator from 1834 to 1845. During this time he was also Chairman of the Committee on Foreign Relations.
In 1845, he became Secretary of State for President James Polk, a post he held until 1849, and he helped negotiate the 1846 Oregon Treaty, establishing the 49th parallel as the northern boundary in the western United States. In 1853, he was named president of the Board of Trustees of Franklin and Marshall College, a post he held until 1865.
In 1856, he was nominated as the Democratic candidate for president on the 17th ballot. He did not want to run, but accepted the nomination. He won the election and served as president of the United States from March 4, 1857 to March 4, 1861. His vice-president was John C. Breckinridge.
During his presidency, there was a national debate regarding the issue of slavery, and a number of Southern states wanted to secede. Buchanan stated that it was illegal for states to secede, but going to war to stop it was also illegal. He did not want to take action on this issue, and hoped that it would be resolved by the Supreme Court. He was denounced by Abraham Lincoln as an accomplice of slave owners, and his policy of appeasement was ineffective. His government was also accused of corruption.
During his presidency, he battled members of the Democratic Party who wanted to abolish slavery, and eventually lost control of the party to Stephen A. Douglas. The Federal Government reached a stalemate on this issue, and the Democratic Party split. Seven Southern states seceded, forming the Confederate States of America.
In 2006, historians voted his failure to deal with secession as the worst presidential mistake ever made. Abraham Lincoln became the next president, and Buchanan returned to Pennsylvania, where he wrote the first presidential memoir. He passed away at his home on June 1, 1868, at the age of 77.