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JAMES BUCHANAN
Copyright 1985
An Original History by Bernard Vincent McMahon
"The bachelor President who granted
THE PONCHATOULA TIMES, DECEMBER 19, 1985, PAGE FOUR
a divorce to the North and South"
Part One in a series
Inauquration Dav March 4, 1861: (aside to his successor. Abraham
Lincoln): "My dear, sir, if youare as happy on enterin 9 the White House as i
am on leaving, you are a very happy man indeed."
"In 1856...1 preferred the success of a candidate whose election would
prevent or postpone secession, to seeing the country plunged into a war the
end of which no man could forteli...with a Democrat elected by unaminous
vote on the slave states, there could be no pretext for secession for four years.
I therefore voted for James Buchanan for President." Ulysses S. Grant
"I believe (slavery) to be a great political and a great moral evil...but while
I entertain these opinions, I know it is an evil at present without a remedy.
One of those moral evils from which it is impossible for us to escape, without
the introduction of evils infinitely greater. There can be no middle course."
President Buchanan.
"In 1860 the rebels were encouraged by the contempt they felt for the
incumbant of the presidency...Mr. Buchanan's policy had, ! think, rendered
collision inevitable, and a continuance of that policy will not only bring it
abom. but will go far.to vroduce a permanent division of the union."
(Postmaster General Montgomery Blair. 1861)
Buchanan's War?
S'und,qv night, June 28, 1863. Along the Marietta Pike towards Lancaster, in '
'or ;f t!, spacious plantation named, "'Wheatland," home of former President
F, ,>m The pike is crowded with fugitives fleeing with their household
, :,, :, ,ns on their/arm wagons. A cavalry squadron wheels to a halt in front of
/t/hat/and's stone wall bordering the highway. A young staff officer gallops up •
<i rs to at. .,aluting a gray uniformed officer on a gray horse. His hair is
, ',, ;.,d so is his beard He listens to the young officer who shouts, "The damn
', , ;, ir, set fire to the bridge at Wrightsville," pointing to flames on the
i,; ::,pn that suddenly light up the pike. "We will have to ford the river."
A Ii over six foot man with a wry neck that cocked his head to the left
,,,r,od6er u'as staring intently at the gray-haired officer. This officer said to the
u, ,a, "'Ask that man to point to the town we're marching to" the glow of
/,, /ire :ou ilhminating all their faces. "General Lee," the man behind the wall
:,i so/,l, Removing his gauntlet gloves General Robert E Lee extended his
-,esclenl Buchanan," he said in a surprised voice.
,, bo', t,vn are you looking for?" Buchanan replied. "Gettysburg, "Lee said.
"'T;e,, after you ford the river,' the ex-president said, pointing the stern of his
;p, , ,,rtheri 9 direction Nodding to one another in a farewell the Confederate
get,oral rode awav
The story of America's 15th President
,L:e,- Buchnan was named after his father, a merchant who was born in
,, n,y [),:, gal Ireland and whose great grandfather had moved from Scotland
t; C.o m.y Tyrcme, Ireland. His father emigrated to the U.S. in 1783 and finally
s'-ttied ir Mercersburg. Pennsylvania where he prospered as a merchant and
f;rer le married Elizabeth Speer, a native American, in 1788. James' mother
was self vducled ad was the inspiration for his success. She had eight children,
ti, ,idv, being. James. One of his youngest brothers married a sister of famed
cmq s r Ste_hen Foster
Soga f President Buchanan: Born on April 23 1791 in a log cabin at Cove
Ca! ot,side of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania; at five years of age moved with his
fam:i irl, town; attended local elementary schools and studied Latin and Greek
a ('id ,tone - Academy in Mercerburg. He matriculated to the junior, year at
l_)ie kison College in Carlisle in 1807. Here he studied the classical college course
i, t!:: li[ :al arts but the new-found freedom was too much for him. He raised so
nmch hv!l fle school expelled him. His father's influence and his personal pledge
t, rffm ,,flained his readmittance. The faculty, in revenge for his escapades,
&:nled i;im hiqh honors he earned when he qraduated.
Afle: !:;radualin!l in 1809 he moved in December of that year to Lancaster where
he studied law in James Hopkin's office so diligently that he was admitted to the
b,r in 1812 and began prachcing in Lancaster. The English burned Washington in
,,q mi ,a, ith fire in their eyes and arson in their hearts, advanced on
B,:',rim,,r,. The burning of the capital enraged Americans and Buchanan was one
o} !e first tO enlist in a company of dragoons led by a local judge, Henry
Shipper In Baltimore they were combined with Major Charles S. Ridgely's third
Cv,Irv' After the British were driven off Buchanan was honorably discharged,
gi,in! him a military record so important to a future politician.
ihi, helped him win two terms as a Federalist in the lower house of the
l:>,,msyivaria legislature. At the end of his second term he ran for the U.S. House
ad lost, relurnin!1 to private practice. His law career ruined his romance with
beuilui Anne C. Coleman, age 23 (when he was 28). After a lovers' quarrel she
fl< to, reiatives in Philadelphia where in apparent good health she died Dec. 9,
I:':;I<} ',ddenly (suicide?), Her enraged father, who held Buchanan responsible
f{', !er ,. cruise, banned him from the funeral and returned his letters unopened.
B',,>n,n in his will left papers explaining the circumstances causing their
b,aM,p, with a noe that they were to be burned and not read. Human curiosity
bei' vlat it is highly improbably someone did not take a peek. The story has it
sh;, d,manded he visit her but he was defending the builders of the then new
w ).d,n bridge spanning the Susquehanna River (the same one destroyed in
; mach) and he refused to come home
Di,tr,mgh by grief over the death of his fiancee, Buchanan acceded to the
"Washington liquor
election *< Congress in 1830, returning to the law in Lancaster.
On January 12, 1832 Buchanan was appointed American minister to Russia.
merchants were first
to hear the good news
(of Buchanan's
presidency)"
The next day the senate voted not to confirm Martin Van Buren's appointment to
England's Court of St. James as American minister. Senator Calhoun had got his
revenge.
Stopping over in England Buchanan experienced his first railroad ride and a
weekend with the landed gentry. He visited Germany and sailed for St. Peters-
burg arriving June 2, 1832. Here he met the Russian Emperor Nicholas The First
and his empress.
He spent most of his two year term mollifying the super sensitive Russians who
like their modern counterparts complain about American newspaper articles. His
Russian servants opened his mail and raided the embassy record room. He
discovered Russian society to be a strange compound of barbarism and civilization.
He said they employed the best French chefs yet cooked a sour soup that "would
have gagged a Delaware Indian". Signing a highly favorable trade treaty he
decided to cut short his term as minister and come home. Before leaving the
Continent he took the grand tour of Europe and the British Isles.
Returning home he was elected to the U.S. Senate and re-elected in 1837 and
again in 1843. In the Senate he supported the administration of President
Andrew Jackson particularly in his attack against the Bank of the United States.
He suunorted Martin Van Buren for president and was elected chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He aided Tyler. who succeeded Harrison as
president, campaigned for James K. Polk for president and was in favor of the
annexation of Texas. He was rewarded by being appointed Secretary of State
with the understanding Polk would make all the decisions. In 1848 he
campaigned for Michigan's Lewis Cass for President. In 1852 he lost the
presidential nomination to Franklin Pierce.
Pierce appointed him Minister to Great Britain (1853-1854) where together
with the American ministers to Spain and France he drew up the Ostend
Manifesto proclaiming the U.S. would take Cuba by any means necessary. This
made Buchanan popular in the South where they wanted more cotton--slave
territory. The controversy over the Kansas-Nebraska bill torpedoed President
Pierce, paving the way for Buchanan's nomination for president. On the
seventeenth ballot Pierce threw in the towel, giving the nomination to Buchanan.
Electoral vote: Buchanan 174; Fremont, 114: Film•re. 8. His inaugural address
was a fervent plea to stop anti-slavery agitation.
Buchanan's Secretary of State Lewis Cass of Michigan bitterly attacked him for
not standing up to secessionists. In a rage Cass resigned twelve days before Fort
Sumpter surrendered. Here is a laugh: Buchanan's comments on Cass's
resignation. "So timid was he and so little confidence had he that it was difficult
for him to arrive at any decision of the least consequence." "Ole Buck" must have
been looking in a mirror when he wrote that. Jeremiah S. Black of Pennsylvania
was transferred from his attorney general office to replace Cass.
Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury was Howell Cobb of Georgia, who
served until the election of Lincoln when promptly resigned and returned to
Georgia. •
Shrimping over Sat.
The 1985 inshore shrimp season will
close at midnight on Saturday, Decem-
ber 21 as prescribed by law, according
to the Department of Wildlife and
Fisheries.
J. Burton Angelle, department secre-
tary, said the inshore shrimp season
would remain closed until the spring
season opens in May, 1986. The
Wildlife and Fisheries Commission will
set the spring season sometime in either
late April or early May. '
Angelle said preliminary statistics
collected by National Marine Fisheries
Service (NMFS) show thus far 1985 has
been a good shrimp year from a pro-
duction standpoint. From January
through October, 61.1 million pounds
of shrimp (heads off) have been landed
w.,;hed of sympathetic friends fearful of his mental health and ran for Congress as
Ie&,:,ii,a and was elected for three succeeding terms. He supported Andrew
Lck,.,en'.- bid for the presidency and opposed President John Quincy Adams
!eisti;. As chairman for the lqouse Judiciary Committee he blocked legislative in Louisiana, which is significantly
encroa,:'hrnents cm the powers of the Supreme Court. He did not run for re- higher than the 54.2 million pounds
landed during the same time period in
_ 1984.
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Guitars IrK
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W/Cymbal W/Cymbal Hi hatscrash $100 l
Dixon Elec [ Dixon Bass I Ibanoz Elec [ '
w/Gorilla Amp I w/Gorilla Amp I Free Korg Tuner |
Stan Hebert's 9:30-6 M-S
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I I I
""-,The most controversial figure in Buchanan's cabinet was Secretary of War
John"h"Floyd who was dismissed under a cloud of graft and corruption. Joseph
Holt was transferred from Postmaster General to the War Dept.
Attorney General Jeremiah S. Black advised Buchanan he could not use force
of arms to preserve the Union. This made him Buchanan's scapegoat, if you don't
credit Buchanan with having a legal constitutional mind of his own.
Secretary of the Navy Isaac Toucey served the full term.
Postmaster General Aaron V. Brown improved mail delivery and died in office.
Hollywood is deeply indebted to Joseph Holt for he was the one who
originated the Pony Express. Horatio King served the last two months of Holt's
term.
Secretary of Interior Jacob Thompson resigned near the end of his term when
his home state of Mississippi seceded.
Buchanan, bachelor lacked a wife and First Lady for the socially important post
of White House hostess. President Pierce had advised him to employ a capable
stewart (head usher) to manage the White House. He first tried a Miss Hetty and
his niece Harriet, to run the White House in Tandem. You guessed it; meow,
meow.
Miss Hetty was given "her walking papers" and sent back to Wheatland and
young Miss Harriet was told she was in charge of social protocol but the new
stewart was put in charge of administration and was not to be intedered with by
Miss Harriet. The Executive Mansion had been moribund socially for years since
the administration of Van Buren. Tyler had been saddened by Harrison's and his
own wife's death. Mrs. Polk was a fundementalist Presbyterian. She banned
dancing, liquor and non-alcoholic beverages. Also: card playing, horse racing,
betting, and anyone who laughed out loud was faced by her stem stare. As the
Presbyterian church is the daughter of the Church of Scotland, and anyone who
has visited the land of the Heather knows it is where rolicking reels are danced
under the influence of potent Scottish whiskey, one can only wonder who
emasculated Calvin doctrine in America.
Mrs. Taylor, who imagined herself a Maryland blueblood, thought commerce
with politicians was degrading and refused to appear in public with her husband.
Mrs. Fillmore was too shy (they said) to appear at social functions. Mrs. Pierce
who was horrified at having witnessed the death of her son in a railroad accident,
turned into a recluse. Washington liquor merchants were the first to hear the good
news when they received a note from Buchanan ordering the discontinuance of
champagnes delivered in small bottles. "Pints are very inconvenient in this
house," he added, "as the article is not used in small quantities."
After the inauguration Chief Justice Roger Taney dropped his blockbuster, the
Dred Scott Decision. Buchanan thought it was great, it buttressed his view that
slavery was rooted in the Constitution and no legislation could ban it, even in the
new future territories and states. He thought Kansas should be admitted as a slave
state and threw Robert J. Walker a Mississippian slave holder in to the powder
keg as territorial governor. Stephen A. Douglas lead the Senate fight for a
referendum on Kansas slavery. And twice it (slavery) was voted down.
A large savings and loan association in Cincinnati, Ohio, failed in 1985
arousing fears of the stability of United States savings and loan associations in the
same city the Ohio Life Insurance Company failed, setting of a run on the nation's
banks and financial institutions. This was called by a quaint name, "The Panic of
1857". That lasted until the outbreak of the Civil War. Economic historians list the
causes of Buchanan's panic: (1) overexpansion of railroads; (2}' wildcat state
banks with no government control; (3) the end of Crimean War ending
importation of American agriculture exports; (4) the discovery of gold in
California cheapening gold prices. Widespread unemployment and hunger
followed Buchanan's laissez faire political philosophy that he refused to alleviate.
The real bone of contention in Kansas was not slavery but land claims. The
territory was primarily prairie and a Savannah of Indian grass, much of it growing
up to a man's head. Its harsh winters precluded the growing of cotton. The
bloody disputes were over the metes and bounds of land claims. There were no
land offices to register the acreage and no courts to enforce the boundaries. The
quick profit was in staking a claim and then selling it.
Buchanan's foreign policy focused on trade relations with the Orient. Japan
sending a large delegations to Washington to negotiate trade treaty. American
diplomats obtained commercial treaties with China, obtaining the same
concessions England and France won through a war with the ancient kingdom.
Finally negotiations were bequn to Durcha both Cuba and Alaska.
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