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Welcome! The life of James Buchanan Home Pre-Presidency While President The Hostess Post Presidency Just the Facts Quotes Pictures |
James Buchanan was born in a log cabin on April 23, 1791. His father, James Buchanan, had emigrated from Ireland a decade before and married Elizabeth Speer, and became a successful merchant in Pennsylvania. They would eventually had eleven children, James being the second of them and the eldest son. The family settled near Mercersberg in the southern part of the state. James went to school in Mercersberg, but he bad better opportunities because of his his father's business triumphs and mother's interest in education. So at age sixteen he began attending Dickinson College in Carlisle, seventy miles from home. After two years, he graduated with honors and then began law studies. In 1813 he was admitted to the Pennsylvania bar and began practicing in Lancaster. Soon after this he answered the call of the War of 1812, only to see no action and shortly return home. He then picked up his law career and showed a brilliant legal mind that enabled him to quickly gain a great fortune. Soon after Buchanan at only twenty-three won election to Pennsylvania's House of Representatives as a member of the Federalist Party. Though he maintained his law practice, he served in the state house from 1814 until 1819. Young Jame's life was not one all of great triumphs though. Buchanan fell in love with Ann Caroline Coleman. Ann's father was one of the wealthiest individuals in the U.S. Her family very strongly opposed the marriage. Some claimed that he was only interested in her money, but Buchanan's legal skills were so great that before he turned thirty years-old he was worth well over $250,000 (a very large sum in 1819). It was then claimed that Buchanan was seeing a number of other women, and a distraught Ann Coleman sent him a letter breaking the engagement. A few days later she died, possibly from suicide. The Coleman family turned its grief and guilt on the young lawyer and forbade him to attend the funeral, and much of the town talk ran against him. The experience shook Buchanan badly, he vowed he would not marry another, and he never became seriously involved with another woman for the rest of his life. He would be the nation's first and only bachelor president. After Ann Coleman's tragic death, Buchanan sought refuge in his work. He set his sights on a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives and managed to overcome local ill will toward him (regarding the Coleman matter) to win the 1820 election for the post. Buchanan served in Congress from 1821 until 1831, a total of five terms. In Congress, he quickly made a name for himself as a nearly matchless constitutional lawyer, serving on the House Judiciary Committee. After winning the state of Pennsylvania for Andrew Jackson, he was appointed envoy to Russia shorty after Jackson's reelection. The two nations had been unable to negotiate a trade treaty, and Buchanan's legal skill enabled him to push the agreement through. Returning from St. Petersburg in 1833, he won appointment to the United States Senate by the Pennsylvania State Legislature. By the end of Buchanan's first six-year term as senator—he would serve two—slavery had been banned in the North. James Buchanan objected to slavery personally, but viewed the abolitionist movement as a group of meddling troublemakers—and a greater threat to the Union than the institution of slavery itself. He claimed that the Constitution upheld the right of Southerners to own slaves, and saw it as America's duty to protect slavery in the South. With his diplomatic experience, Buchanan also became involved with foreign policy in the Senate, eventually chairing the important and prestigious Foreign Relations Committee. By the end of his terms in the Senate, he was one of the most powerful senators in Congress. Buchanan hoped that this would lead him to a White House bid in 1844, but to everyone's surprise, the nomination went to James Knox Polk. After his election to the presidency, Polk named Buchanan as his secretary of state. When Pierce was elected he also sought to include the talented Buchanan in his administration, naming the Pennsylvanian to the critical post of ambassador to England. It would prove to be a lucky break for Buchanan, keeping him in politics while giving him distance from the troubled Pierce administration. Now popularly known as "Old Buck," the sixty-five-year-old Buchanan knew that 1856 would be his last chance at the presidential prize. |