Presidency of James Buchanan

Historical Context Note

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Domains

Changes of government, elections and reigns

Dates

Date of occurrence 1857-03-04-1861-03-04

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

Save to Bookshelf

James Buchanan, a product of Pennsylvania, was lected president in 1856 with 174 electoral votes. The Republican candidate, John C. Fremont, won 114 votes and Millard Fillmore, of the American Know-Nothing party, won 8 electoral votes. Buchanan was the only president to live a bachelor lifestyle. His niece acted as the White House hostess. Buchanan felt that slavery was morally wrong, but he was unwilling to challenge the South by abolishing the practice. Thus, the most important issue of the day, and one that threatened the stability of the Union, was left to the states. Buchanaan did not play an active part in Kansas, as he attempted to persuade Kansas voters to adopt and accept the Lecompton Constitution, which would have allowed slavery in the state. Buchanan's authority and public…

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

287 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Presidency of James Buchanan". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=579, accessed 26 November 2024.]

Presidency of James Buchanan

Domains

Dates

Places

Resources

Save this article

Leave Feedback