[USA] - 15th President of the USA James Buchanan

James Buchanan	Birth: 23 April 1791
	Died: 1 June 1868
	Party: Democrat
	Presidency: 1857 – 1861
	Vice President: John C. Breckinridge
	Nickname: Ten-cent Jimmy

 

● Dred Scott Case

Dred Scott was a slave that belonged to a person from Missouri. While Dred Scott’s master relocated to Illinois which was a free state, abolitionists argued that Dred Scot must be freed from slavery. The Dred Scott Case was taken to the Supreme Court.

On 6th March 1857, the Supreme Court ruled that Dred Scott will not be freed by the fact that his owner relocated to a slavery free state.

 

 

The Supreme Court ruled that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was also against the constitution.

The rationale was that congress doesn’t have the authority to ban slavery in the states and only to the furthest extent that the state government could ‘exclude’ slavery within its territories.

 

 

The vote decision by the Supreme Court to the Dred Scott Case was 7 to 2 and the Supreme Court’s ruling meant that eventually they admitted slaves were property and not a citizen.

Chief Justice Roger B. Taney wrote that Scott Dred bared “no rights which any white man was bound to respect”. This decision infuriated the anti-slavery supporters while it was welcomed by the pro-slavery supporters.

 

 

 

● Attempts to preserve the Union - James Buchanan’s Inauguration

James Buchanan was a skillful lawyer. He personally disagreed with slavery; however, he thought that strictly in terms of a legal perspective, the federal government couldn’t force the decision of states to maintain slavery or not.

Along with his legal perspective, James Buchanan believed that the preservation of the Union was important and the United States would have to embrace the slavery states.

 

 

Due to the tensions between the North and South especially during the Kansas Bleeding, the public had great expectations on James Buchanan.

James Buchanan argued that the southern states had to opportunity to choose between admission of slavery or not and the new territories admitted to the United States should have the same rights.

Along with the Dred Scott Case ruling, James Buchanan’s perspective was logical in legal terms(Considering the time period, of course not current days), however it failed to embrace the moral demand by the Northern states. Despite James Buchanan’s soft opinion against slavery,

 

 

● The Kansas Constitution

James Buchanan appoints the Robert Walker who was from Mississippi the new governor of Kansas.

Robert Walker held the state constitutional convention at Lecompton which the delegates decided to approved slavery for the Kansas state constitution.

 

 Lecompton Constitution

 

However, the proceedings were disrupted by the abolitionists claiming that the elections were manipulated by the delegates.

James Buchanan backed up Robert Walker and the Lecompton constitution, however the senate opposed James Buchanan and Robert Walker demanding a statewide referendum.

The senate led by senator Stephen Douglas demanded referendum to reveal what the people of Kansas truly thought about slavery.

 

 

Kansas had to host two statewide referendums which resulted in the abolition of slavery in Kansas by a considerable dissidence.

The referendums were held twice because James Buchanan demanded another after the first referendum’s result was the abolition of slavery and James Buchanan knew that these results would irritate the Southern states.

However, despite both referendums, the results were the same.

 

● Sojourner Truth  

 Isabell Van Wagener changed her name int Sojourner Truth in 1843. Sojourner Truth was a former slave that advocated the cause of anti-slavery and women rights.

She would speech in churches and village streets and she traveled throughout the United States. She has inspired many people to join the abolitionist cause and promote women rights as well.

 

 

● The Pony Express  

William H. Russell knew that the growing demand of a trans continental mail carriage system. California already became one of the wealthiest states shortly after it joined the United States during the Mexican Cession.

However, it still couldn’t receive news across the continent to the east where majority of the political administrative and financial decisions were held.

William H. Russell started the Pony Express Service that was the first express mailing service.

 

 

A horse station was placed at a 10 mile interval(which is about 16km) and mail deliverers would exchange horses per each station while delivering a mail.

William Russell demonstrated a delivery of mail from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco in 10 days.

However the fixed costs vastly outnumbered profit such as the wages for the delivery men, maintenance of horses (feed, shelter etc) and infrastructure and the transcontinental telegraph started service in October of 1961 which completely shut the business down.  

 

 

● Lincoln-Douglass Debates

Abraham Lincoln runs for the U.S. senate as a Republican against senior politician Stephen Douglas nicknamed the Little Giant and also the person who first proposed the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The Senate campaign for Illinois featured seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass which became known as the Lincoln-Douglass Debates.

 

Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglass

 

Abraham Lincoln mainly asserted the ‘grace of freedom and moral sovereignty of anti-slavery’ while Stephen Douglass stretched that Lincoln tried to abolish unity within the Union.

Lincoln’s most famous words were “ A house divided against itself cannot stand” “This government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free.”

 

 

Lincoln eventually lost the Illinois senator but he successfully drew out an answer from Stephen Douglass that Douglass believed that law could ban slavery within its territories.

Stephen Douglas’s ideas were known as the ‘Freeport Doctrine’.

The Freeport Doctrine proposed by Stephen Douglass contradicted the Supreme Court’s ruling in Dred Scott’s case and it was against the political ideas of the Democrats.

 

 

Stephen Douglass lost his support from his Southern companions within the Democrats party and couldn’t win the Democrats nomination for presidency. However, Lincoln solidified his position to become the Republican nomination for presidency.

 

 

● John Brown

John Brown was one of the most radical white anti-slavery fanatics during these periods. He already shed blood during the Bleed Kansas incidents.

However, he even took it to a further extent when he raided Harpers Ferry Virginia and seize the arsenal of Harpers Ferry with his men.

 

 

Robert E. Lee who would later become the General in Chief of the Armies of the Confederate States during the Civil War subjugated John Brown’s seizure. John Brown was put to court for treason and he was sentenced death.

 

John Brown

 

● Secession from the Union : Confederate States of America and Jefferson Davis

Towards the end of James Buchanan’s presidency as Republican and proactive anti-slavery politician Abraham Lincoln was elected president, the Southern parts of the United States feared that the federal government would force anti-slavery.

Abraham Lincoln would win 2/3 of the electoral votes but only receive 40% of the popular votes.

Although Lincoln and the Republican party put the preservation of the Union more than anti-slavery, the Southern States decided to secede from the Union despite the consequences.

 

 

Seven states secede from the Union which included Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, South Carolina, Florida and Texas. These seven states formed the initial Confederate States of America and elected Jefferson Davis as the first president of the Confederate States of America in February 1861.

 

 

Jefferson Davis was a graduate of West point who escorted Black Hawk when Black Hawk was captured and participated in the American-Mexican War.

He also represented Mississippi for the Senate and the House of Representatives and served as the States Secretary of War under Franklin Pierce.

The Confederate States voted him president(without prior notice as well) for his political, military experience and his neutral attitude in terms of secession in hope of the Northern States would admit the Confederate States officially.