15. JAMES BUCHANAN 1857-1861
Tall, stately, stiffly formal in the high stock he wore around his jowls, James Buchanan was the only President who never married.
Presiding over a rapidly dividing Nation, Buchanan grasped inadequately the political realities of the time. Relying on constitutional doctrines to close the widening rift over slavery, he failed to understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments which favored the South. Nor could he realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to the Republicans.
Born into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family in 1791, Buchanan, a graduate of Dickinson College, was gifted as a debater and learned in the law.
He was elected five times to the House of Representatives; then, after an interlude as Minister to Russia, served for a decade in the Senate. He became Polk's Secretary of State and Pierce's Minister to Great Britain. Service abroad helped to bring him the Democratic nomination in 1856 because it had exempted him from involvement in bitter domestic controversies.
As President-elect, Buchanan thought the crisis would disappear if he maintained a sectional balance in his appointments and could persuade the people to accept constitutional law as the Supreme Court interpreted it. The Court was considering the legality of restricting slavery in the territories, and two justices hinted to Buchanan what the decision would be.
Thus, in his Inaugural the President referred to the territorial question as "happily, a matter of but little practical importance" since the Supreme Court was about to settle it "speedily and finally."
Two days later Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to deprive persons of their property rights in slaves in the territories. Southerners were delighted, but the decision created a furor in the North.
Buchanan decided to end the troubles in Kansas by urging the admission of the territory as a slave state. Although he directed his Presidential authority to this goal, he further angered the Republicans and alienated members of his own party. Kansas remained a territory.
When Republicans won a plurality in the House in 1858, every significant bill they passed fell before southern votes in the Senate or a Presidential veto. The Federal Government reached a stalemate.
Sectional strife rose to such a pitch in 1860 that the Democratic Party split into northern and southern wings, each nominating its own candidate for the Presidency. Consequently, when the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be elected even though his name appeared on no southern ballot. Rather than accept a Republican administration, the southern "fire-eaters" advocated secession.
President Buchanan, dismayed and hesitant, denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them. He hoped for compromise, but secessionist leaders did not want compromise.
Then Buchanan took a more militant tack. As several Cabinet members resigned, he appointed northerners, and sent the Star of the West to carry reinforcements to Fort Sumter. On January 9, 1861, the vessel was far away.
Buchanan reverted to a policy of inactivity that continued until he left office. In March 1861 he retired to his Pennsylvania home Wheatland--where he died seven years later--leaving his successor to resolve the frightful issue facing the Nation. From here:
Tall, stately, stiffly formal in the high stock he wore around his jowls, James Buchanan was the only President who never married.
Presiding over a rapidly dividing Nation, Buchanan grasped inadequately the political realities of the time. Relying on constitutional doctrines to close the widening rift over slavery, he failed to understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments which favored the South. Nor could he realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to the Republicans.
Born into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family in 1791, Buchanan, a graduate of Dickinson College, was gifted as a debater and learned in the law.
He was elected five times to the House of Representatives; then, after an interlude as Minister to Russia, served for a decade in the Senate. He became Polk's Secretary of State and Pierce's Minister to Great Britain. Service abroad helped to bring him the Democratic nomination in 1856 because it had exempted him from involvement in bitter domestic controversies.
As President-elect, Buchanan thought the crisis would disappear if he maintained a sectional balance in his appointments and could persuade the people to accept constitutional law as the Supreme Court interpreted it. The Court was considering the legality of restricting slavery in the territories, and two justices hinted to Buchanan what the decision would be.
Thus, in his Inaugural the President referred to the territorial question as "happily, a matter of but little practical importance" since the Supreme Court was about to settle it "speedily and finally."
Two days later Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the Dred Scott decision, asserting that Congress had no constitutional power to deprive persons of their property rights in slaves in the territories. Southerners were delighted, but the decision created a furor in the North.
Buchanan decided to end the troubles in Kansas by urging the admission of the territory as a slave state. Although he directed his Presidential authority to this goal, he further angered the Republicans and alienated members of his own party. Kansas remained a territory.
When Republicans won a plurality in the House in 1858, every significant bill they passed fell before southern votes in the Senate or a Presidential veto. The Federal Government reached a stalemate.
Sectional strife rose to such a pitch in 1860 that the Democratic Party split into northern and southern wings, each nominating its own candidate for the Presidency. Consequently, when the Republicans nominated Abraham Lincoln, it was a foregone conclusion that he would be elected even though his name appeared on no southern ballot. Rather than accept a Republican administration, the southern "fire-eaters" advocated secession.
President Buchanan, dismayed and hesitant, denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them. He hoped for compromise, but secessionist leaders did not want compromise.
Then Buchanan took a more militant tack. As several Cabinet members resigned, he appointed northerners, and sent the Star of the West to carry reinforcements to Fort Sumter. On January 9, 1861, the vessel was far away.
Buchanan reverted to a policy of inactivity that continued until he left office. In March 1861 he retired to his Pennsylvania home Wheatland--where he died seven years later--leaving his successor to resolve the frightful issue facing the Nation. From here:
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Since my family surname is "Buchanan" and has been traced back to James Buchanan and even as far as John Buchanan(22nd Laird Of Buchanan) in 1682 for the East of Loch Lamond, Scotland also traces the Male line back to the Royal family, Prince: Anselan O'Kyan.
A Short History of Clan Buchanan
By John Ouderkirk, Jr.
The name of Clan Buchanan is almost alone among those of Highland families because it derived from the lands upon which the Clan settled, and not from a personal ancestor. The founder of the family was Anselan O’Kyan, a nobleman from Ulster at the dawn of the eleventh century.
O’Kyan began his military career in Ireland by leading a raid on the Danish general Turgesius at Limerick. At the time, Canute the Dane ruled in England, and in parts of Ireland. On the occasion of Canute’s birthday, Turgesuis ordered the whole contingent of Danish officers in Ireland to report to Limerick for a celebration. The Irish king, upon learning this, dispatched a detail to Limerick. The Irish force killed the Danish officers once they became drunk at the celebration, and delivered Limerick to the Irish king. Canute then sent a strong force to Ireland with the intent to punish the Irish who were involved in the incident.
O’Kyan, the leader of the attack, fled to Scotland in 1016, during the reign of King Malcolm II. O’Kyan served Malcolm in the wars against the Norsemen, and was rewarded for his service with lands that extended along the eastern shore of Loch Lomand and east toward Stirling. He was also awarded the right to include a black lion rampant on a field of gold in the Clan’s Coat of Arms.
For the next two and one-half centuries, the family name used by Chiefs of the Clan was Macauselan. It was not until 1240, when Gillebrid, who was senechel to the Earl of Lennox, began to use the name “de Buchannan,” in reference to the name of a territory acquired by the family which was called “Buchanne.” As late as 1370, the charter to the land was granted to “Sir Maurice Macauselan, laird of Buchanan.” It was Maurice’s grandson who would finally adopt the surname “Buchanan.”
Sir Maurice adhered firmly with the Bruces, and was, as a result, rewarded again with honors and lands. Robert the Bruce, after his defeat at Dalree by the Macdougals, took refuge at Buchanan House, and was subsequently transported to a place of safety. There is a cave near the shore of Loch Lomand, in Buchanan parish, named “King’s Cave” and it is said that King Robert overnighted in that cave during his journey to Buchanan. Robert II referred to the Laird of Buchanan as “our cousin,” a phrase used towards men of rank.
This honor was supplemented by the Dauphin of France. Sir Alexander Buchanan, along with the Earl of Buchan, fought with the French in their war against the English in 1420. Buchanan met and killed the English Duke of Clarence during the battle of Bauge. Having dispatched the Duke, Buchanan seized the Duke’s jeweled coronet, placed it on the tip of his spear, and rallied the Scottish troops with a token that the English general was dead. Upon seeing the Duke’s coronet, the English troops retreated, giving the victory to the Scots with very few Scottish casualties.
As a reward, the Dauphin added a border to the Coat of Arms, flowered and counter-flowered with the fleurs-de-lis of the royal French arms, and by granting Buchanan a crest which contained a right hand holding aloft a duke’s coronet wreathed by two laurel branches.
A Buchanan during the reign of King James V, one John Buchanan of Arnpryor, became known as the “king of Kippen.” At the time, James V was residing at Stirling and his carriers were frequently moving goods along the road that passed by Arnpryor’s house. On one occasion, Buchanan of Arnpryor asked a royal carrier to leave some goods at his house, which Buchanan said he would pay for. The carrier refused saying that the goods he carried were for the King. Finally, Buchanan compelled the carrier to leave the goods, stating that “if James is the king of Scotland then I am the king of Kippen.”
The carrier dutifully reported the incident and James went to Arnpryor to pay Buchanan a visit. When James arrived, Buchanan was at dinner and the porter at the door, who was armed with a battle-axe, refused James entrance until dinner was finished. James instructed the porter to tell Buchanan that “the Good-man of Ballengeich desired to speak with the King of Kippen.”
A very humble Buchanan rushed to the gate, welcomed the King and entertained him sumptuously. After this awkward beginning, James and Buchanan became friends. James allowed Buchanan to take whatever provision he required from the royal carriers and entertained Buchanan at Stirling on many occasions. During John Buchanan of Arnpryor’s lifetime, he was thereafter referred to as “the king of Kippen.”
By the time of Sir John Buchanan, the twentieth laird in 1618, the family’s fortunes were in decline. Although it would take two more generations, Sir John’s extensive travels and uncontrolled spending eventually bankrupted the Clan.
The third John Buchanan, twenty-second laird, was reluctant at first to take the Chieftain’s seat, due to the immense debt against the family’s holdings. He eventually did become Chief. After his first wife died, he attempted to improve the family’s finances as many of his predecessors had; by marrying favorably. This time the strategy was unsuccessful. He proposed to marry the daughter of Sir John Colchoun of Luss, but she married someone else before the marriage to Buchanan could be arranged.
John Buchanan did remarry, but not to a woman of nobility. Buchanan, and a friend by the name of Major George Grant, formed a project to sell the Clan’s Highland lands to the Marquis of Montrose to settle the Clan’s outstanding debts, and preserve the lower barony. Due to the immensity of the debt, this was not enough.
After six hundred and sixty-five years of uninterrupted lineage and twenty-two successive lairds, John Buchanan died in 1682. The house of Buchanan was no more.
Buchanan House, seat of the Chiefs of the Clan, was then occupied as the seat of the Montrose family until it was destroyed by fire in 1870. There have been attempts over the years to re-establish a Clan Chief, but in every case so far the lineage for such claims has been ruled to be extinguished for lack of documented heirs. In any event, there are no Buchanan lands left on which to sit as the Chief.
Although Clan Buchanan, and its successor’s commercial, political and philanthropic contributions are renowned (i.e., the Buchanan Society in Glasgow), one Buchanan’s influence on Scottish history deserves mention.
George Buchanan was born in 1506. He was sent to study in Paris, and then later went to St. Andrews to study logic under John Major (Mair). He was a zealous advocate of the writings of John Knox, and wrote many articles and stories (mostly in Latin) of his own while in France.
When Mary Queen of Scots returned from France to Scotland after the death of her husband, she brought Buchanan with her as her assistant in classical studies. Buchanan wrote many criticisms about the church, and satires about priestcraft. This lost him the favor of Mary, but nevertheless, he was later called to tutor the young King James VI of Scotland. It is said, that because of Buchanan’s teachings, when Elizabeth ordered Mary’s death James did nothing to intervene.
On this side of the Atlantic, James Buchanan was born in 1791 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was a son of Scots-Irish immigrants who would go on to become the fifteenth President of the United States. His term, which just pre-dated the Civil War, was one of the most difficult and turbulent in American history.
This history is derived from three sources:
The official William of Auchmar (1723)
The Alan McNie (1988)
The Geo. Eyre-Todd (1923)
While each has it own merits, all three agree on every point made in this paper.
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