James Buchanan, 15th U. S. President

James Buchanan, 15th U. S. President

James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 - June 1, 1868) was the 15th President of the United States (1857-1861). He is the only president who remained a lifelong bachelor, and the last president born in the 18th century. He represented Pennsylvania in the US House of Representatives and later the Senate and served as Minister to Russia under President Andrew Jackson. He was Secretary of State under President James Polk. He was nominated in the 1856 election and was viewed by many as a compromise between the two sides of the slavery question. efforts to maintain peace between the North and the South alienated both sides, and the Southern states declared their secession in the prologue to the American Civil War. Buchanan's view of record was that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. When he left office, popular opinion had turned against him. He died in 1868, from respiratory failure at the age of 77. His his inability to impose peace on sharply divided partisans on the brink of the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst Presidents.

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