branch death_date signature_alt birth_date signature term_end restingplace alma_mater country death_place profession preceded battles term_start order image name vicepresident succeeded predecessor birth_place president jr/sr party office state district minister_from successor religion article_title
volunteer 1 june 1868 cursive signature in ink 23 april 1791 james buchanan signature2.svg march 7 , 1849 march 5 , 1845 august 5 , 4 1833 march 4 , 1831 march 4 , 1831 march , 4 , 1823 1861 march 15 , 1856 march woodward hill cemetery lancaster , pennsylvania , u.s. dickinson college the united kingdom russia lancaster , pennsylvania , u.s. lawyer diplomat politician philip pendleton barbour war of 1812 march 10 , 1845 december 6 , 1834 january 4 , 4 1832 march 5 , 1829 march 4 , 1823 march , 4 , 1821 1857 august 23 , 1853 march chairman of the house committee on the judiciary james buchanan.jpg james buchanan john c. breckinridge warren r. davis franklin wilkins john randolph james s. mitchell jacob hibshman pierce joseph reed ingersoll john c. calhoun william cove gap , pennsylvania , u.s. franklin pierce james k. polk andrew jackson united states senator democratic 15th secretary of state president of the united states 17th united states pennsylvania pennsylvania pennsylvania 4th 3rd united states united states abraham mahlon dickerson william hiester daniel miller lincoln george dallas john m. clayton simon cameron presbyterianism james buchanan

james buchanan

james buchanan , jr. -lrb- ; april 23 , 1791june 1 , 1868 -rrb- was the 15th president of the united states -lrb- 1857 -- 1861 -rrb- , serving immediately prior to the american civil war .
he represented pennsylvania in the united states house of representatives and later the senate , then served as minister to russia under president andrew jackson .
he was named secretary of state under president james k. polk , and is to date the last former secretary of state to serve as president of the united states .
after buchanan turned down an offer to sit on the supreme court , president franklin pierce appointed him minister to the court of st. james 's , in which capacity he helped draft the ostend manifesto .
buchanan was nominated by the democratic party in the 1856 presidential election .
throughout most of pierce 's term , he had been stationed in london as a minister to the court of st. james 's , so was not caught up in the crossfire of sectional politics that dominated the country .
his subsequent election victory took place in a three-man race with john c. frémont and millard fillmore .
as president , he was often called a `` doughface '' , a northerner with southern sympathies , who battled with stephen a. douglas for control of the democratic party .
buchanan 's 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 .
buchanan , an attorney , was noted for his mantra , `` i acknowledge no master but the law . ''
by the time he left office , popular opinion was against him , and the democratic party had split .
buchanan had once aspired to be a president that would rank in history with george washington .
however , his inability to identify a ground for peace or address the sharply divided proslavery and antislavery partisans with a unifying principle on the brink of the civil war has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst presidents in american history .
historians in both 2006 and 2009 voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made .
he is , to date , the only president from pennsylvania and the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor .
he is also the last president born in the 18th century .
