James buchanan biography

Tall, stiffly formal in the high lager he wore around his jowls, James Buchanan was the only president who never married.

Presiding over a rapidly dividing nation, Buchanan did not ganska grasp 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 did 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 on April 23, , 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 more than a decade in the Senate. He became James K. Polk’s sekreterare of state and Franklin Pierce’s minister to Great Britain. Service abroad helped to bring him the

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James Buchanan (–)

James Buchanan was born in in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. He graduated from Dickinson College in , studied law, was admitted to the Pennsylvania state bar in , established a law practice in Lancaster, and fought in the War of At war’s end, Buchanan returned home and was elected in and again in to the lower house of the Pennsylvania legislature. He declined a third term and resumed his law practice; he was back in politics in as a Democrat, winning a seat in the United States House of Representatives, where he served from to

Buchanan was a major supporter of President Andrew Jackson’s policies, and Jackson rewarded him in by appointing him U.S. minister to Russia; Buchanan served there until Upon his return to the United States, Buchanan was tapped to fill a vacancy in the United States Senate and served from to , at which time President James K. Polk named him secretary of state.

During his tenure at the State Department (), Buchanan negotiated with Britain

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Biographies of the Secretaries of State: James Buchanan (–)

Introduction

James Buchanan was appointed Secretary of State by President James K. Polk on March 6, Buchanan entered duty on March 10, , and left the position on March 7, After an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in , Buchanan secured the nomination in and was elected President. He served one term, from to

James Buchanan, 17th Secretary of State

Rise to Prominence

Buchanan was born to Irish immigrant parents near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. He entered Dickinson College at the age of 16 and graduated in

Following graduation, Buchanan began a clerkship with John Hopkins, a reputable lawyer in Lancaster. After a failed attempt to begin his practice in Kentucky, he returned to Pennsylvania where he was admitted to the bar in

Two years later, after marching in a military company against the British in the War of , Buchanan entered politics when he was nominated to the State Assembly. F