BUCHANAN,
JAMES
(April 23, 1791–June 1, 1868), the 15th President of the United States, 1857–61, attempted unsuccessfully to circumvent the rising tension over slavery; U.S. Minister to Great Britain, 1853–56; Secretary of State under James K. Polk, 1845–49; U.S. Senator, 1834–45; U.S. Minister to Russia, 1832–34; U.S. Representative, 1821–31; the only bachelor President as his fiancee, Ann Coleman, died suddenly when he was a young man, 1820; member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, 1814–16; served in the War of 1812; admitted to bar, 1812; and graduated from Dickinson College, 1809.
While serving in Russia as the U.S. Minister, 1832–33, James Buchanan wrote to his brother, a Presbyterian minister:
I can sincerely say for myself that I desire to be a Christian, and I think I could withdraw from the vanities and follies of the world without suffering many pangs. I have thought much upon the subject since my arrival in this strange land and sometimes almost persuade myself that I am a Christian: but I am often haunted by the spirit of skepticism. My true feeling upon many occasions is: “Lord, I would believe; help thou my unbelief.” Yet I am far from being an unbeliever.2047
On February 29, 1844, James Buchanan wrote a letter to his brother from Washington:
I am a believer; but not with that degree of firmness of faith calculated to exercise a controlling influence on my conduct. I ought constantly to pray, “Help Thou my unbelief.” I trust that the Almighty Father, through the merits and atonement of His Son, will yet vouchsafe to me a clearer and stronger faith than I possess.2048
On Wednesday, March 4, 1857, in his Inaugural Address, President James Buchanan stated:
In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible duties in such a manner as to restore harmony and ancient friendship among the people of the several States and to preserve our free institutions throughout many generations. Convinced that I owe my election to the inherent love for the Constitution and the Union which still animates the hearts of the American people, let me earnestly ask their powerful support in sustaining all just measures calculated to perpetuate these, the richest political blessings which Heaven has ever bestowed upon any nation. …
I feel an humble confidence that the kind Providence which inspired our fathers with wisdom to frame the most perfect form of government and union ever devised by man will not suffer it to perish until it shall have been peacefully instrumental by its example in the extension of civil and religious liberty throughout the world. …
Our present financial condition is without parallel in history. No nation has ever before been embarrassed from too large a surplus in its treasury. This almost necessarily gives birth to extravagant legislation. It produces wild schemes of expenditure and begets a race of speculators and jobbers, whose ingenuity is exerted in contriving and promoting expedients to obtain public money. …
No nation in the tide of time has ever been blessed with so rich and noble an inheritance as we enjoy in the public lands. … We should never forget that it is our cardinal policy to reserve these lands, as much as may be, for actual settlers, and this at moderate prices. We shall thus not only best promote the prosperity of the new States and Territories, by furnishing them a hardy and independent race of honest and industrious citizens, but shall secure homes for our children and our children’s children, as well as for those exiles from foreign shores who may seek in this country to improve their condition and to enjoy the blessings of civil and religious liberty. …
We ought to cultivate peace, commerce, and friendship with all nations, and this not merely as the best means of promoting our own material interests, but in a spirit of Christian benevolence toward our fellow-men, wherever their lot may be cast. …
In all our acquisitions the people, under the protection of the American flag, have enjoyed civil and religious liberty. … I shall now proceed to take the oath prescribed by the Constitution, whilst humbly invoking the blessing of Divine Providence on this great people.2049
On December 8, 1857, in his First Annual Message to Congress, President James Buchanan stated:
First and above all, our thanks are due to Almighty God for the numerous benefits which He has bestowed upon this people, and our united prayers ought to ascend to Him that He would continue to bless our great Republic in time to come as He has blessed it in time past.2050
On January 7, 1858, in a message to the Senate, President James Buchanan stated:
The crime well deserves the punishment inflicted upon it by our laws. It violates the principles of Christianity, morality, and humanity, held sacred by all civilized nations and by none more than by the people of the United States. …
The avowed principle which lies at the foundation of the law of nations is contained in the Divine command that “all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do ye even so to them.” Tried by this unerring rule, we should be severely condemned if we shall not use our best exertions to arrest such expeditions against our feeble sister republic of Nicaragua.2051
On February 2, 1858, in an address to Congress, President James Buchanan stated:
I have thus performed my duty on this important question, under a deep sense of responsibility to God and my country. My public life will terminate within a brief period, and I have no other object of earthly ambition than to leave my country in a peaceful and prosperous condition.2052
On December 6, 1858, in his Second Annual Message to Congress, President James Buchanan stated:
We have much reason for gratitude to that Almighty Providence which has never failed to interpose for our relief at the most critical periods of our history. …
Immediately upon the formation of a new Territory people from different States and from foreign countries rush into it for the laudable purpose of improving their condition. Their first duty to themselves is to open and cultivate farms, to construct roads, to establish schools, to erect places of religious worship … 2053
On December 20, 1858, in writing to the Senate, President James Buchanan stated:
Under the act of January 17, 1858, the courts of inquiry were directed to investigate “the physical, mental, professional, and moral fitness” of each officer who applied to them for relief. … In performance of my duty I found the greatest difficulty in deciding what should be considered as “moral fitness” for the Navy. … There has been but one perfect standard of morality on earth, and how far a departure from His precepts and example must proceed in order to disqualify an officer for the naval service is a question on which a great difference of honest opinion must always exist.2054
On Monday, December 19, 1859, in his Third Annual Message to Congress, President James Buchanan stated:
Our deep and heartfelt gratitude is due to that Almighty Power which has bestowed upon us such varied and numerous blessings throughout the past year. The general health of the country has been excellent, our harvests have been unusually plentiful, and prosperity smiles throughout the land. Indeed, notwithstanding our demerits, we have much reason to believe from the past events in our history that we have enjoyed the special protection of Divine Providence ever since our origin as a nation.
We have been exposed to many threatening and alarming difficulties in our progress, but on each successive occasion the impending cloud has been dissipated at the moment it appeared ready to burst upon our head, and the danger to our institutions has passed away. May we ever be under the Divine guidance and protection. …
I firmly believe that the events at Harpers Ferry, by causing the people to pause and reflect upon the possible peril to their cherished institutions, will be the means under Providence of allaying the existing excitement and preventing further outbreaks of a similar character. …
The light and the blessings of Christianity have been extended to them, and both their moral and physical condition has been greatly improved. …
But we are obliged as a Christian and moral nation to consider what would be the effect upon unhappy Africa itself if we should reopen the slave trade. This would give the trade an impulse and extension which it has never had, even in its palmiest days. The numerous victims required to supply it would convert the whole slave coast into a perfect pandemonium, for which this country would be held responsible in the eyes both of God and man. …
When a market for African slaves shall no longer be furnished in Cuba, and thus all the world be closed against this trade, we may then indulge a reasonable hope for the gradual improvement of Africa. … In this manner Christianity and civilization may gradually penetrate the existing gloom.2055
On March 28, 1860, President James Buchanan sent a formal Protest to the House of Representatives:
I have lived long in this goodly land, and have enjoyed all the offices and honors which my country could bestow. … I feel proudly conscious that there is no public act of my life which will not bear the strictest scrutiny. I defy all investigations. Nothing but the basest perjury can sully my good name. I do not fear even this, because I cherish an humble confidence that the gracious Being who has hitherto defended and protected me against the shafts of falsehood and malice will not desert me now when I have become “old and gray headed.” I can declare before God and my country that no human being (with an exception scarcely worthy of notice) has at any period of my life dared to approach me with a corrupt or dishonorable proposition.2056
On April 24, 1860, in writing to the House of Representatives, President James Buchanan stated:
In compliance with the resolution of the House of Representatives of the 2d March, 1859, and of the 26th ultimo, requesting information relative to discriminations in Switzerland against citizens of the United States of the Hebrew persuasion, I transmit a report of the Secretary of State.2057
On Monday, December 3, 1860, in his Fourth Annual Message to Congress, President James Buchanan stated:
Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and has been implanted in the heart of man by his Creator for the wisest purpose; and no political union, however fraught with blessings and benefits in all other respects, can long continue if the necessary consequence be to render the homes and the firesides of nearly half the parties to it habitually and hopelessly insecure. Sooner or later the bonds of such a union must be severed. It is my conviction that this fatal period has not yet arrived, and my prayer to God is that He would preserve the Constitution and the Union throughout all generations. …
As sovereign States, they, and they alone, are responsible before God. …
What, in the meantime, is the responsibility and true position of the Executive? He is bound by solemn oath, before God and the country, “to take care that the laws be faithfully executed,” and from this obligation he can not be absolved by any human power. …
When we take a retrospect of what was then our condition and contrast this with its material prosperity at the time of the late Presidential elections, we have abundant reason to return our grateful thanks to that merciful Providence which has never forsaken us as a nation in all our past trials. …
It is with great satisfaction I communicate the fact that since the date of my last annual message not a single slave has been imported into the United States in violation of the laws prohibiting the African Slave trade. …
It surely ought to be the prayer of every Christian and patriot that such expeditions may never again receive countenance in our country or depart from our shores.2058
On Friday, December 14, 1860, President James Buchanan issued a Proclamation of a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer:
Numerous appeals have been made to me by pious and patriotic associations and citizens, in view of the present distracted and dangerous condition of our country, to recommend that a day be set apart for humiliation, fasting, and prayer throughout the Union.
In compliance with their request and my own sense of duty, I designate Friday, the 4th day of January, 1861, for this purpose, and recommend that the people assemble on that day, according to their several forms of worship, to keep it as a solemn fast.
The Union of the States is at the present moment threatened with alarming and immediate danger; panic and distress of a fearful character prevail throughout the land; our laboring population are without employment, and consequently deprived of the means of earning their bread. Indeed, hope seems to have deserted the minds of men. All classes are in a state of confusion and dismay, and the wisest counsels of our best and purest men are wholly disregarded.
In this the hour of our calamity and peril to whom shall we resort for relief but to the God of our fathers? His omnipotent arm only can save us from the awful effects of our own crimes and follies—our own ingratitude and guilt toward our Heavenly Father.
Let us, then, with deep contrition and penitent sorrow unite in humbling ourselves before the Most High, in confessing our individual and national sins, and in acknowledging the justice of our punishment. Let us implore Him to remove from our hearts that false pride of opinion which would impel us to persevere in wrong for the sake of consistency rather than yield a just submission to the unforeseen exigencies by which we are now surrounded. Let us with deep reverence beseech Him to restore the friendship and good will which prevailed in former days among the people of the several States, and, above all, to save us from the horrors of civil war and “blood guiltiness.” Let our fervent prayers ascend to His throne that He would not desert us in this hour of extreme peril, but remember us as He did our fathers in the darkest days of the Revolution, and preserve our Constitution and our Union, the work of their hands, for ages yet to come.
An Omnipotent Providence may overrule existing evils for permanent good. He can make the wrath of man to praise Him, and the remainder of wrath He can restrain. Let me invoke every individual, in whatever sphere of life he may be placed, to feel a personal responsibility to God and his country for keeping this day holy and for contributing all in his power to remove our actual and impending calamities.2059
On January 8, 1861, President James Buchanan stated to Congress:
But, in Heaven’s name, let the trial be made before we plunge into armed conflict upon the mere assumption that there is no other alternative. … Let us pause at this momentous point and afford the people, both North and South, an opportunity for reflection.2060
On January 28, 1861, in a message to Congress, President James Buchanan stated:
I yet cherish the belief that the American people will perpetuate the Union of the States on some terms just and honorable for all sections of the country. I trust that the mediation of Virginia may be the destined means, under Providence, of accomplishing this inestimable benefit.2061
Nearing the end of his life, James Buchanan, who was a member of the Presbyterian Church, wrote to a friend:
We are both at a period of life when it is our duty to relax our grasp on the world fast receding, and fix our thoughts, desires, and affections on One who knows no change. I trust in God that, through the merits and atonement of His Son, we may both be prepared for the inevitable change.2062