James Buchanan: Was This Man America's Worst President?

this video is brought to you by  brilliant get a free trial with   brilliant and take advantage of its hands-on  stem learning lessons more on them in a bit in the modern age it's given that anyone in the  white house will at least briefly get dubbed   worst president ever harry truman ronald  reagan for example both spent part of their   administrations with approval ratings underwater  heck some of you are probably already hitting the   comments to dump on trump or declare let's go  brandon but what happens when the assessment   is true what happens when the historical consensus  broadly agrees that someone really was the worst   well look no further than james buchanan elected  in 1856 buchanan became the 15th president just as   the nation was falling apart pro and anti-slavery  settlers were massacring one another in kansas   john brown was trying to spark an insurrection and  a member of congress had nearly murdered another   on the senate floor yet while this would have  tested any president buchanan failed that test   spectacularly in an age of division he tentatively  tried to find a compromise only to watch as both   his reputation and his country plunged into the  abyss was he a truly bad leader or just unlucky   well today we're telling the story of the man who  history has declared america's worst ever leader   so far this century there have been 14 major  surveys of historians and academics that attempted   to rank u.s presidents from best to worst in all  but four of them james buchanan finished last   on the rare occasions when he didn't he placed  second from the bottom with such a stinker of   a historical reputation it could be tempting  to think that there must have been something   preordained about buchanan's failure that it must  have been clear how useless he was from the day he   was born but perhaps that's the most interesting  thing about the life of james buchanan if you only   focus on it prior to 1856 you might think that  it'd make a pretty good leader born on april 23   1791 in rural pennsylvania the future 15th  president came from decent hard-working   stock his father had emigrated to the u.s from  ireland just eight years earlier and had already   established a successful business the boy's mother  too was smart and motivated from a young age she   instilled in buchanan and his ten siblings a  love of reading combined with the best education   his father could buy these values meant buchanan  graduated prepared for a life among his state's   elite he settled in lancaster studied law past  the bar and by 1812 had opened his own practice   but his legal career would be put on hold because  1812 was also the year that north america exploded   the war of 1812 is one of those awkward conflicts  where a whole bunch of people died but nobody   really won pitting the americans and their native  allies against the british and their indigenous   associates it's all most of the northern states  threatened in places like pennsylvania militias   were activated and able-bodied men were  called up among them was james buchanan   although mobilized buchanan's unit wouldn't see  action but the big stir around the war itself   helped crystallize the young man's politics unlike  most of his contemporaries he found himself drawn   to the anti-war federalists once america's  premier political party the federalists had   controlled the government from 1789 to 1801. by  the time the demobbed buchanan joined their ranks   though the party was in its death throws unable to  beat the democratic republicans and hemorrhaging   support for its anti-war views still something  about their basic conservatism appealed to   buchanan from 1814 to 1819 he sat as a federalist  in the pennsylvania house of representatives   honing his political skills at the same time  his growing law career helped boost his speaking   talent as well as netting him sackfuls of money  by the time he left the state house then buchanan   was a growing political force a man with a bright  and shiny future ahead of him now he just needed   someone to share that future with on paper anne  caroline coleman was the perfect match for the   up-and-coming lawyer the daughter of a rich  merchant and part of pennsylvania high society   she was just the sort of potential wife an  ambitious young man needed by his side sadly that   sort of box sticking may have been all buchanan  ever saw in her there are two versions of what   happened after their engagement one version has  it that coleman's parent suspected buchanan was   after their money refused to allow the marriage  the other is that coleman discovered her fiance   was secretly seeing other women whatever tale is  true the outcome was the same coleman broke off   the engagement and a few days later she was dead  amid rumors of suicide the death of his fiancee   broke buchanan forbidden by her family from  attending the funeral he instead lost himself   in politics much later he would claim he began  his national career as a distraction from my   great grief it was a decision that would  have repercussions for the entire nation although it was as a federalist that buchanan won  his first seat in congress it was clear by then   that the party was over in the 1820 election  they hadn't even been able to find a candidate   unless buchanan wanted to fade with them he needed  to jump ship like now luckily a new movement was   about to throw washington's disaffected politicos  a lifeline in 1823 the state of tennessee sent   the hugely popular war hero andrew jackson to the  senate although nominally a democratic republican   jackson was really a force unto himself no sooner  had he hit dc that he began sweeping through like   a hurricane scattering old certainties in his past  among those swept up by his populist movement was   james buchanan like fellow future president james  k polk buchanan seemed to sense the future in   jackson he became old hickory staunchest champion  in pennsylvania when four candidates separately   ran under the democratic republican banner in  1824 it was jackson that he threw his support   behind but 1824 wouldn't be jackson's breakthrough  year although he netted a plurality of the vote   old hickory didn't win out right this allowed the  election to be decided in the house where enough   delegates lined up to hand john quincy adams the  presidency to say andrew jackson was livid it's   a bit like saying conor mcgregor has a bit of  an anger management problem jackson decried the   corrupt bargain that made adam's president he also  decried buchanan who he felt had failed to back   him since jackson was an epic grudge holder  this slight would help keep buchanan out of   serious politics for years still buchanan was by  now deeply invested in jackson's movement when   art hickory formed the democratic party buchanan  was still there in pennsylvania campaigning hard   for it when jackson won the presidency in both  1828 and 1832 buchanan was among those cheering   the loudest eventually his loyalty cooled old  hickories temper enough to forgive in 1832 jackson   made buchanan envoy to russia when the lawyer  returned it was to sit in the senate as a democrat   and so began an 11-year stretch in congress with  buchanan quietly amassing more power it was also   the beginning of perhaps the most important  relationship in his life if you've googled   james buchanan you may have come across the  claim that he was america's first gay president   this is entirely thanks to his incredibly close  relationship with senator william rufus devane   king of alabama on arriving in washington buchanan  and king both moved into the same boarding house   for bachelors originally home to several unmarried  congressmen it eventually emptied out until only   the two remained living like a couple this isn't  just our modern take contemporaries referred to   them as mr buchanan and his wife or aunt nancy and  aunt fancy certainly they made a striking pair the   reserved effeminate colonel king and the outgoing  raucous buchanan rarely apart they clearly enjoyed   one another's company immensely but while  it's tempting to claim buchanan as an early   lgbt pioneer the truth is that we simply don't  have enough evidence to say if he and king were   lovers or just really good pals certainly there  are illusions such as a letter buchanan scent   king while he was away writing i am now solitary  and alone having no companion in the house with me   i have gone a wooing to several gentlemen but have  not succeeded with any one of them still illusions   aren't definitive proof and it's almost beside  the point whether they were sexual partners or not   king had a profound impact on buchanan's life  a powerful supporter of states rights slavery   and the supremacy of the white man king was  nonetheless notable for being just as strongly   against secession this put him at odds with many  other southerners and to buchanan seemed to point   to an optimistic truth that finding common ground  between free and slave states was as possible   as it was desirable sadly for buchanan he'd lived  to see just how hollow that truth turned out to be   and just before we get into the rest of today's  video i want to tell you about today's fantastic   sponsor brilliant brilliant is a problem solving  based website and app with a hands-on approach   now you've heard me talk about brilliant before  they teach you all about math science and computer   science whether you're a student looking to get  a head or a professional keen on building some   skills you should absolutely check out brilliant  maybe you've always wanted to learn about neural   networks essentially how computers could program  themselves well brilliant have a course on that   and it teaches you through easy to access puzzles  and it does it in plain english there's no reading   a paragraph a dozen times trying to figure out  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tyler   so alienated everyone that the white house  was back in play if buchanan could cinch   his party's nomination he might well become  president unfortunately that was a big if with   a crowded field the convention deadlocked  in need of a compromise candidate james k   polk's name was pushed forward realizing  his chance had been blown buchanan threw his   delegates behind polk polk became the democratic  nominee and as buchanan had divined he went on to   win the white house still polk's ascension wasn't  all bad for buchanan grateful for his support and   needing to keep pennsylvania on side for a coming  political battle over tariffs polk made buchanan   his secretary of state this dropped old buck right  into the middle of the two biggest issues of the   day oregon and texas a believer in america's  manifest destiny to stretch from sea to shining   sea paul could come to power promising to annex  the republic of texas and kick the british out   of the jointly controlled oregon territory it  was a demanding prospect for any secretary of   state and the way buchanan dealt with it hints  at all his future failings as polk recorded in   his diary his new minister was incapable of taking  a position which might make his supporters unhappy   for example pog's campaign slogan of 45-40  or fight had implied war with britain if it   didn't surrender oregon all the way up to the  alaskan border in private buchanan councilled   avoiding conflict and advocated a compromise  that eventually became the modern canadian u.s   border but when the compromise bill came to a  senate vote buchanan suddenly transformed into   an ardent expansionist excoriating polk for not  throwing the british out on their tea drinking   asses same deal with the mexican-american war  triggered by a somewhat roundabout route by the   u.s annexation of texas the war saw america  seize huge swathes of its southern neighbor   buchanan initially urged polk to announce the u.s  would return the conquered territory at the war's   end that any seizures would only be temporary  but then the u.s marched on mexico's capital   and buchanan suddenly joined democratic  cheerleaders demanding pog due to mexico   what a hungry yorkshireman does to a pork  pie as far as polk was concerned all of this   flip-flopping was a sign that his secretary of  state was a slimy toad more interested in building   support for a future presidential bid than helping  to run the country but a more charitable reading   is possible all his life buchanan was a man who  liked to be liked whether it was in the senate or   as a northerner dealing with southerners  or as a bridge between the free and slave   states buchanan's default instinct was to  keep everyone happy in better times this   kind of reflexive centrism could have been his  making instead it wound up being his undoing   in 1848 james polk stepped down after a single  term leaving the democratic nomination open   buchanan threw his hat into the ring only for  the delegates to figuratively take a dump in it   he placed third on the ballot his shenanigans  clearly having failed to win him any friends   not that it mattered 1848's all mexican-american  war hero zachary taylor stand for the wigs netting   the party a solid win in the aftermath buchanan  went back to pennsylvania to plot his return his   goal was to come back in 1852 and finally nab the  presidency instead fate would force him to wait   until the white house had gone from being a prize  to a chalice laced with the bitterest cyanide for a guy who liked to be liked james you can  ensure a knack for making enemies take stephen   a douglas a senator from illinois with a tiny body  and a head so oversized it earned him the nickname   the little giant douglas stood against buchanan at  the 1852 democratic convention but their fight for   the nomination was so bitter that it dynamited  both of their chances with neither backing down   the convention opted for a compromise candidate  declaring little-known franklin pierce the winner   still pierce's nomination and eventual win needn't  have been bad for buchanan his old buddy colonel   king was pierce's vp pick and elected alongside  him but while buchanan doubtlessly celebrated his   friend's triumph it was a short-lived party  on april the 18th 1853 william r king died   following a long illness when he got the news  old buck was devastated what could he do he'd   accepted a posting to england from pierce  all buchanan could do now was board the boat   and tried to hide his deep overwhelming grief  while things clearly sucked on a personal level   though on a professional level the timing couldn't  have been better his new post meant buchanan was   far enough away to survive the oncoming political  storm so remember all that territory that the usc   is from mexico while those territories now wanted  to be admitted as states trouble wars congress   was sensitively balanced between free and slave  states and both sides were super jumpy about the   newcomers making them a permanent minority this  had initially led to the compromise of 1850 which   among other things cemented the idea of popular  sovereignty deciding if a new state was free or   slave but this only made the kansas nebraska  act so much worse in 1854 buchanan's nemesis   stephen douglas tried to pass a bill organizing  the territory of nebraska into two separate   territories nebraska and kansas douglas did this  to keep pushing the u.s west but because he was   unable to pass his bill without southern support  he threw in a clause about these new territories   deciding the slavery issue by popular vote this  took a gigantic dump all over the long-standing   missouri compromise which had outlawed slavery  north of the 3630 parallel so when the bill passed   it set off a crazed rush sensing an opportunity to  tip the kansas boat new settlers from both slave   states missouri and the free north poured into  the territory predictably all hell broke loose   in sustained vigilante violence known as bleeding  kansas dozens were killed and simmering tensions   were sent skyrocketing across the nation it also  annihilated the reputations of the kansas-nebraska   act back as stephen douglas and franklin pierce  suddenly the 1856 democratic nomination was back   in play but by then buchanan was having his own  pr problems in 1853 buchanan had met america's   ministers to spain and france in austin belgium  to discuss spain's refusal to sell cuba paranoid a   slave revolt on the island might prompt a similar  uprising in the south buchanan helped prepare   a cable urging pierce to annex cuba unfortunately  the cable was made public and abolitionists and   free soilers a brick thanks to his conviction that  the u.s constitution upheld the rights of slave   states buchanan was already seen as a doe face a  northerner with southern sympathies now the austen   manifesto also made him look like an imperialist  tyrant trying to spread the south's peculiar   institution the result was to make buchanan  extremely unpalatable to northern voters but   the opposite was also true within the democratic  party the southern wing began to see buchanan   as more than just an ally it began to see him as  a southerner in orbit name this meant that when   buchanan tried for the nomination again he was  going to have to rely on the slave states to win   but this new allegiance would come at a terrible  cost not only for old buck but for all america when james buchanan emerged triumphant at the  1856 democratic convention the news was greeted   less with a cheer and more with a resigned sigh  although a serious player buchanan hadn't won   because anyone thought he'd be a great nominee but  because he was the only person both southerners   and northerners might back by now it was clear  that the nation was splitting at the seams the   months before the convention a pro-slavery mob  had sacked the free town of lawrence in kansas   in retaliation abolitionist john brown had  randomly murdered five pro-slavery settlers   the violence had even spread to the capital on may  22nd president brooks had viciously beaten senator   charles sumner half to death in the chamber for an  anti-slavery speech things were so tense buchanan   wasn't sure about accepting the nomination writing  i had hoped for the nomination in 1844 again in   1848 and even in 1852 but now i would hesitate to  take it before many years the abolitionists will   bring war upon this land it may come during the  next presidential term yet for all the prescience   of that statement the fact was buchanan had now  spent over a decade conniving and scheming to get   the top job and 1856 promised an easy race the  weak party had collapsed the republicans were   still widely seen as too radical to win if ever  an election would be a cakewalk it was 1856. so   despite his reservations buchanan went for it  on november the 4th the democrats handily won   the white house buchanan was on track to become  the 15th president so that saying be careful   what you wish for while buchanan's wish was about  to sour quicker than one granted by a possessed   monkey spore back in february the supreme court  had begun to hear the case of dred scott a slave   who'd accompanied his master to a free state and  tried to sue for his freedom since the case could   have massive implications the entire nation was  nervously waiting on the verdict including the   president-elect in early 1857 buchanan broke with  ethical practice to write to some of the justices   pressuring them for advanced news of the outcome  he may have even prodded one in his preferred   direction either way he got the answer he wanted  on march 4 1857 a confident james buchanan told   his inauguration crowd that the slavery issue was  about to be settled and everyone should abide by   the ruling two days later the supreme court issued  its decision and with that buchanan's dreams of   a unified nation collapsed the court didn't just  rule that slaves had no rights but also that the   missouri compromise had been unconstitutional  so they struck it down meaning slavery could   now spread north unchecked it was perhaps the  most explosive ruling in u.s history if school   desegregation was a bomb going off then dred  scott was a political krakatoa if rowan wade is   a lining rod this was a nuclear weapon the ruling  effectively shredded what few bonds remained   between north and south while buchanan tried  to dilute the backlash by pointing a cabinet of   moderates the damage was done buchanan's honeymoon  period if it ever existed was over from now on   everything was going to be downhill seen today  james buchanan single term is like watching a   clown car filled with nitroglycerin slowly rolled  toward an orphanage somehow pathetic fascinating   and tragic all at the same time things kicked off  right away with the lecompton constitution back   in 1855 vote rigging and intimidation had led  to the kansas territory electing a pro-slavery   legislature which had then written a constitution  that could be boiled down to well slavery   yeah thanks to that whole vote-rigging thing most  congressmen were for rejecting this constitution   even buchanan's advisors told him it was a  non-starter but for whatever reason buchanan   decided this was the hill he was going to die  on the president pressed hard for the lecompton   constitution despite it being anathema to his  party's northern wing when that wing offered   a compromise whereby the pro-slavery constitution  would be passed but open to amendment by a popular   majority at any time buchanan refused the result  was northern democrats under buchanan's old enemy   stephen douglas joining with the republicans to  kill the kansas constitution buchanan had pissed   off northerners and divided his party only to  get nothing in return it was a pattern that   would continue for four whole years now we don't  want to give the impression that buchanan's lack   of leadership was the only thing causing america  to crumble there were plenty of factors beyond his   control such as the panic of 1857 that walloped  the economy or john brown's 1859 raid on harper's   ferry in an attempt to spark a slave uprising yet  we also shouldn't underestimate the role buchanan   himself played in the march to war despite  favoring bridge building buchanan reflexively   sided with the slave states on almost all issues  declaring of the south as sovereign stages they   and they alone are responsible before god and the  world for slavery existing among them for this the   people of the north are not more responsible and  have no more right to interfere than with similar   institutions in russia or in brazil but well that  wasn't true the fugitive slave act and the end of   the missouri compromise meant slavery was very  much a live issue for the north more than that   it was a crusade one confronting an evil so  immoral abolitionists felt they had to use   every tool to fight its expansion by the time 1860  arrived then buchanan's administration was weak   and the federal government was paralyzed luckily  buchanan had promised to step down after one turn   less luckily he wasn't going to let his party  choose a unifying successor at the night at   the 1860 democratic convention buchanan's  allies lobbied hard to deny stephen douglas   the nomination as a result the party split into  two camps representing the north and the south   this meant that on election day the more unified  republicans could nab the white house despite   taking less than 40 percent of the popular  vote in the aftermath of abraham lincoln's   win buchanan seems to have finally woken up to  the danger of secession on december the 6th he   called for a new constitutional convention to  find a new way forward for america but by then   it was far too late to show any leadership rather  than live under a republican president south   carolina announced its secession from the union on  december the 20th within six weeks six more states   had followed yet even now at the height of the  crisis buchanan failed to act till the very end   he was unwilling to face down southern interests  instead letting the states leave and the   confederacy establish itself but he also refused  to turn over any federal forts to the south even   sending reinforcements to fort sumter in early  1861 yet the relief ship wound up turning back to   avoid sparking a fight by early march it was clear  to most in washington that buchanan was simply   running down the clock trying to avoid war just  long enough so the responsibility would fall on   his successor in this if nothing else he succeeded  james buchanan left office on march the 4th 1861 a   little over a month later a south carolina militia  bombarded fort sumter and the civil war began in   retirement out in pennsylvania buchanan lived  long enough to witness the carnage that followed   the hundreds of thousands dead the destruction of  once great cities he also witnessed his reputation   fall into an abyss vandals defaced his portrait  in the capital the senate drafted resolutions   condemning him although buchanan would try and hit  back with a book pinning all the blame for the war   on the abolitionists the narrative was already set  and it's never changed since james buchanan died   a virtual hermit on the 1st of june 1868. by then  he was so unpopular that he barely left the house   he went to his grave believing history would  vindicate him that one day future dudes would   back on his presidency not as a disaster but the  work of a good man doing the right thing fast   forward over 150 years and that still hasn't  happened today james buchanan remains perhaps   the least loved president in u.s history known  only for his catastrophic failure to prevent the   civil war certainly it's hard to disagree with  that assessment in recent videos we've tried   to highlight the overlooked good sides of bad  presidents like warren g harding's anti-racism   or herbert hoover's humanitarian work yet that's  been almost impossible with james buchanan it was   a man who didn't do anything great before taking  office who didn't have superhuman integrity or   a particularly kind soul or even a strong vision  for the nation and yet he also wasn't entirely bad   although it ended in miserable failure there's  perhaps something to be admired in buchanan's   dreams of compromise of building bridges instead  of burning them down had he lived at another time   or had he tried to find common ground on an issue  less morally repugnant than slavery it's possible   he may have gone down as an okay president but  james buchanan's tragedy is that he didn't live   in another era he lived in one when  america needed a strong leader a president   unafraid to take a moral stand for his failure  to do so history has remembered him as the one   thing he couldn't abide a miserable failure so i  hope you found that video interesting if you did   please do hit that thumbs up button below don't  forget to subscribe and thank you for watching you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 159,332

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: lZbp4uOAHpA

Length: 25min 18sec (1518 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 18 2021