#15: Buchanan, James

James Buchanan

April 23, 1791 (Gettysburg, Pa.) -- June 1, 1868 (Lancaster, Pa.)

If there were a teleplay about Buchanan's life,

John Lithgow would have to play him.
(Please disregard the puppies on the bottom of this drawing--
I couldn't find white paper and had to resort to a
notepad with puppy art across the bottom.)

• Buchanan presided ineffectually over the terrible years right before the Civil War (1857-1861). For this he wins the dubious distinction of being one of our worst presidents. Buchanan's hit list of horrors included refusing to oppose slavery--indeed he supported the infamous Dred Scott decision, and letting seven of the fifteen slave states secede in 1860-61, believing that war would only encourage more states to secede and would impede eventual peaceful settlement. He believed that "if left alone the . . . Confederate states would soon disagree among themselves, and move toward reunion." He was the original King of Wishful Thinking.


• Buchanan was born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania, son of Irish-Scot immigrants. He worked in his Dad's general store. He went on to enjoy a lengthy career as a lawyer, Congressman, and diplomat before ascending to the presidency as the Democratic party's least offensive choice for the nomination (he was abroad when the Bleeding Kansas episode occurred, so he had the benefit of having said nothing on the record about the slavery issue).


• Buchanan was the only bachelor president. He fell in love with a girl in his younger years, and got engaged. However, after a misunderstanding (World Book is frustratingly vague on this point), the young lady left Buchanan to go stay with her sister in Philadelphia. She died soon thereafter. Gossips suggested it was suicide (gasp!). In the White House, Buchanan's niece and ward, Harriet Lane, served as his hostess. She threw many balls and receptions. "Buchanan added a conservatory to the White House to provide flowers for these affairs. The most spectacular parties centered around the visit of the Prince of Wales, later King Edward VII of Great Britain. The prince brought such a large party that Buchanan had to sleep in a hallway to provide proper quarters for his guests."


• Because Buchanan had one eye that was near-sighted and one that was far-sighted, he had a peculiar habit of tilting his head so that he could see better. Hence the wonky look in his official portrait.
  

THE WORLD OF PRESIDENT BUCHANAN: During Buchanan's presidency, the population of the US was about 32 million. The first Atlantic cable was laid between Newfoundland and Ireland in 1858--it failed and was not replaced until 1866; Darwin published his theory of evolution in 1859--a movie about his life would fail at the box office 151 years later; and the Pony Express system carrying mail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, was established in 1860.


Bonus from the "B" Volume: SIZES OF BEARS
(in descending order, from largest to smallest, with average adult length)

Alaskan Brown Bear - ursus arctos middendorffi, 9 feet
Polar Bear - thalarctos maritimus, 8.75 feet
Grizzly Bear - ursus arctos horribilis, 8 feet
American Black Bear - euarctos americanus, 5 feet
Asiatic Black Bear - selenarctos thibetanus, 5 feet
Sloth Bear - melursus ursinus, 5 feet
Spectacled Bear - termarctos ornatus, 5 feet
Sun Bear - herlarctos malaynus, 3 feet