James Buchanan

Served as president from 1857-1861
Era: Westward Expansion Era

American Identity and Culture
When Congress attempted to ratify a bill to construct more college in the United States, President James Buchanan vetoed the bill. President Buchanan believed that there were too many educated people and the need to build more college was unnecessary. President Buchanan was also a very devout Christian and wanted to strengthen the Presbyterian Church, but because he was too busy with other political problems, he was unable to start his religious reform ideas.
In addition during President Buchanan’s presidency, there was discrimination against women. In 1849, a woman named Elizabeth Blackwell received her medical degree and eventually became the first female doctor in the United States. In 1857, Elizabeth Blackwell and her sister Emily Blackwell set up an infirmary together known as the New York Infirmary for Indigent Women and Children. From this, the Blackwell sisters proved female capability.
Economic Transformation and Globalization
The tariff of 1857 was passed to try to fix the Walk Tariff of 1846. The tariff of 1857 reduced taxes in the United States by an average of 17 percent. The tariff was proposed by Robert Mercer Taliaferro Hunter of Virginia when there was a huge federal budget surplus. The main people who supported the tariff were from the South and people who believed in the idea of free trade.
After the tariff of 1857 was passed, there was a horrible depression known as the panic of 1857 that ended the industrial boom. During this period of time, there was a dramatic drop in prices, especially for the Midwestern farmers. There was also a huge increase in unemployment in the northern cities. Since the depression mainly affected the northerners, the depression boosted the southerner’s ego believing that their agricultural based economy was superior to their industrial based economy. The main cause of the panic of 1857 was due to the decline in demand of American goods in the European market. This led to banks becoming stricter with giving out loans.
Environment
Before Buchanan was elected president, there was controversy caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Senator Stephen Douglas expected the issue of slavery in the territory to be settle without any violence by the antislavery farmers who came from the Midwest area to Kansas. Slaveholders from Missouri set up small houses to try to help the South control the territory. In response, free-soilers and northern abolitionists created the New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1855. This organization paid for antislavery groups to travel to Kansas. With large amounts of antislavery and proslavery groups, fighting soon broke out between the two over their differences. The problem of whether Kansas should become a slave or free state soon passed over to President Buchanan, leaving him in charge of what to do with the territory.
Politics and Citizenship
When Buchanan was first elected President, he faced the problem of whether or not to accept Kansas’ proslavery state constitution. The constitution was submitted in Lecompton by the southern legislature and only seemed to benefit the wealthy slave owners. Despite much opposition from the settlers about accepting the constitution, President Buchanan tried to influence Congress to accept the Lecompton constitution and admit Kansas into the Union as a slave state. However, Congress ended up rejecting the constitution as all the Democrats, including Senator Stephen Douglas, teamed up with the Republicans to reject the constitution. In 1858, the Lecompton Constitution was defeated by majority of the Kansas settlers, who were mainly antislavery Republicans.
Slavery and its legacies in North America
In 1857, a slave and his master from Missouri (a slave state) traveled to Wisconsin (a free state) where they resided for two years before moving back to Missouri. Dred Scott, the slave, sued his master claiming that the two years he lived in Wisconsin makes him a free slave. Dred Scott took his case to the Missouri state court which later was sent to the Supreme Court. After two days, Chief Roger Taney (a Democrat from the South) ruled that Dred Scott was not free and had no right to sue for freedom for the following reason: the makers of the Constitution did not believe African Americans were considered U.S citizens, thus they had no right to sue, Congress was powerless when it comes to depriving a person of property without due process of law, and the Missouri Compromise did not include slavery from Wisconsin and other northern states. As a result of Taney’s decision, the southern democrats were ecstatic while the republicans were furious.
War and Diplomacy
In 1857, the Utah War also known as “Buchanan’s Blunder” occurred. In Utah, the Mormons feared losing their property rights and feared being banished from their lands because of their different beliefs and customs. Buchanan, hearing rumors of the Mormons rebelling, replaces Utah’s governor, Brigham Young, who was a Mormon with a new governor named Alfred Cumming who was not a Mormon. In response, a Mormon leader named John Doyle Lee leads a massacre in Utah known as the Mountain Meadow Massacre. Lee gathers a group of Mormons and Piute Indians to attack the emigrants going to California. As a result, approximately 140 people died. In addition, the removed Utah governor, Brigham Young, led a revolt to destroy army property causing President Buchanan sends Thomas L. Kane to try to settle the dispute without any more violence.