Buchanan Administration - The Buchanan Administration Legacy
The Buchanan Administration Legacy
When Buchanan left office in 1861, he was leaving behind him as serious a crisis as had ever presented itself in U.S. history. The United States was no longer united; seven states had announced their secession from the Union, with the other slave states clearly considering joining them.
Buchanan had done nothing of significance to prevent the secession or to remedy it after it occurred. Historians disagree on the consequences of this inaction. Some believe that Buchanan showed admirable restraint: had he acted more forcefully, they say, he may have hastened the secession of the upper South, and put the federal government in the position of having fired the first shots of the American Civil War (1861–65). Other historians, however, believe that Buchanan's insistence that the federal government lacked the authority to put down secession only encouraged the South. Either way, it was left to...
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