Buchanan Administration - Buchanan Becomes President
The James Buchanan Administration
Slavery was the only issue in United States politics during the 1850s—the most important quality in a president during those years was that he be acceptable to both North and South. James Buchanan had avoided taking positions on the issue of slavery in the new territories, and he ascended to the presidency on the power of his centrist reputation. His conciliatory posture on the slavery issue, however, only exacerbated the North-South tensions that flared into hostilities only weeks after he left the White House.
Buchanan Becomes President
The Campaign of 1856
The campaign of 1856 took place at a time when the nation was undergoing a major political realignment that was driven, like almost all of the politics of the 1850s, by the sectional...
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