James Buchanan

James Buchanan Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th President of the United States (1857–1861). He previously served as Secretary of State (1845–1849) and as a member of both houses of Congress for Pennsylvania. He was a proponent of states’ rights who downplayed the federal government’s position in the country’s final years of slavery. Modern historians and commentators have chastised Buchanan for failing to discuss the question of slavery or for failing to keep the Southern states from seceding over it. Historians and academics consistently rate him as one of the worst presidents in American history.