James Buchanan, by Paul Raymond Audibert, Paris.

Additional information on Audibert pending.

James Buchanan, Fifteenth President of the United States (1857-1861), Born Stony Batter, Franklin County, Pa., April 22, 1791; died Lancaster, Pa., June 1, 1868. The following is excerpted from the coverleaf of the engraving:

"Mr. Buchanan has been often severely reproached for a "temporizing policy" and a want of such vigor as might have averted the Civil War; but the policy of Mr. Lincoln's administration, until after the attack on Fort Sumter, was identical with that of Mr. Buchanan.*** It was the great misfortune of Mr. Buchanan's position that he had to appeal to a congress in which there were two sectional parties breathing mutual defiance; in which broad and patriotic statesmanship was confined to a small body of men, who could not win over to their views a sufficient number from either of the parties to make a majority upon any proposition whatever."***

"On March 9, 1861, Mr. Buchanan returned to his home at Wheatland, rejoicing to be free from the cares of a long and responsible public life, and welcomed by an immense gathering of his neighbors and the citizens of Lancaster. Here he lived quietly for the remaining seven years of his life, taking, however, a lively interest in public affairs, and always supporting, with his influence as a private citizen, the maintenance of the war for the restoration of the Union."***

"No man was ever treated with greater injustice than he was during the last seven years of his life by a large part of the public. Men said that he was a secessionist; he was a traitor; he had given away the authority of the government; he had been weak and vacillating; he had shut his eyes when men about him, the very ministers of his cabinet, were plotting the destruction of the Union; he was old and timid; he might have crushed an incipient rebellion, and he had encouraged it. But he bore all this with patience and dignity, forbearing to say anything against the new administration, and confident that posterity would acknowledge that he had done his duty."***

"Mr. Buchanan's loyalty to the Constitution of the United States was unbounded. He was not a man of brilliant genious, nor did he ever do any one thing to make his name illustrious and immortal. But in the course of a long, useful, and consitent life, filled with the exercise of talents of a fine order and uniform ability, he had made the Constitution of his country the object of his deepest affection, the constant guide of all his public acts."--GEORGE TICKNOR CURTIS (1812-1894), in The Presidents of the United States (1883). (D. Appleton & Company) Effective published copyright, ©Mickey Cox 2002, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED