James Buchanan in a different time probably would have better served his country. But because of the approaching war and conflicts between the North and South, he is often criticized for not doing more to prevent a Civil War. A respectable man, Buchanan was a strict constitutionalist who believed that the Constitution protected slavery and the laws must be obeyed.
The main issue that Buchanan had to deal with throughout his presidency was slavery. Authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Hinton R. Helper published books that awakened New England abolitionists. The Lincoln-Douglas debates showed the ethical prejudice of slavery and were some of the first “shots” fired in the Civil War. Chief Justice Taney’s ruling in the Dred Scott case inflamed southerners
The seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas provided an important document known as the Freeport Doctrine. The Freeport Doctrine said that if the people voted slavery down it would stay down.
The formation of the Confederate States of America was the final piece of the sectional puzzle that was the civil war. South Carolina along with six other states, all ceded from the Union to form their own Union presided over by Jefferson Davis.
James Buchanan was not a man of action; this was eminent after seven of the fifteen slave states ceded. Buchanan’s plan was to wait until the states grew unenthusiastic about their cause and return to the Union. This policy worked in delaying a war until Lincoln became president but by no means did it help
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