The Presidency of James Buchanan PDF
Preview The Presidency of James Buchanan
The Presidency of JAMES BUCHANAN AMERICAN PRESIDENCY SERIES Donald K McCoy, Clifford S. Griffin, Homer E. Socolofsky, General Editors The Presidency of JAMES BUCHANAN by Elbert B. Smith THE UNIVERSITY PRESS OF KANSAS Lawrence / Manhattan / Wichita O Copyright 1075 by The University Press of Kansas Printed in the United States of America Second printing June 1980 Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Smith, Elbert B. The Presidency of James Buchanan. (American Pr^idency series) Bibliography: p. Includes index. 1. United States—Politics and government—1857-1861. L Title. U. Series. E436.S6 320.0*73*068 74-31220 ISBN 0-7006-0132-5 To Avery Craven from a grateful student Editors9 Preface The aim of the American Presidency Series is to present his torians and the general reading public with interesting, scholarly assessments of the various presidential administrations. These inter pretive surveys are intended to cover the broad ground between biographies, specialized monographs, and journalistic accounts. As such, each will be a comprehensive, synthetic work which will draw upon the best in pertinent secondary literature, yet leave room for the author’s own analysis and interpretation. Each volume in the series will deal with a separate presidential administration and will present the data essential to understanding the administration under consideration. Particularly, each book will treat the then current problems facing the United States and its people and how the president and his associates felt about, thought about, and worked to cope with these problems. Attention will be given to how the office developed and operated during the presi dent’s tenure. Equally important will be consideration of the vital relationships between the president, his staff, the executive officers, Congress, foreign representatives, the judiciary, state officials, the public, political parties, the press, and influential private citizens. The series will also be concerned with how this unique American institution—the presidency—was viewed by the presidents, and with what results. All this will be set, insofar as possible, in the context not only of contemporary politics but also of economics, international relations, law, morals, public administration, religion, and thought. Such a broad approach is necessary to understanding, for a presidential administration is more than the elected and appointed officers com posing it, since its work so often reflects the major problems, anxi eties, and glories of the nation. In short, the authors in the series will strive to recount and evaluate the record of each administration and to identify its distinctiveness and relationships to the past, its own time, and the future. Donald A. McCoy Clifford S. Griffin Homer E. Socolofsky vii Preface Expecting the president to be chosen by an elite group of electors or by the House of Representatives, the American founding fathers gave him immense power, particularly for dealing with mat* ters related to peace and war. In domestic affairs he is more limited by the authority of Congress and the courts, but in dealing with the public he has both responsibilities and opportunities for personal influence far beyond his constitutional duties and powers. Having rid themselves of a British king, the often unruly American people quickly turned to the presidency for the fulfillment of deep-seated psychological and emotional needs formerly met by the monarchy. Americans have always demanded a role in determining the national goals and direction, but they have usually felt more secure and con tented with the image of a strong and trustworthy hand in the White House and most often restive and troubled when they doubted either his strength or his dedication. Indeed, they have often considered the office even more powerful than it is. In times of national calamity the president is condemned. When the nation is relatively serene, he receives the praise. His words and actions are closely watched and disseminated to anyone and everyone will ing to read or listen, and regardless of what he can or cannot do, he is held responsible for the state of the nation. Depending upon the national problems, crises, or mood, a presi dent may become immensely popular by leading a whirlwind of activity or by doing almost nothing. Americans have occasionally idolized the mediocre and rejected the wise, but surprisingly often this has affected the national destiny very little. Fortunately, not every period in American history has needed a president whose per sonality, principles, and talents can change the direction of an entire society. The great challenge to the system by which Americans choose their high priest and political pilot is the matching of the man with his times. Obviously, every president is subject to the momentum or inertia and the direction of his immediate predeces sors and to powerful social, economic, and psychological forces and trends that he did not create and cannot change. On occasion, how ever, the particular beliefs, philosophy, temperament, strength of ix purpose, understanding of political processes, and rhetorical talents of certaih presidents have in fact determined which of quite differ ent alternative directions the United States would take. In the 1850s the United States desperately needed strong, elo quent presidents who could understand the ambitions, feelings, sen sitivities, and fears of both North and South and who could com municate his views of each to the other. Each section was slowly but inexorably developing a highly inaccurate image of the other’s objectives and intentions, and only the president had the national platform from which a more balanced and realistic appraisal could emanate. People in both North and South were looking to the White House for comfort, support, and guidance; and supplying these commodities to either section without alienating the other be yond recall would require great wisdom as well as good intentions. It was an extraordinarily difficult but not entirely impossible chal lenge. No one can say with certainty that a different president in the years 1857-61 might have turned the United States away from the path to war. It can be strongly argued, however, that James Bu chanan might have prevented the key event that triggered the Southern secession. The election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 was made certain by vigorous political policies that stemmed directly from the White House, and the origins and impact of these policies are a major theme of this book. Aside from the president's direct role, the national events and situations of the Buchanan years remain highly controversial. James Buchanan had firm convictions about his America, and his views cannot be tested without studying and evaluating a vast amount of research and literature often unrelated to Buchanan himself. This book, therefore, often digresses from the president and admittedly expresses my own biases and convictions about the period in gen eral. If I daim a knowledge and insight superior to that of the presi dent, it is with humble sympathy for a man who lacked our access to more than a century of historical research. If I occasionally dis agree with the convictions of fellow historians who read the evi- X
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