James Buchanan: Passive

01VOA Learning English presents America's Presidents.

02Today we are talking about James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States.

03He was the third in a series of unsuccessful presidents.

04Millard Fillmore and Franklin Pierce had failed to resolve the country's increasing division over slavery.

05Democratic Party officials hoped Buchanan could do better.

06After all, he was a gifted lawyer and had been a member of the U.S.

07Congress, a Secretary of State, and a diplomat.

08But Buchanan was not so sure he could resolve the country's problems.

09He was right.

10He was the last president before the American Civil War.

11James Buchanan was born in the northern state of Pennsylvania.

12His father was a businessman, and his family was financially successful.

13Buchanan, the oldest son in a family with 11 children, received a good education.

14He attended Dickinson College in Pennsylvania and soon began working as a lawyer.

15His abilities earned him a good deal of money and a place in the state's legislature.

16But they were not able to win him a wife.

17As a young man, Buchanan fell in love with and proposed marriage to a young woman from a wealthy family.

18She accepted.

19But her father opposed the union.

20One day, his fiancée wrote Buchanan a letter saying she had reconsidered and decided not to marry him after all.

21Three days later, she unexpectedly died.

22Buchanan was heartbroken.

23He promised never to marry anyone else, and he did not.

24To date, James Buchanan is the only U.S.

25president who never married.

26When he entered the White House, his niece served as his first lady.

27Even with problems in his personal life, Buchanan went on to have a strong career as a national politician.

28He hoped his party would nominate him as its candidate for president.

29But in the 1840s and early 1850s, the Democrats nominated other candidates.

30Finally, in 1856, the party chose Buchanan.

31But by then, he was no longer sure he wanted to be president.

32He believed the country would soon be at war.

33Violence had already broken out in the western territory of Kansas.

34White settlers there had clashed over whether Kansas would enter the Union as a slave or free state.

35In one dramatic event, an anti-slavery activist named John Brown had murdered several pro-slavery settlers.

36President Buchanan had clear ideas about slavery.

37He said in his inaugural speech that voters in the territories, a group made up of white men, should be able to decide the issue for themselves.

38In the same speech, Buchanan urged Americans to support an important Supreme Court ruling that became known as the Dred Scott decision.

39Two days later, the court's justices announced the majority opinion in that case.

40The opinion said, The federal government did not have the power to control slavery in the territories.

41In addition, the court declared that enslaved people were not U.S.

42citizens.

43They were property, it said.

44Instead, enslaved people did not have any more rights than a horse or a chair.

45Buchanan hoped the decision would stop the country's debate over slavery.

46Instead, it made the debate even more intense.

47During his presidency, Buchanan took two other actions that increased tensions and damaged his public image.

48First, he tried to persuade Congress to accept a state constitution for Kansas.

49The constitution permitted slavery, although a majority of Kansas voters had not agreed to it.

50The U.S.

51House of Representatives decided not to follow President Buchanan's wishes.

52They permitted Kansans to vote again on the constitution.

53This time, Kansas voters rejected it.

54A majority agreed instead to seek admission into the Union as a free state.

55Buchanan's image also suffered because of an event known as the Raid on Harper's Ferry.

56The raid was led by John Brown, the anti-slavery activist who had murdered pro-slavery settlers in Kansas.

57This time, Brown hoped to create an armed rebellion of anti-slavery activists and freed slaves.

58To get weapons, Brown and his men attacked a federal arsenal about 110 kilometers northwest of Washington, D.C.

59The armory was in the town of Harper's Ferry, in today's state of West Virginia.

60President Buchanan answered the raid by permitting federal troops to use force.

61The U.S.

62Marines surrounded Brown and his forces.

63They killed some and captured others, including Brown.

64A few weeks later, Brown was brought to trial, found guilty, and hanged.

65The event further divided Americans.

66Anti-slavery Northerners believed Brown was a hero.

67Pro-slavery Southerners believed he was a traitor.

68In general, Buchanan agreed with the Southerners.

69He said in a speech that Northerners should not tell Southerners what they could do in their states.

70But his words did not satisfy either side.

71For one thing, a main issue was whether slavery should be permitted in any new states.

72Buchanan did not comment on that point.

73At the end of his single term, Buchanan kept an earlier promise not to seek re-election.

74His party did not urge him to.

75Instead, Northern Democrats and Southern Democrats split.

76They nominated two different candidates.

77The Democrats' lack of unity provided an opening for a candidate from a new party.

78The Republican Party was comprised of Northerners who were against slavery.

79Their candidate was a lawyer without much experience in government.

80His name was Abraham Lincoln.

81Lincoln won the presidential election of 1860.

82In answer, the Southern state of South Carolina withdrew from the Union.

83Buchanan, who was in the last weeks of his presidency, did not support the move.

84But he did not act to stop South Carolina either.

85He said the Constitution did not give him the power to force a state to stay in the Union.

86Following Buchanan's inaction, six other slave-holding Southern states also seceded.

87Today, many historians agree James Buchanan was one of the worst American presidents.

88Buchanan had many good personal qualities, and he did not want to harm the country.

89Instead, a common belief is that he did not have the right skills to unite a divided nation.

90His behavior appeared to be guided by conflicting ideas.

91Buchanan said he opposed slavery and supported the Union, but he often took actions to protect slavery and help the South.

92Buchanan largely blamed anti-slavery activists and opposition politicians for the problems during his administration.

93But the public did not accept Buchanan's position.

94He was not respected after he left office, and he did not appear in public very often.

95Instead, the former president withdrew to his home in Pennsylvania until his death in 1868.

96I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

97I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

98I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

99I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

100I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

101I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

102I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.

103I'm Kelly Jean Kelly.