James Buchanan became the fifteenth President of the United States on March 4, 1857.
Lincoln-Douglas Debates
The 1858 Illinois Senatorial race pitted Stephen A. Douglas, the former leader of the Democratic Party, against a relatively unknown lawyer named Abraham Lincoln. During the race Lincoln challenged Douglas to a series of seven debates on the issue of slavery. Though Lincoln ultimately lost the election, he held his own against Douglas and impressed many people with his ideas. The debates had been well attended and well publicized, and Lincoln became a contender for the Republican nomination to the Presidency in the coming election. Lincoln embarked on an equally well attended and well publicized, two-year speaking tour of the United States. He finished his tour in Chicago, at the Republican National Convention, where he beat out William Seward for the nomination for President.
Harpers Ferry
On October 16, 1859 radical abolitionist John Brown lead a group of twenty-one men in a raid on the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia (now West Virginia). Brown had planned to gain control of the arsenal in order to distribute arms to slaves and instigate an uprising. Brown's men captured the arsenal unopposed, but later that night found themselves surrounded by hordes of angry towns people. Brown and his men held out for two days before they were overcome by federal troops lead by Colonel Robert E. Lee and Lieutenant J.E.B. Stuart. Brown was tried and convicted of treason, conspiracy, and murder. He was executed on December 2.
Election of 1860 and the Birth of the Confederacy
The victory of the Republican candidate, Abraham Lincoln, in the election of 1860 triggered the secession of South Carolina from the Union. President Buchanan believed that secession was illegal, but did not think that he had the right to use force against the rebelling states. When southern forces seized federal forts in the South, President Buchanan did not act. He did ask Congress for authorization to increase the size of the federal army, but his request was denied. On December 26, 1860, Union forces took back Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina. On January 9, 1861, when a Union ship entered Charleston Harbor with relief supplies for the forces at Fort Sumter, South Carolina forces fired upon the ship and forced it to turn back. Within a few months of South Carolina's secession, six other states had seceded from the Union. The rebel states set up a provisional government and elected Jefferson Davis as its president. Though President Buchanan refused to recognize the Confederacy, he did not cut off negotiations with the rebelling states and continued to search for a peaceful solution to the crisis.
Legislation
Dred Scott Case
Dred Scott had been a slave owned by an army surgeon from Missouri. In 1834 the surgeon was stationed at Rock Island, Illinois, then free soil under the Missouri Compromise, and took Scott along with him. In 1838 Scott and his owner returned to Missouri. Upon the death of his owner in 1846, Dred Scott sued for his freedom, claiming that his residency in Illinois during the time of the Missouri Compromise had made him a free man. One Missouri court declared that he was free, and another court declared that he was not. The case was passed on to the Supreme Court. On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney decided against Scott on the argument that slaves were not citizens, and, therefore, they were not entitled to use the courts for such purposes as suing for freedom. The ruling went further than it had to by declaring that the Missouri Compromise had been a violation of the Fifth Amendment of the Bill of Rights, which states that the federal government could not deprive any citizen of their right to own property. Using the Bill of Rights, Chief Justice Taney declared that the right to own slaves was a national right, except in states where the people of the states had voted to waive that right.
The Lecompton Constitution
In late 1857 pro-slavery forces met at Lecompton, Kansas, and drafted a pro-slavery constitution. Realizing that a pro-slavery constitution would not be ratified if put to an honest vote, backers of the constitution resorted to a number of dishonest means to ensure the passage of their legislation. When the pro-slavery constitution was submitted to Congress for admission to the Union, the governor of Kansas, Robert J. Walker, returned to Washington to inform the President of the document's corruption. President Buchanan refused to believe Walker and supported the Lecompton Constitution's ratification in Congress. When a legal vote was finally taken in Kansas, the pro-slavery Constitution was overwhelmingly rejected by residents in spite of Congressional threats to reject Kansas' admission to the Union under any other constitution. In spite of this, President Buchanan still supported the Lecompton Constitution. The result was a split in the Democratic Party, between northern Democrats led by Stephen A. Douglas and southern Democrats led by the President.
