4. Failed To understand that the North would not accept constitutional arguments that favored the South To realize how sectionalism had realigned political parties: the Democrats split; the Whigs were destroyed, giving rise to Republicans
7. Career Elected five times to the House of Representatives Served as Minister to Russia Then, served for a decade in the Senate Became Polk’s Secretary of State Became Pierce’s Minister to Great Britain
8. SERVICE ABROAD helped bring him the Democratic nomination in 1856 because it had exempted him from involvement in bitter domestic controversies.
9. As President-elect, he thought the crisis would disappear if he could maintain sectional balance in his appointments persuade the people to accept constitutional law as the Supreme Court interpreted it
10. Inaugural Address Referred to the territorial question as “happily, a matter of but little practical importance” since the Supreme Court was about to settle it “speedily and finally.”
12. Dred Scott Case Chief Justice Roger B. Taney stated that Congress had no constitutional power to deprive people of their property rights.
13. Kansas Buchanan tried to end the troubles by urging the admission of the territory as a slave state. This angered Republicans and alienated members of his own party. So, Kansas remained a territory.
14. 1858 When Republicans won a majority in the House, every significant bill they passed fell before southern votes in the Senate or a Presidential veto. (like the Homestead Act that the Northerners badly wanted to pass, but got vetoed)
15. 1860 Democratic party split into northern and southern wings Rather than accept a Republican administration, the southern “fire-eaters” threatened secession.
16. Dismayed and hesitant… Buchanan denied the legal right of states to secede but held that the Federal Government legally could not prevent them
17. He hoped for compromise, but secessionist leaders did not want compromise.
18. Militant tack As several Cabinet members resigned, he appointed northerners He sent the Star of the West to carry reinforcements to Fort Sumter