Worst Presidents: James Buchanan (1857-1861)

just a kid

i am a kid doing research over him and by my research isnt making him sound to bad... at the begining. the more i look the worse he sounds. i thought that he wouldnt be that interesting. man, was i wrong. theonly president to never marry some body. i thought that was pretty sad. i think they were correct to rank him worst.

Worst US President.

James Buchanan is a good choice for worst US president ever. He was inept during the days before the Civil war. The Constitution is silent on the right to suceed. However: The outcome of the Civil War answered that question.

I would add Johnson for getting us in the Vietnam War. He deserves to be on this list. I would also add President Obama. He is going to bankrupt our nation. He was not ready. I wish he would have did something in the senate and ran 8 years later. He would have learned how to govern.

US Constitution

Buchanan acted as he did in the last months of his administration because he sincerely believed that there was nothing in the US Constitution to prevent a state from seceding from the Union. Read the Federalist Papers! Madison did not believe the Constitution prevented secession either!

Buchanan was even worse than this

He didn't just sit on his hands while after Lincoln's elections and let the Southern state secede. He let the southerners loot whatever federal assets they could get their hands on. His Secratary of War (later a confederate general) relocated federal armories to confederate territories to expidite the looting. When war broke out, it was these weapons that were used by the first confederate armies. If Buchanan had a longer lame duck period with which to make mischief, the civil war would have been that much longer and bloodier

Buchanan and decision-making

While you can get into a lot of trouble with a president who won't make a decision, you can get into just as much with one who refers to himself as "the decider".

Poor Buchanan

I have often wondered if anyone could have stopped the slide into secession; so hopeless had the situation become. With a US Senator beaten on the floor of the senate and battles routinely raged in Kansas over slavery the advent of outright war was probably inevitable. John Brown's raid quicken the pace of that slide.

Regarding the dispatch of troops to Utah I think the article in Wikipedia sets that reord straight

"The Mountain Meadows massacre was a mass slaughter of the Fancher-Baker emigrant wagon train at Mountain Meadows, Utah Territory, by the local Mormon militia on 11 September 1857. It began as an attack, quickly turned into a siege, and eventually culminated in the execution of the unarmed emigrants after their surrender. All of the party except for seventeen children under eight years old—about 120 men, women, and children—were killed.[1] After the massacre, the corpses of the victims were left decomposing for two years on the open plain,[2] their children were distributed to local Mormon families, and many of their possessions auctioned off at the Latter Day Saint Cedar City tithing office. The Arkansas emigrants were traveling to California shortly before the Utah War started. Mormon leaders had been mustering militia throughout Utah Territory to fight the United States Army, which was sent to Utah to restore US authority in the territory"

de e

Buchanan

If possible, it would have been better to let the Supreme Court decide the constitutional questions.

However, no doubt in my mind that the country is in a big mess at least partially because everything has gone to Washington and the states do not have many rights allowed them.

The more hands money goes through the less there is at the end of the line.

Less government on all levels but especially Washington would be a welcome improvement in my eyes so I am not ready to vote Buchanan the worse of the bunch.

Nothing but laughable...

Why is it in these kinds of "discussion" you liberal types ALWAYS have to jump on the bandwagon of bashing the most recent Republican. Oh yes - isn't it obvious that George Bush, on his own, in its entirety, created the mess that Mr Obama is now miraculously and in perfect form, in the process of cleaning up? The way you guys think is like a twisted railroad track to nowhere. I don't like Bush, McCain or Obama. What we REALLY need to do is get the government the hell out of the way but it will never happen thanks to all you pseudo-humanitarians who honestly believe we need government, cradle to grave as they say, to provide and secure everything in our lives for us. Pathetic...To quote Jack Nicholson from the movie "Easy Rider"- "God - this used to be one hell of a country!". You Obamaists could never ever possibly begin to understand what the hell he's talking about.

The President with his name in BOLD

I was under the impression that the comment section was for the discussion of the president, James Buchanan, and if people believe he should be on the list not about the current president!

Buchanan

Buchanan was a weak president who probably should not have been elected. As for the current presidency i believe that Obama or McCain would have made a good president. I believe Obama is working hard at foreign affairs and in case some people let slip , the U.S. is not the only country on this world. Obama is making good progress in other areas of the world. I still do not know who said this but, "the only dependable thing about the future is uncertainty."