The Complete State of the Union Addresses of James Buchanan

James Buchanan (1791-1868) was the fifteenth President of the United States (1857-1861). He was the only President from Pennsylvania and the only President never to marry. As president he was a "doughface" who battled Stephen A. Douglas for control of the Democratic Party. Scholars consistently rank him as one of the two or three worst American presidents. As southern states declared their secession in the lead-up to the American Civil War, he held that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. Buchanan started his political career in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives from 1814-1820. He was chairman of the U. S. House Committee on the Judiciary (Twenty-first Congress). He was not a candidate for renomination in 1830. Buchanan served as one of the managers appointed by the House of Representatives in 1830 to conduct the impeachment proceedings against James H. Peck, judge of the United States District Court for the District of Missouri.