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Buchanan, James (Fifteenth president)

fifteenth president of the United States, was born April 22, 1791, in Franklin county, Pa. He graduated at Dickinson college in 1809, and was admitted to the bar in 1812. He was elected to the state legislature in 1814. In 1820 he was elected representative to congress, and held the office by re-elections for ten years.

In 1831 he was appointed envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Russia, and elected United States senator in 1834. He was re-elected in 1840, and continued a member of that body until 1845, when he was appointed secretary of state, which office he held four years.

Mr. Buchanan was appointed minister to England in 1853, and returned in April, 1856. June 2, 1856, the national democratic convention met at Cincinnati to nominate a candidate for the presidency.

On the first ballot James Buchanan received 135 votes; Franklin Pierce, 122; Stephen Arnold Douglas, 33; Lewis Cass, 5. On the ninth ballot the vote stood:

Buchanan, 141; Pierce, 87; Douglas, 56; Cass, 7. On the sixteenth ballot Buchanan had 168; Douglas, 121. On the seventeenth Buchanan was unanimously nominated. John Cabell Breckenridge was nominated for vice-president, and they were elected the following autumn. They were inaugurated March 4, 1857. At the close of his presidential term he retired to his home at Lancaster, Pa., and died June 1, 1868. Buchanan held office nearly thirty-eight years. He died worth about $200,000.