James Buchanan

             James Buchanan in a different time probably would have better served his country. But because of the approaching war and conflicts between the North and South, he is often criticized for not doing more to prevent a Civil War. A respectable man, Buchanan was a strict constitutionalist who believed that the Constitution protected slavery and the laws must be obeyed. .
             The main issue that Buchanan had to deal with throughout his presidency was slavery. Authors such as Harriet Beecher Stowe and Hinton R. Helper published books that awakened New England abolitionists. The Lincoln-Douglas debates showed the ethical prejudice of slavery and were some of the first "shots" fired in the Civil War. Chief Justice Taney's ruling in the Dred Scott case inflamed southerners. And the formation of the Confederate States of America capped what could have been a more productive presidency had Buchanan served in a different era. .
             Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin made New England aware of the "wickedness of slavery by laying bare its terrible inhumanity, especially the cruel splitting of families." This novel upset Southerners because of its unfair indictments. Also inflaming the South was the fact that Stowe had never seen slavery first hand. Hinton R. Helper's The Impending Crisis of the South was banned in the South and widely accepted by the North. .
             The seven debates between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas provided an important document known as the Freeport Doctrine. The Freeport Doctrine said that if the people voted slavery down it would stay down. .
             The Dred Scott ruling further split the United States in two. At first the Southerners were happy with the ruling, which declared that slaves were not citizens and could not sue for their freedom. But once the North, most notably the Republican's, began to view the ruling as a mere opinion rather than a decision, the South began to wonder how much longer they would stay attached to a group who would not honor the Supreme Court.