James Buchanan's Life

James Buchanan was born on April 23, 1791 in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of nine children. They went to school in Mercersburg, where his father owned a general store. He attended Dickinson College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and law school in Lancaster. He was a successful lawyer who interrupted his career to join a volunteer cavalry company to fight in the War of 1812. Buchanan returned to his home to his law practice in Lancaster. He ran for Congress and served ten years. President Andrew Jackson asked him to serve as minister to Russia; he negotiated the first trade agreement between Russia and the United States. Buchanan was elected to the Senate in 1835 where he served ten years. President James Knox Polk appointed Buchanan Secretary of State. He helped to arrange the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo with Mexico in 1848, by which the United States purchased the region extending west from Texas to the Pacific Ocean. He wrote the Oregon Treaty of 1846 that settled the Northwestern boundary between Canada and the United States. He ran for President in 1852 and lost. He served as minister to Great Britain. Buchanan ran for President by the Democrats and won. James Buchanan never married anyone, so his niece Harriet Lane performed the duties of First Lady of the United States. Buchanan ran for a second term and was defeated by Lincoln. Before he left office, seven states seceded from the Union. He returned to Lancaster, Pennsylvania where he lived until he died on June 1, 1868. Note: James Buchanan was President from 1857 through 1861 and the Vice President was John Cabell Breckinridge.