Born: 1791, Cove Gap, PA
Died: 1869

A lawyer, Congressman, Senator and Secretary of State under Polk, James Buchanan was untainted by the fractious domestic politics of the Franklin Pierce Presidency, thanks to his posting overseas as Pierce’s Minister to Britain. Chosen as the Democrat’s Presidential candidate in 1856, Buchanan favored popular sovereignty in the territories and tried generally to downplay the divisive slavery issue. His attitude of denial worked for a time — he defeated the candidate of the newly formed Republican party, which opposed slavery’s extension. Just days after his inauguration the Supreme Court handed down the Dred Scott decision, holding that Congress could not bar slavery from the territories. But in 1858 Republicans controlling the House of Representatives refused to allow Kansas into the Union as a slave state. The government became deadlocked.

In 1860 the Democrats abandoned Buchanan. Now split into Northern and Southern wings, each with its own Presidential candidate, the party essentially handed over the Presidency to the Republican, Abraham Lincoln. Seven southern states seceded rather than accept the election and Buchanan’s Southern Cabinet members, resigned to join the Confederacy. Buchanan called the secession illegal, but took no action to save the Union.

Fifteenth President
Democrat

Born: 1790, Charles City County, VA
Died: 1862

Descended from wealthy Virginia planters, and the son of a federal judge, John Tyler served with distinction in both houses of the Virginia legislature, as a two-term Governor, and in both houses of Congress before becoming the nation’s first unelected President.

An ardent supporter of states’ rights, Tyler defected from the Democratic party and joined the Whigs in protest of President Jackson’s expansive use of federal power. The Whigs picked Tyler as Harrison’s running-mate to balance the ticket and win the South. But they never expected him to become President one month into Harrison’s first term. When he did, the stubborn and independent Tyler proceeded to quash the sweeping nationalist agenda championed by powerful Whig Senator Henry Clay. In 1841, when Tyler vetoed the Whigs’ National Bank bills, his entire cabinet save one, Secretary of State Daniel Webster, resigned and Tyler was expelled from the party.

Despite these difficulties, Tyler settled a territorial dispute between Maine and New Brunswick in 1842 and ended the Second Seminole War. In 1845 he accepted Texas into the Union over the ardent protests of American abolitionists.

Tenth President
Whig