TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Full text is unavailable for this digitized archive article. Subscribers may view the full text of this article in ...

Born: April 23, 1791, in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania... Buchanan presided over the dissolution of the Union. His faith that the legal system would resolve the slavery issue locked him into inaction.

James Buchanan had tried for the Democratic nomination several times and finally succeeded in 1856, in large part because as Ambassador to Great Britain, he had been absent during the controversies ...