U.S. President James Buchanan died in 1868.

James Buchanan was the 15th President of the United States, an office he held for one term between 1857 and 1861. His presidency ended on the eve of civil war, and many of his contemporaries, as well as later historians, blamed his poor leadership for the split. When the Southern states threatened to secede from the Union, he claimed: “The South has no right to secede, but I have no power to prevent them.” His obituary in the New York Times read, “Temporizing in this pitiful manner with the gravest crisis that ever fell upon a nation, he did nothing to prevent the accomplishment of secession... he retired to the privacy of his home in Wheatland, followed by the ill-will of every section of the country.” As a Northerner who sympathized with the South’s position on slavery, Buchanan took many actions that inflamed the problems between the two regions. In particular, he influenced the Dred Scot case and the heated Kansas election that preceded John Brown’s slave uprising at Harper’s Ferry. Although he had a political career spanning over four decades and served as a congressman, ambassador, Secretary of State and more, Buchanan is generally remembered as a weak politician whose indecisiveness kept him from leading the nation away from civil war.

EDSITEment
In The President’s Roles and Responsibilities: Understanding the President’s Job (K–2), students review the structure of the U.S. government, discuss the different tasks undertaken by the President and participate in an interactive online activity simulating a typical “day on the job” for the President.

In The President’s Roles and Responsibilities: Communicating with the President (K–2), students learn about the different means the President uses to communicate with the public and then express their views on a particular issue in a letter to the President.

EconEdLink

One of a President’s many responsibilities is to develop a national budget and submit it to Congress for approval. In National Budget Simulation (9–12), students act as economic advisors to the President and make recommendations for balancing the national budget.