James Buchanan and the Coming of the Civil War

Epilogue: Buchanan’s Civil War

Epilogue Buchanan’s Civil War michael J. Birkner If James Buchanan uttered any memorable line during the Civil War era, it was doubtless the one he purportedly expressed to Abraham Lincoln on Inauguration Day, March 4, 1861.“My dear sir, if you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.”1 Like other retired presidents, Buchanan had an opportunity to focus on pursuits unrelated to politics. Community members welcomed him, and local institutions, including Franklin and Marshall College, periodically sought his counsel or beneficence. Buchanan’s estate, along with his finances, needed the attention that he was at last prepared to give. The stresses of daily decision making in the White House were behind him. Although the ex-president could not look forward to a lucrative book contract, seats on corporate boards, or large speaking fees, his situation in 1861 was comfortable. A small staff, dominated by Buchanan’s housekeeper, “Miss Hetty,” kept things running smoothly for a sociable bachelor who loved nothing more than to entertain.2 Unlike James K. Polk, the president he served during the 1840s as secretary of state, Buchanan actually left the White House in better physical condition than he entered it. This development is unsurprising, given Buchanan’s affliction in March 1857 with what Roy F. Nichols has called “National Hotel Disease,” so denominated because of the dysentery the president-elect contracted during the weeks leading up to his inauguration .3 Departing Washington after Lincoln’s inauguration, Buchanan was escorted by a Lancaster citizens’ committee. He made a well-received speech in Baltimore; then, as he arrived home, he briefly addressed a Epilogue: Buchanan’s Civil War · 267 Figure E.1. James Buchanan in retirement . Courtesy of LancasterHistory.org. military company that escorted him into his domicile. According to one contemporary account, Buchanan “regretted that having just reached his home, he was not prepared to entertain them. The doors of his house had been always open, the latch-string was out. At any other time” when his visitors felt disposed to call, they “should receive a very cordial welcome.” Later in the evening, Buchanan was serenaded by local musical groups.4 Subsequently Buchanan settled into a regular and generally pleasant regimen. He took quiet walks, examined the conditions of his estate, and kept in touch as best he could with former cabinet officers, both about what had been done during the secession crisis under his watch, and beyond ,into the Lincoln presidency.Before Sumter fell to Confederate fire in April, he enjoyed spending time at the Grapes Tavern or conversing with friends at Lancaster’s Lawyers’ Row. Once federal forces had been forced 268 · Michael J. Birkner to capitulate at Sumter, however, Buchanan became the target of what one of his biographers has called“ugly mutterings” and nasty correspondence. There is no question that Republicans in the North viewed Buchanan in the darkest terms.5 For much of the next four years, the war—“Buchanan’s War,” some called it—would dominate the news and ultimately reshape the meaning of American nationhood. While on the sidelines as the great conflict played out, the ex-president kept abreast of everything. In quiet ways, behind the scenes, he also attempted to influence the affairs of his beloved Democratic Party in Pennsylvania. Much of his intellectual energy, however , was devoted to self-justification. Firmly convinced that his handling of the secession crisis was judicious—neither too aggressive nor supine in sustaining federal authority at Sumter—Buchanan spent many hours in his book-lined study at Wheatland organizing documents to sustain his self-image as a“steady,”wise, and patriotic chief executive.As he told James G. Bennett,“I feel conscious that I have done my duty . . . & that I shall at last receive justice.”6 According to GeorgeTicknor Curtis,Buchanan began collecting material for his defense“soon after his retirement toWheatland.” By 1862 he vowed to publish a full-bore defense of his presidency, a project he held in abeyance during the war because, he said, he did not want to engage in partisan politics. Mr. Buchanan’s Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion saw print through the auspices of a New York publisher in December 1865 and in Buchanan’s estimation enjoyed robust sales.7 Not surprisingly, the Republican press did not think much of the elderly expresident ’s apologia.8...