James Buchanan papers 0091 Finding aid prepared by Dana Dorman. Last updated on November 09, 2018. Historical Society of Pennsylvania 2010 James Buchanan papers Table of Contents Summary Information....................................................................................................................................3 Biography/History..........................................................................................................................................4 Scope and Contents....................................................................................................................................... 6 Overview of Arrangement.............................................................................................................................6 Administrative Information........................................................................................................................... 7 Related Materials........................................................................................................................................... 8 Controlled Access Headings..........................................................................................................................8 Other Finding Aids......................................................................................................................................10 Bibliography.................................................................................................................................................10 Collection Inventory.................................................................................................................................... 11 Correspondence......................................................................................................................................11 Speeches, memoranda, notes.................................................................................................................19 Drafts and manuscripts.......................................................................................................................... 20 Printed material......................................................................................................................................21 Business papers......................................................................................................................................32 Legal papers...........................................................................................................................................33 Miscellaneous.........................................................................................................................................33 - Page 2 - James Buchanan papers Summary Information Repository Historical Society of Pennsylvania Creator Buchanan, James, 1791-1868. Title James Buchanan papers Call number 0091 Date [bulk] 1815-1868 Date [inclusive] 1783-1895, undated Extent 35 linear feet (74 boxes, 25 volumes) Language English Language The bulk of the materials are in English, with rare letters and notes in French. Mixed materials (00009370)76 [Volume] Mixed materials (00009373)79 [Volume] Mixed materials (00009369)75 [Box] Mixed materials [Box] 1-74 Mixed materials [Volume] 1-25 - Page 3 - James Buchanan papers Mixed materials (00009372)78 [Volume] Mixed materials (00009371)77 [Volume] Abstract The James Buchanan papers span the entirety of Buchanan's legal, political and diplomatic career, including his service as Pennsylvania assemblyman, U.S. representative, minister to Russia, U.S. senator, secretary of state, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, and president of the United States. The collection consists primarily of correspondence, but also includes speeches, notes, business papers, legal papers, manuscript drafts, pamphlets, books, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks. The most significant groups of materials in this collection are related to Buchanan's time as secretary of state, 1845-1849; minister to Great Britain, 1854-1856; and the growing differences between the North and South before the Civil War, 1857-1861. Cite as: Cite as: [Indicate cited item or series here], James Buchanan papers (Collection 91), The Historical Society of Pennsylvania. Biography/History James Buchanan was born April 23, 1791 at Stony Batter, near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania. His father had migrated from northern Ireland in 1783, and became a successful frontier storekeeper. James was one of eleven children. After graduating from Dickinson College in 1809, he moved to Lancaster, then the capital of Pennsylvania, where he studied law and entered into practice in 1813. As a Federalist, Buchanan served as state assemblyman from Lancaster for two terms, 1814-1815, and a few years later successfully defended Federalist Judge Walter Franklin against impeachment before the state Senate. - Page 4 - James Buchanan papers After the unexpected death of his fiancee Ann Coleman in 1819, Buchanan left Lancaster and law for a political career in Washington, D.C. He was elected to five terms as congressman, 1821-1831, running first as a Federalist but after 1824 proclaiming himself an adherent to the new Jacksonian party. President Andrew Jackson appointed Buchanan as minister to Russia, 1832-1833, a post which kept him in the Jacksonian ranks but banished him temporarily from domestic politics. Buchanan was elected U.S. senator in 1834 to fill William Wilkins's unfinished term, then re-elected in 1836 and 1842. He became chairman of the committee on abolition petitions, chairman of the committee on foreign relations, and aided materially in drafting the Independent Treasury Bill. Under James K. Polk, Buchanan served as secretary of state from 1845-1849. As secretary of state, Buchanan achieved a peaceful settlement of the Oregon dispute with Great Britain and oversaw U.S. foreign affairs in the lead up to and during the Mexican War. Buchanan retired from politics in 1849, and returned to his Wheatland estate in Lancaster, Pennsylvania during the Taylor-Fillmore administration. In 1853, President Franklin Pierce offered Buchanan the ministry to Great Britain. At Pierce's instructions, Buchanan and American ministers in Madrid and Paris drafted the Ostend Manifesto in 1854, laying out a rationale for taking Cuba from Spain. The public bitterly criticized the manifesto, which helped cost Pierce a second term as president. Upon his return from Great Britain in 1856, Buchanan was named Democratic nominee for president and was elected in November. President Buchanan faced a nation already deeply split between North and South over many fundamental issues, including not only slavery but also the protective tariff, free western land, and the distribution of federal funds. Buchanan sought to emphasize his position as a non-sectional leader who would be bound by a traditional view of the Constitution, and he divided his Cabinet evenly between North and South. Just two days after Buchanan's inauguration, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in the Dred Scott case that African Americans were not citizens of the United States. Buchanan also faced the Panic of 1857 and the Kansas crisis during his first year as president. On the dangerous problem of the admission of Kansas, Buchanan achieved a compromise solution that later brought Kansas into the Union as a free state, but in the course of the uproar, Senator Stephen A. Douglas bolted from the administration and the Democrats did not recover from the split. Sectional conflict continued to build, fueled by the abolitionist press, the split between Buchanan and Douglas Democrats, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry, and the Covode investigation of alleged presidential corruption. The Democrats were split and nominated a northern and a southern candidate for president in 1860. Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln won the election in November with no southern electoral votes, and South Carolina seceded on Dec. 20, 1860. During Buchanan's last months in office, he sought to isolate South Carolina and consolidate pro-Union sentiment in all the states, later also working to hold the key federal forts, increase the armed forces (which Congress rejected), and avoid any overt act that might detonate war. Lincoln continued Buchanan's policies, including the recommendation of a constitutional convention, until the Confederates attacked Fort Sumter on April 12-13, 1861. After that, Buchanan promptly backed Lincoln's position that no alternative now existed except war. Buchanan retired to his estate, Wheatland, in 1861 and remained there until his death. Buchanan never married. However, he became guardian or played the role of parent for many orphaned nephews and nieces, particularly the Lane children. Harriet Lane became his favorite and mistress of the White House - Page 5 - James Buchanan papers during his presidency. Buchanan died June 1, 1868, and was interred in Woodward Hill Cemetery in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Scope and Contents This collection spans the entirety of Buchanan's legal, political, and diplomatic career, including his service as Pennsylvania assemblyman, U.S. congressman, minister to Russia, U.S. senator, secretary of state, envoy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary to Great Britain, and president of the United States. The bulk of the collection is correspondence, but the collection also contains speeches, notes, manuscript drafts, business papers, legal