Hi everybody. Today. Bye, mommy. It's going to Sugar Bowl. James Bucaninan. Thank you, Noah, for introducing James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States.

By the time James Buchanan took office at the age of 65, in the year 1857, he had over 40 years of experience in politics and was regarded as the most experienced and well-prepared person to ever become president.

Unfortunately, his experience did not help him navigate the issue dividing the United

States at the time. Slavery. James Buchanan was our only president from Pennsylvania,

and he was the only president never to have been married. Despite being from a northern state

where slavery was not permitted, Buchanan believed

that slavery was protected by the Constitution. He sympathized with the Southerners who wanted

to protect slavery, although he himself believed that slavery was cruel. James Buchanan once said, I believe slavery to be a great political and great moral evil.

I thank God my lot has been cast in a state where it does not exist.

Before James Buchanan became president, while he was serving in Congress, he bought slaves in Washington, D.C., and then took them to his home state of Pennsylvania to free them.

In the election of 1856, Buchanan beat the first ever presidential candidate from the Republican Party, John C. Fremont, who stood firmly against

slavery. As President James Buchanan had some successes with foreign relations, but was unable

to settle the issue of slavery, just like the presidents before him. In the 1858, midterm elections, Republicans won a majority of

seats in the House of Representatives, which made it even more difficult for Buchanan to accomplish

anything in a deeply divided nation. James Buchanan believed that presidents should be limited to a single four-year

term and announced his intention not to run for re-election. The Democrats were at odds. The party divided

itself into three smaller parties in advance of the election of 1860.

The Republican selected former Illinois Congressman Abraham Lincoln to run for them that year.

Abraham Lincoln did not believe there was a place for slavery in the United States and vowed

to do anything in his power to rid the country of slavery.

Some southern states threatened to leave the United States if Lincoln got elected in 1860

because they wanted to protect slavery at all costs.

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