One of the things Pres. Buchanan accomplished in his presidency was receiving the Japanese Ambassador and establishing diplomatic relations with Japan. The Ambassador gave him this vase, which is now on display in the carriage house of the Buchanan estate. The History channel has been showing a review of Presidents all day today, and they were of course critical of Buchanan. There have been several history books on Buchanan, one recent book has been very balanced. I think he has been stereotyped as the gay bachelor President who was too compromising with his southern friends, which is true. But Pennsylvania has always been until then a compromising state, along with New York, that held the Andy Jackson Democratic party coalition together. And his southern friends in the Cabinet were in reality "friends" and that got in the way of his decision making (he should have fired his cabinet sooner). For many reasons I won't go into here, he was at the wrong place at the wrong time and was clueless about it. The issue of homesteading, free territories and abolition had been brewing for some time (ever since the No Nothings ran Millard Fillmore in 1852) and by 1856 with the emergence of the Republicans the democrats were doomed. I once looked at the electoral vote in 1860, combining the popular vote of the opponents of Lincoln, and even if you combine the popular votes of his opponents Lincoln still wins the election handily in the electoral college. Demographics also played a part in the 1860 election - rise of population in northern cities, population of Oregon an California too. I have other Buchanan pictures on my university web page.
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