biography
pronunciation:
[byookanan]
| sex:
| male
|
| lived:
| (1791–1868)
|
| biography:
| US statesman and 15th president (1857–61), born near Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, USA. Building on a successful law career, he entered politics and served as a Federalist in the Pennsylvania legislature (1815–17) and the US House of Representatives (1821–31), where he went over to the Democratic Party. In 1832–3 he served as ambassador to Russia and returned to serve Pennsylvania in the US Senate (1834–45) until becoming a most effective secretary of state under President Polk (1845–9). After a period of retirement and as ambassador to Great Britain (1854–6), he showed a willingness to accommodate slavery that gained him the presidency in 1856 with the solid backing of the South. During his term (1857–61) he supported laws protecting slavery in the attempt to establish Kansas as a slave state. When pressed by anti-slavery Americans, he fell back on narrow legal defences such as the Compromise of 1850 and the Dred Scott decision (1857). All this split the Democratic Party, allowing Lincoln to win the election of 1860. As a ‘lame duck’ president, he professed the government's helplessness to prevent secession and turned the problem over to his successor. He returned to his Pennsylvania estate but he did support Lincoln throughout the war. |
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