James Buchanan's Last Address to Congress

James Buchanan, Jr., (April 23, 1791 - June 1, 1868) was the 15th President of the United States (1857 - 1861), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He is, to date, the only president from Pennsylvania and the only president to remain a lifelong bachelor. His inability to identify a ground for peace or address the sharply divided pro-slavery and anti-slavery partisans with a unifying principle on the brink of the Civil War has led to his consistent ranking by historians as one of the worst presidents in American history. Historians in both 2006 and 2009 voted his failure to deal with secession the worst presidential mistake ever made.

Public Domain (P)2014 John Greenman