James Buchanan Failure

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The Worst American President (1857-1861)
The US has had many presidents since its independence. Several presidents have been ranked highly for their exemplary leadership qualities and for the work they did to make America the great nation it is today. Nevertheless, there are those presidents who are said to have exhibited poor leadership qualities and consequently led to very regrettable situations in America. One such president who has been lowly ranked is James Buchanan who served as the fifteenth president of the United States, in the period 1857-1861 (Quist & Birkner, 2013). James Buchanan is arguably the worst US president in history due to a number of reasons, some of which are demystified below.
For starters, Buchanan was indecisive …show more content…
Due to the fact that secession had become such a burning issue in the country with the democrats and republicans having sharply contrasting views on it, people had hoped President Buchanan would give a clear way forward on the matter (Quist & Birkner, 2013). However, he denied the fact that states had the right to secede but also said that it was not in the federal government’s power to prevent secession. This was a grievous mistake for President Buchanan since he did not stop the calls for secession by some states. At a time when slavery and the calls for secession were threatening the unity of the country, Buchanan failed to provide leadership and direction to his people (Wilentz, 2006). These two issues are what set the stage for the civil war which would break out soon after he left …show more content…
Firstly, he failed to help America acquire Cuba as well as establish protectorates belonging to America in the states in Mexico. This was despite having used these two issues as his campaign pledges. Also, he failed to use his diplomatic skills to convince the Russian empire to sell to America the territory of Alaska (Wilentz, 2006). The negotiations with Russia simply failed to bear fruit since they could not agree on a price. This exhibited poor negotiation and diplomatic skills of

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