James Buchanan - Legacy

Legacy

The day before his own death, Buchanan predicted that "history will vindicate my memory". Nevertheless, historians criticize Buchanan for his unwillingness or inability to act in the face of secession. Historical rankings of United States Presidents, considering presidential achievements, leadership qualities, failures and faults, consistently place Buchanan among the least successful presidents. In an academic poll of 47 British academics specializing in American history and politics in 2011 it was reported that he came last (40th). They were asked to evaluate the performance of every president from 1789 to 2009 (excluding William Henry Harrison and James Garfield, both of whom died shortly after taking office) in five categories: vision/agenda-setting, domestic leadership, foreign policy leadership, moral authority and positive historical significance of their legacy.

Buchanan biographer Philip Klein put these rankings into context commenting, "Buchanan assumed leadership ... when an unprecedented wave of angry passion was sweeping over the nation. That he held the hostile sections in check during these revolutionary times was in itself a remarkable achievement. His weaknesses in the stormy years of his presidency were magnified by enraged partisans of the North and South. His many talents, which in a quieter era might have gained for him a place among the great presidents, were quickly overshadowed by the cataclysmic events of civil war and by the towering Abraham Lincoln."

Others criticized Buchanan as well. James K. Polk confided to his diary: "Mr. Buchanan is an able man, but is in small matter without judgment and sometimes acts like an old maid." The National Intelligencer, the leading Whig newspaper of the day, ridiculed Buchanan on January 24, 1859, for his follies, citing a series of his "magnificent" proposals that all failed:

We must retrench the extravagant list of magnificent schemes which received the sanction of the Executive ... the great Napoleon himself, with all the resources of an empire at his sole command, never ventured the simultaneous accomplishments of so many daring projects. The acquisition of Cuba ... ; the construction of a Pacific Railroad ... ; a Mexican protectorate, the international preponderance in Central America, in spite of all the powers of Europe; the submission of distant South American states; ... the enlargement of the Navy; a largely increased standing Army ... what government on earth could possibly meet all the exigencies of such a flood of innovations?

Buchanan is remembered today for other missed opportunities rather than any significant accomplishments. He vetoed the Morrill Act and the Homestead Act, both of which Lincoln signed into law only a few years later, and which would proved to be two of the most influential pieces of legislation passed in the United States in the nineteenth century. The Homestead Act accelerated westward expansion, while the Morrill Act accelerated agricultural and engineering research and education to develop the young nation.

A bronze and granite memorial residing near the southeast corner of Washington, D.C.'s Meridian Hill Park was designed by architect William Gorden Beecher and sculpted by Maryland artist Hans Schuler. Commissioned in 1916 but not approved by the U.S. Congress until 1918, and not completed and unveiled until June 26, 1930, the memorial features a statue of Buchanan bookended by male and female classical figures representing law and diplomacy, with the engraved text reading: "The incorruptible statesman whose walk was upon the mountain ranges of the law", a quote from a member of Buchanan's cabinet, Jeremiah S. Black.

The memorial in the nation's capital complemented an earlier monument, constructed in 1907–08 and dedicated in 1911, on the site of Buchanan's birthplace in Stony Batter, Pennsylvania. Part of the original 18.5-acre (75,000 m2) memorial site, is a 250-ton pyramid structure which stands on the site of the original cabin where Buchanan was born. The monument was designed to show the original weathered surface of the native rubble and mortar.

Three counties are named in his honor: Buchanan County, Iowa, Buchanan County, Missouri, and Buchanan County, Virginia. Another in Texas was christened in 1858 but renamed Stephens County, after the newly elected Vice President of the Confederate States of America, Alexander Stephens, in 1861.