5. James Buchanan
Another future President born in a log cabin, this time in Pennsylvania’s frontier and a few years before Fillmore on April 23, 1791 (making him the last president born in the 18th century), was James Buchanan. While our previous entry Millard Fillmore tried his best to stall the coming Civil War, Buchanan decided the best course of action was to take no action at all, thus ensuring the war would take place.
Faced with the threat of secession and sympathetic to the South, Buchanan supported the Dred Scott decision, a Supreme Court ruling that the rights and privileges that the Constitution confers upon American citizens could not apply to people of black African descent, regardless of whether they were enslaved or free. This widely criticized ruling was seen as playing a crucial role in the start of the American Civil War.
When the Southern states announced their decision to withdraw from the Union, Buchanan called their decision illegal, yet did absolutely nothing to stop them. Despite being morally opposed to slavery he claimed his hands were tied as he believed slavery was protected by the U.S. Constitution. By refusing to take a firm stand on either side of the slavery issue, it would spark a conflict that would end with the largest number of American military fatalities in history.
