Top 10 James Buchanan Quotes (POLITICIAN)

Top 10 James Buchanan Quotes on Life and the Civil War

What is right and what is practicable are two different things.

If you are as happy in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed. — If you are as **happy** in entering the White House as I shall feel on returning to Wheatland, you are a happy man indeed.

All the friends that I loved and wanted to reward are dead, and all the enemies that I hated and I had marked out for punishment are turned to my friends.

Whatever the result may be, I shall carry to my grave the consciousness that I at least meant well for my country.

The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. — The test of **leadership** is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there.

Our union rests upon public opinion, and can never be cemented by the blood of its citizens shed in civil war.

The distribution of patronage of the Government is by far the most disagreeable duty of the President.

Liberty must be allowed to work out its natural results; and these will, ere long, astonish the world.

Abstract propositions should never be discussed by a legislative body.

To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its wisdom no one will attempt to dispute. — To avoid entangling alliances has been a maxim of our policy ever since the days of Washington, and its **wisdom** no one will attempt to dispute.

James Buchanan Short Biography

Born on 23 April 1791, in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania, United States, James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th president of the United States and a former Secretary of State.

Buchanan graduated from Dickinson College in 1809 and furthered his studies in 1812, taking up law under the guidance of James Hopkins. He was later accepted as a member of the Pennsylvania bar.

In 1814 he became an elected member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives under the Federalist party.

After serving as the U.S. minister to Russia, Buchanan served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives, from 1821-1831.

In 1836 and 1842, he was re-elected into the Senate. During his time in the Senate, he was in opposition to the gag rule. He was also against the re-charter of the Second Bank of the United States.

Buchanan ran for the 1856 presidential election and was supported by many southern states. He was inaugurated on March 4, 1857, and became the only president hailing from Pennsylvania. During his term, he tried to settle the uproar for slavery terms in certain states.

James Buchanan has a memorial erected in his honor located in Washington D.C.’s Meridian Hill Park.

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