Been reading, yet again, A Government of our Own. It’s a decent book covering the formation of the Confederate States government during February 1861. Now and again the lame-duck President, James Buchanan, comes up in the text and my confused jumble of thoughts about that fellow pops to the fore.
James Buchanan was born less than five miles from where I grew up in a cabin which now stands on the path I took twice a week to gym throughout high school. Once his folks moved out of the mountain gap and into town he lived about half a block from my childhood home. My town seems awfully proud of him – he’s on all the Chamber of Commerce signage and just recently had a statue dedicated to him just off the square – but I have always had mixed feelings.
I don’t think I’ll go into detail, I don’t have that many to begin with. I wish someone would point out to me a few good biographies and/or texts on the actions of the President from 1857 – 1861 so I could get a more complete picture. My reading thus far leads me to believe that at best he was a weak, ineffectual executive and at worst an ignorant traitor. Kind of a bummer. It would be nice to say to folks, “Hey. I come from the same town as a President of the United States.” But if they ever asked who the President was I’d mumble something about Jimmy Buck and hope they didn’t ask for clarification.
What a drag.