# Fame.am profile — machine-readable export
# Canonical URL: https://fame.am/person/james-buchanan
# Generated: 2026-08-31T15:47:27.237Z

schema: https://schema.org/Person
url: "https://fame.am/person/james-buchanan"
name: "James Buchanan"
slug: "james-buchanan"
description: "The only president historians consistently rank as the worst. Buchanan watched the Union fracture and did almost nothing — advocated for states' rights on slavery, intervened to tilt the Dred Scott case, then froze as the South seceded."
tagline: "President of the United States from 1857 to 1861"
image: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/James_Buchanan_(cropped).jpg"
gender: "male"
country:
  name: "United States"
  isoCode: "US"
category:
  name: "Politicians"
  slug: "politicians"
profileType:
  name: "Politician"
  slug: "politician"
birthDate: "1791-04-23"
deathDate: "1868-06-01"
livingStatus: "DECEASED"
scores:
  popularity:           76.66
  momentum:             0.9048248794846635
  historical:           27.838752
  currentAttention:     5.026804886025908
  sourceConfidence:     60
  profileCompleteness:  70
  trendDirection:       "STABLE"
ranks:
  global:   null
  country:  null
  category: 231
tags:
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  - name: "Americas"
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  - name: "19th Century"
    slug: "19th-century"
sources:
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    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "Iacobus Buchanan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "جيمس بيوكانان"
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    title: "James Buchanan"
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    title: "James Buchanan"
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    title: "জেমস বিউকানান"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James Buchanan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan"
    title: "James Buchanan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
  - url: "https://btm.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Buchanan"
    title: "James Buchanan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James Buchanan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James Buchanan"
    type:  "WIKIPEDIA"
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    title: "James Buchanan"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
    type:  "WEBSITE"
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    title: "Wikiquote"
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  - url: "https://it.wikiquote.org/wiki/James_Buchanan"
    title: "Wikiquote"
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# bio (long form, separated for readability)
bio: |
  Born in Pennsylvania in 1791, Buchanan was a lawyer who climbed steadily: five terms in the House, eleven years in the Senate, secretary of state under Polk, minister to Russia and later to the United Kingdom. He chased the Democratic nomination for years before finally winning the presidency in 1856. Two days after his inauguration in 1857, the Supreme Court handed down Dred Scott — a pro-slavery ruling he'd quietly lobbied for. He pushed to admit Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton Constitution and pledged to serve only one term. In 1860 he backed his vice president, but the Democratic Party splintered and Lincoln won. During his lame duck months, as Southern states seceded, Buchanan supported the Corwin Amendment and tried once to reinforce Fort Sumter, then largely stood still. He left office in 1861, weeks before the Civil War began, and spent his remaining years defending what he'd done. He died in 1868.