历届美国总统简介：詹姆斯·布坎南（在线收听）

詹姆斯·布坎南（James Buchanan ，1791年4月23日——1868年6月1日）是美国第15任总统，生于宾夕法尼亚州。布坎南出任总统时，正值美国处于历史上的一个重大关头。当时，南北双方在奴隶制问题上的斗争愈演愈烈。他尽管为避免南北分裂作过不少努力，但还是无力扭转局势，后来内战终于爆发。而他的继任者正是带领北方赢得战争，废除奴隶制的林肯总统。

James Buchanan, Jr. was born the second of 11 children in 1791 into a well-to-do Pennsylvania family. He was gifted as a debater and graduated in law with honors in 1809. He was admitted to the bar in 1812. He was the 15th President of the United States, serving from 1857 to 1861. He is the only president never to have married and the last to be born in the 18th century.

He was elected five times to the House of Representatives; then, after an interlude as Minister to Russia, served for a decade in the Senate. He became President Polk's Secretary of State and President Pierce's Minister to Great Britain. Service abroad helped to bring him the Democratic nomination in 1856 because it had left him out of involvement in bitter domestic controversies.

When Buchanan became President, the country was rapidly becoming divided. He failed to realize how serious the North-South divisions were over the slavery question. He never understood that the North would not accept laws that favored the South. When the Dred Scott decision arrived, stating Congress had no constitutional power to deprive persons of their property rights in slaves, the North was furious.

In 1860 his Democratic Party split into northern and southern wings. There was a power struggle in the party and several Cabinet members resigned. He appointed northerners and this lost him almost all the support he had in the south. In 1861 he sent a war ship to reinforce Fort Sumter in South Carolina. The state fired at it and it returned to New York, making Buchanan look weak. He died in 1868, aged 77.