November 2nd is the birthday of two of my favorite Presidents. One is James K. Polk, the 11th President of the United States, and probably the most effective one term president. Polk was born on November 2, 1795 (229 years ago today*).


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n the months leading up to the 1864 election, Abraham Lincoln thought he would be a one term president. The war was taking longer than everyone had expected, and the mounting casualties made the Democratic Party message of a negotiated peace sound more appealing. The Republican Party was split between the Radical Republicans and the moderates. Some ( Read more... )

In the time leading up to the 1864 election, Abraham Lincoln thought he would be a one term president. The war was taking longer than everyone had expected, and the mounting casualties made the Democratic Party message of a negotiated peace sound more appealing. The Republican Party was split between the Radical Republicans and the moderates. Some ( Read more... )

In 1852 Millard Fillmore's term as president ended. He had become president in July of 1850, upon the death of the sitting President Zachary Taylor and he hoped to be the Whig Party's candidate for President in 1852, but unfortunately for him, that didn't pan out. Fillmore had become unpopular with northern Whigs for signing and enforcing the ( Read more... )

Millard Fillmore was the second Vice-President to become President upon the death of the incumbent. He would turn out to be the last President from the Whig Party and despite his desire to hold on to the job and run for re-election, his party had ideas. The Compromise of 1850 that Fillmore had supported made him unpopular in the north, especially ( Read more... )

In the time immediately preceding the 1864 election, Abraham Lincoln thought he would be a one term president. The war was taking longer than everyone had expected, and the mounting casualties made the Democratic Party message of a negotiated peace sound more appealing. The Republican Party was split between the Radical Republicans and the ( Read more... )

James Buchanan was the third in a series of "doughface" presidents. Hailing from Pennsylvania, Buchanan's biographer Jean Baker theorizes that Buchanan was "an intellectual and electoral hostage" to the South, and was so enamored with the ways of the south that he let ideology trump pragmatism. Secession began on his watch, and Buchanan is ( Read more... )

Many people consider March 20, 1854 to be the date of birth of the Republican Party. It was on that day, at a meeting in Ripon, Wisconsin, that a group of anti-slavery activists held what is considered by many as the first public meeting of the party. In the course of the debate over the Nebraska bill, a man named Alvan Earl Bovay (pictured below) ( Read more... )

James Buchanan shuffled off this mortal coil on June 1, 1868 (156 years ago on this day.) Buchanan regularly ranks among the worst of the Presidents ratings done by historians and scholars, usually finishing in last place. He is criticized for his weak and ineffective response to the coming of the secessionist crisis, his obsequiousness to the ( Read more... )

On April 23, 1791 (233 years ago today) James Buchanan, Jr., the 15th President of the United States, was born in Cove Gap, Pennsylvania. Buchanan served as President from 1857 to 1861, just prior to the Civil War, and it was on his watch that a number of states began to secede from the Union. Although Buchanan said that he felt that it was illegal ( Read more... )