James Buchanan Jr. was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861. He previously served as secretary of state from 1845 to 1849 and represented Pennsylvania in both houses of the U.S. Congress. He was a states' rights advocate, and minimized the role of the federal government in the nation's final years of slavery.
Buchanan was a prominent lawyer in Pennsylvania and won his first election to the state's House of Representatives as a Federalist. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1820 and retained that post for 11 years, aligning with Andrew Jackson's Democratic Party. Buchanan served as Jackson's minister to Russia. He won election in 1834 as a U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and also held that position for 11 years. Buchanan was appointed to serve as President James K. Polk's secretary of state in 1845, and eight years later was named as President Franklin Pierce's minister to the United Kingdom. In 1846, Buchanan was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society.
Beginning in 1844, Buchanan became a regular contender for the Democratic party's presidential nomination.