James Buchanan
U. S. House of Representatives, Pennsylvania, 1821-1831
U. S. Senator, Pennsylvania, 1834-1845
U. S. Secretary of State, 1845-1849
U. S. Minister to Great Britain, 1853-1856
U. S. President (15th), 1857-1861
Born: April 23, 1791, Cove Cap, near Mercersberg, Franklin County, Pennsylvania.
Died: June 1, 1868, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
- Moved with his parents to Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, 1799.
- Privately tutored and then attended the village academy.
- Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, graduate, 1809.
- Moved to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, the same year.
- Studied law, was admitted to the bar, 1812
- Practiced law in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
- Although a Federalist, was one of the first volunteers in the War of 1812
- Served under Judge Shippen in the defense of Baltimore.
- Member of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives, 1814-1815.
- Unsuccessful candidate for election in 1818 to the Sixteenth U. S. Congress.
- Elected to the Seventeenth and to the four succeeding U. S. Congresses, March 4, 1821 - March 3, 1831.
- Was not a candidate for renomination in 1830.
- One of the managers appointed by the U. S. House of Representatives in 1830 to conduct the impeachinent proceedings against James H. Peck, Judge of the U. S. District Court for the District of Missouri.
- Minister to Russia, June 1832 - August 1834.
- Elected from Pennsylvania as a Democrat to the U. S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of William Wilkins.
- Re-elected in 1837 and 1843, serving from December 6, 1834, until he resigned on March 5, 1845, to accept a U. S. Cabinet portfolio.
- U. S. Secretary of State in the Cabinet of U. S. President Polk, March 6, 1845 - March 7, 1849.
- U. S. Minister to Great Britain, 1853-1856.
- Elected President of the United States in 1856 as the candidate of the Democratic Party, serving from March 4, 1857 - March 3, 1861.
- Retired to his home in Wheatland, near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, until his death.
Buried: Woodward Hill Cemetery, Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
(Source: U.S. Congress. House. Biographical Directory Of The American Congress 1774-1949, 85th Cong., 2nd sess., H. Doc. 607 (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1950), pp. 759-2057.)