How a President's Secret Lobbying for a Pro-Slavery Ruling Backfired Spectacularly

Cultures · Published 29 September 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: James Buchanan, the 15th U.S. president, believed he could settle the nation's volatile slavery debate by pressuring the Supreme Court to issue a sweeping ruling. Instead of restoring harmony, his behind-the-scenes interference in the Dred Scott case infuriated the North and accelerated the country's slide toward the American Civil War.

James Buchanan Jr., born in 1791 in Pennsylvania, rose through a long political career as a state legislator, U.S. Representative, Senator, and Minister to both Russia and Britain. By the time he won the 1856 presidential election, he was a seasoned diplomat who favored states' rights and held a pro-slavery interpretation of the Constitution. He viewed the growing sectional crisis not as a moral issue, but as a political nuisance that could be managed through legal and executive maneuvering.

In early 1857, Buchanan sought to influence the outcome of the landmark Supreme Court case Dred Scott v. Sandford. He privately corresponded with Justice John Catron and successfully lobbied Justice Robert Cooper Grier to join the court's Southern majority. Buchanan hoped a broad ruling would permanently settle the status of slavery in the territories, effectively rendering the Missouri Compromise of 1820 unconstitutional. When Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the decision just two days after Buchanan's inauguration, it declared that Congress lacked the power to exclude slavery in the territories and that African Americans could not be citizens.

The strategy failed completely. Rather than calming the nation, the ruling ignited outrage across the North and galvanized the Republican Party. Buchanan’s administration, already criticized for its pro-Southern cabinet and its failure to address the secession crisis, found itself unable to prevent the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861. Historians today widely rank Buchanan among the worst presidents in American history, noting that his attempts to forestall conflict through political and judicial intervention only deepened the fractures that ultimately tore the Union apart.

Buchanan’s personal life was marked by his role as a surrogate father to his niece, Harriet Lane, who served as his First Lady. Despite his long public service, his legacy remains defined by his inability to reconcile the North and South. He spent his final years, until his death in 1868, attempting to defend his reputation against the widespread criticism that followed his single term in office.

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