C. D. V. President James Buchanan EH Anthony Backmark

  

CDV of 15th US President. Buchanan served from 1857-61 and was a key national figure in the decade before the Civil War as he helped shape Democratic politics and US policy on slavery and the territories.

He generally supported states' rights and favored constitutional compromises that protected slavery where it existed, which made him acceptable to many Southern leaders. Just prior to Civil War Buchanan tried to hold the union together based on legal decisions such as the Supreme Court's Dred Scott decision. Deepening divide over slavery in territories culminating in violence in Kansas nullified Buchanan's efforts to avert conflict.