[cowboyway]

consensus of historians, anyway, who have traditionally censured Buchanan for his failure to prevent the Civil War

Lincoln is the one that should be censured for starting the War of Northern Aggression.

Buchanan's mantra was "I acknowledge no master but the law." He believed that secession was illegal but he also believed that starting a war to stop secession was also illegal, and, IMO, immoral, because a union forced at gunpoint is no union at all.

[Colonel Kangaroo]

Buchanan would not have needed to start a war. A threat, such as Andrew Jackson delivered, would have been enough to make the hotheads back down and more importantly it would have emboldened the more sensible Southerners to counsel against the madness.

Once the insanity was loose and the rebs attacked, Lincoln had no choice but a resort to armed force.

[hoosierham]

Exactly.

Buchanan gets a bum rap for following the Constitution while Lincoln gets plaudits for ognoring it.

[MikefromOhio]

Buchanan was a ball-less wonder who was AFRAID to actually act like a leader.

It figures the lost causers would worship a DEMOCRAT.