[AzaleaCity5691]

If I may be so bold, exactly what did Buchanan do that was so bad. The same goes for Pierce, and I know what will be alluded to, something about the failed War for Southern Independence. My question though is, what could Buchanan and Pierce have done to forestall it?

[Paleo Conservative]

If I may be so bold, exactly what did Buchanan do that was so bad.

Have you ever heard about the Civil War? His policies exacerbated regional tensions and pretty much made the Civil War inevitable.

[LS]

All of the Dem presidents of the antebellum period refused to acknowledge, let alone deal with, the issue of slavery, except for Martin Van Buren, who, ironically, created the mass party system and its patronage, laying the basis for huge central government. Van Buren's objective was good---eliminate slavery---but his means was terrible: buy people off.

And it's the Civil War. No slavery, no "southern independence."