The American republic was teetering on the brink of dismemberment as the presidential election of 1856 was presented to the voting population. … Compromises had come and gone, leaving the future of a unified nation at high risk. To lead the country through this perilous period was one of the most experienced statesmen ever to answer the call for the highest office in the land. … But despite James Buchanan’s illustrious pedigree and the full weight of the electorate and national legislature seemingly at his command, he proved to be a colossal failure in his singular goal of trying to preserve the American Union. … As the Southern states began to secede after the election of his successor, Buchanan was called to lead. He was impotent in the face of this challenge. Yet, in his mind, the failure belonged to everyone but himself. … Buchanan proved to the world as 1860 turned to 1861 that he was a committed legalist, but in doing so he equally proved that he wasn’t the leader the nation needed at that critical moment in its history. While he would go to his grave confident in every move he made (along with those he refused to take), posterity would hardly be so generous to the man widely condemned as the worst President in the history of the United States.