Juristic Act

One must, in some ways, pity the situation James Buchanan, former congressman, senator, minister to Russia, Secretary of State, and minister to England, faced upon winning the election of 1856 and becoming President.

The Greater Context

Under President Franklin Pierce, the sectional crisis facing America had grown to its worst point. With the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska act, followed by the territorial skirmish in Kansas (resulting in the term Bleeding Kansas) between advocates of slavery and abolitionists, the dispute between north and south seemed nearly impossible to repair.

Buchanan, if it is possible, quickly made things even worse. Declaring in his inaugural address that slavery should be decided by individual states, and that people needn't worry any longer about the issue of slavery in the territories, he proudly proclaimed that the matter was about to be settled once and for all by the Supreme Court.

• Tennessee County Named For Jurist Memphis

• Jurist Who Cofounded Memphis

• Web Jurist

• National Jurist Rankings

  « Bibliography of Books and Articles on Active Learning and Other Techniques for Teaching Law | Main | Hasen: Legal Transitions -- Reliance Redux»

• Juristic Persons