1857-1861

(Buchanan never married. The White House hostess was his niece, Harriet.)

Vice President John C. Breckinridge (1857-1861)

The whole Territorial question being thus settled upon the principle of popular sovereignty-a principle as ancient as free government itself-everything of a practical nature has been decided. No other question remains for adjustment, because all agree that under the Constitution slavery in the States is beyond the reach of any human power except that of the respective States themselves wherein it exists. May we not, then, hope that the long agitation on this subject is approaching its end, and that the geographical parties to which it has given birth, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country,will speedily become extinct?
--March 4, 1857

Presidential Fact Sheet