But instead of guaranteeing a Republican victory in the 1892 election, there was a backlash, with voters overwhelmingly sending Cleveland back to the White House and flipping Congress to the Democrats. Benjamin Harrison Torpedoed the Economy to Punish ClevelandĪfter Benjamin Harrison squeaked out a narrow Electoral College victory against incumbent President Grover Cleveland in 1888, Harrison and his Republican backers in Congress rushed to add six new Western states to the Union and pack them with Republican loyalists. He didn’t conceive of the federal government having the power to stop the states.”īy the time Lincoln was inaugurated in March 1861, the secessionist states had already formed the Confederate States of America and Civil War was all but assured. “Like Hoover, Buchanan was limited in his concept of what government could do. “I don’t think that history is fair to Buchanan,” says Daniel Franklin, an associate professor emeritus of political science at Georgia State University and author of Pitiful Giants: Presidents in their Final Terms. But when the Star of the West was fired upon and blocked from entering the harbor, Buchanan folded.
When South Carolinian troops surrounded Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor, Buchanan sent an unarmed vessel, the Star of the West, to provide reinforcements for the U.S. He knew that secession was illegal, but he also believed that the Constitution barred him from sending in federal soldiers to quash the rebellion. The greater blame for the secession crisis was, as Buchanan saw it, “the long-continued and intemperate interference of the Northern people with the question of slavery in the Southern states.”Īfter South Carolina and six other states formally seceded in December 1860 and January 1861, Buchanan was in a tough spot. In his December 1860 State of the Union Address, Buchanan said that “the antecedents of the President-elect have been sufficient to justify the fears of the South that he will attempt to invade their constitutional rights,” although Buchanan didn’t believe Lincoln would act so hastily.
#Define lame duck congress full#
President James Buchanan, a lame duck with a Cabinet full of Southerners, chose to blame Lincoln and Northern abolitionists for the division over slavery rather than take a hard line against Southern secession. When Abraham Lincoln was elected president in November of 1860, slave-owning states led by South Carolina made clear their intentions to secede from the Union rather than make concessions with the incoming Republican administration. Which would be something to celebrate for sure.Ī lot of people on something this important do not want to have it passed or rejected by a lame duck Congress.James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, c. I think in the lame duck, there will be a major opportunity to address this in a definitive way, and I don't think we should underestimate the importance of the work that was done in the Senate when they had their immigration exercise and the work that we did here, that all sets up a possible resolution to all of this after the election. It is possible for Congress to carefully consider the details of this agreement and to review all of the benefits associated with this agreement for states and communities all across the country without kicking the vote all the way to the lame duck period, there is no reason that we need to wait that long, and particularly when you consider the views that have been shared by some leaders in the business community about how important it is for this agreement to get implemented so that American workers and American businesses can start reaping the businesses. It would be helpful if we could get that done, if you could get that done, i would encourage Congress, particularly over the next few weeks of the lame duck, let’s try to get something done. I don’t know why this had to be done on Day One, it makes it much less likely that we ’ll deal with the disability problem until the lame duck session - and that wo n’t provide a good result for American taxpayers.
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