Buchanan never married and later became the only bachelor president. His niece Harriet Lane served as hostess of the White House. Early in his political career was elected five times to the House of Representatives. Before accepting the presidency, Buchanan had achieved a commendable record of 40 years of public service. Two days after Buchanan's inauguration, the Supreme Court announced its decision in the Dred Scott case. One of his weaknesses was that he took middle ground consistently as a matter of policy. He believed that slavery should be a matter for individual states to decide for themselves. He was in strong favor of a proslavery constitution for Kansas. As Lincoln's views and actions attributed to the secession of South Carolina in 1860, Buchanan, now as president he had the difficult position trying to isolate secession there.

He asked Lincoln to help him in a call for a constitutional convention but Lincoln rejected this proposal and his Southern cabinet members resigned, and the Southern states formed the Confederacy on Feb. 4, 1861. Buchanan appointed another cabinet of strong Union men, most of who later served under Lincoln. When the war started, Buchanan strongly supported the Union however; he retired completely from public life until his death on June 1, 1868. As the war dragged on, ex-president Buchanan was blamed for most of the problems. Buchanan had his eye on the presidency for many years before he was elected to office. He tried on three separate occasions before finally achieving the presidency in 1856. He vanished from public life and returned home, seeing only close friends until his death in 1868.