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. 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. ![]() ![]() It doesn't mean he doesn't care, he might care more than ever since it's his last chance to accomplish something before leaving, but his tools to accomplish any goal have been eroded.James Buchanan, 15th President of the United States, c. So lame duck technically means his time is short and he has no opportunity for re-election, but the implication is often that he has diminished power and influence. His bargaining chips rapidly become worthless. He won't be around to enforce any political punishment (or hand out political rewards and support). And so that soft power of "persuasion" rapidly evaporates. And re-election is the Holy Grail of members of Congress.īut once the president is past the last election of his last term that means he will be gone well before the next Congressional election. A president can help a Congress member get re-elected - by providing money (at least indirectly) and by providing public support. ![]() That aspect is that a lot of a president's power comes from his ability to make political deals with, and enforce political punishment on, members of Congress who do or don't cooperate with him. ![]() Click to expand.There is some of that, more high-minded, stuff but there is the other aspect, too.
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