Democrat · 1857–1861
James Buchanan
Watched the Union come apart and treated Dred Scott as settled.
James Buchanan was president 1857–1861. The party color on the chart is Democrat. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: Watched the Union come apart and treated Dred Scott as settled.
The dot is economics +10 and authority +28. That is near the middle on economics. The other axis sits toward authority. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: The Supreme Court and the Constitution would hold the Union. Done: He accepted Dred Scott and did not stop secession. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Millard Fillmore (1850–1853, +12 / +30) and Franklin Pierce (1853–1857, +8 / +32). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.