James Buchanan, Jr. (April 23, 1791 – June 1, 1868) was the fifteenth President of the United States (1857–1861) and the last to be born in the 18th Century.
To date he is the only President from Pennsylvania, and is the only never to marry. As president he was a "doughface" (a Northerner with Southern sympathies) who battled Stephen A. Douglas for control of the Democratic Party. As Southern states declared their secession in the lead-up to the American Civil War, he held that secession was illegal but that going to war to stop it was also illegal and hence remained inactive. His inability to avert the Civil War has subsequently been assessed as the worst single failure by any President of the United States. Buchanan has been consistently ranked by scholars as one of the worst Presidents.