Stone memorializing James Buchanan
Item
- Legacies Classification
- Memorial Type
- Memorial Context
- Memorialized Subject
- Title
- Background and Context
- Physical Description
- Memorial Inscription
- Creator/Participating Person(s)
- Date created, installed or dedicated
- Historical Period
- Campus Location
- Location: Institution, City, State
- Wikidata
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Memorial Object
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Plaque/Marker
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Buchanan, James
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Stone memorializing James Buchanan
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The “Walk of Fame” was created in 1929 by then-president Hamilton Holt to honor significant historical figures. The memorial is located in the center of campus around Mills Lawn.
James Buchanan (1791-1868) was the 15th president of the United States. A child of Irish immigrants, Buchanan grew up in southern Pennsylvania where his family had a number of Black indentured servants that they bought and sold. As an adult, Buchanan purchased two Black indentured servants from his brother-in-law.
As a senator, Buchanan became increasingly frustrated with abolitionists and their actions, seeing them a fomenting problems. Unlike many northern senators, he supported the strengthened Fugitive Slave Act of 1850.
During his presidency, Buchanan involved himself behind the scenes in the Dred Scott case, pushing the Supreme Court not just to rule against Dred Scott but to add the assertion that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was unconstitutional.
The stone used in Buchanan's Walk of Fame memorial was found about 50 feet from a monument memorializing his birthplace in Pennsylvania and was set in the Walk of Fame April 21, 1934.
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1x1x1.5 ft triangular stone
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James
Buchanan
Mercersburg
Penn
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Holt, Hamilton
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April 21, 1934
Position: 1896 (43 views)