re: #376 pdc_lgf

If Buchanan had been a better President, the Civil War would have been a brief insurrection, with a death toll of less than 1/20 of what it ended up being.

When Southern militias started seizing United States Army bases and armories, he could have ordered the Army to put a stop to that. When southern states ordered entire trainloads of weapons from northern factories, New York and Pennsylvania militias would have been delighted to be ordered to intercept those trains and seize the cargo.

When half a dozen of West Point’s top instructors (including Robert E. Lee) resigned their commissions, and said explicitly in their letters that they intended to fight for the confederacy, he could have had them arrested. Think how quickly the war would have ended without them.

If anybody ever tries to tell you that Bush or someone from the 20th century was the Worst President Ever… just remind them about Buchanan.