A Pennsylvania town remembers its president: James Buchanan

This story originally appeared in The Inquirer on April 22, 1991.

MERCERSBURG, Pa. — It was rainy and cold, and the Tuscarora Mountains were blanketed in a mist so thick they could barely be discerned.

But an umbrella-wielding crowd of more than 500 turned out yesterday for the start of a week of festivities celebrating the 200th birthday of their own - and Pennsylvania’s only - contribution to the White House: James Buchanan.

People lined historic Main Street to watch a parade featuring bagpipers, mountain men, marching bands, assorted members of the Clan Buchanan Society in America, and Karl Reisner.

Reisner, a slight, soft-spoken history teacher at Mercersburg Academy, a local boarding school, has during the last decade occasionally taken on the role of the often-criticized 15th president of the United States, giving performances for his students and for audiences in the area.

Often called one of America’s worst presidents, Buchanan has been the victim of bad press for 135 years, Reisner maintains.

“I believe he was totally consistent with the values he’d expressed all his life. In the midst of crisis, he remained true to that,” Reisner said.

Buchanan was elected president in 1856 during a time of growing anti- slavery sentiment and concerns about political corruption, urban crime, economic problems, the breakdown of the Victorian family and immigration troubles. When Kansas adopted a pro-slavery constitution and Buchanan, a Democrat, didn’t intervene, an anti-Buchanan political juggernaut began to move.

In 1860, Abraham Lincoln was elected president in a victory over a bitterly divided Democratic Party.

“Buchanan was also a laissez-faire economist,” Reisner said. “When he didn’t push large-scale relief efforts, things just got worse.”

In December 1860, when South Carolina threatened to secede, Buchanan refused to send troops to restore order even though he had been urged to do so.

“Buchanan said the Constitution didn’t give him the power to declare war; only Congress could do that, and congressional permission never came,” Reisner said.

Mercersburg’s mayor, Henry A. Steiger, agreed: “History’s been a little unfair to Buchanan. After all, he was probably one of the most qualified,

because he was an ambassador and a congressman and secretary of state. That’s not to take anything away from Ronald Reagan.”

Buchanan was born in a log cabin three miles northwest of Mercersburg, or so the story goes. Steiger, who said Buchanan’s father was a well-to-do trader, has his doubts. Wherever he was born, the family moved into Mercersburg when the future president was 6 “and occupied a very nice home that is now the James Buchanan Hotel,” Steiger said.

The refurbished log cabin is on the campus of Mercersburg Academy.

Whatever Buchanan’s past, the people in Mercersburg yesterday were intent on having a good time. Members of the Clan Buchanan, an affiliation of those surnamed Buchanan, those related to Buchanans and those whose ancestors served Buchanans in Scotland, gathered because it was a good opportunity to get together, said John “Jack” McMasters, a resident of tiny Pitcairn in Western Pennsylvania.

“When they first talked about us coming, I told them, ‘We don’t sing, we don’t dance. We just stand around in our kilts,’ " McMasters said. “But we have a good time. We’ve got people coming from New York, West Virginia and Delaware, and I’ve had calls from people in Kansas and Florida asking about it.”

McMasters, carrying the multi-colored Buchanan tartan flag, led his kilt- clad crew along Main Street as onlookers cheered and applauded.

The celebration continues through Saturday with history lectures, Civil War exhibits and living history encampments, tours of Mercersburg’s historic homes, a costume ball, a concert, a performance by Reisner and a birthday party in the town square tomorrow evening.

Mercersburg planned its celebration in conjunction with Lancaster, where Buchanan practiced law and later retired. Lancaster will throw its own birthday party beginning May 5.