A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837-1861

摘要

The late 1830s, the 40s and 50s were paradoxical years for the American republic: it elected a series of largely obscure and forgettable presidents in a period of momentous change. White settlers stepped up their invasion of Indian territory - all those Conestoga wagons trekking west; railroads and manufacturing made an appearance; there were big immigrant numbers coming in from Germany and Ireland; and lastly, America turned up the gas on the sectional pressure cooker of slavery and states' rights. These facts alone make Lincoln's eight predecessors - van Buren, Harrison, Tyler, Polk, Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce and Buchanan - worth a moment's careful study.