The 'Colored Hero' of Harper's Ferry

FROM THE INCEPTION OF THE OFFICE, every new president had been besieged by office seekers, virtually all of whom appealed for jobs by virtue of political loyalty. James Buchanan was more attuned to such claims than most. He had devoted his life to the Democratic Party – or “The Democracy,” as its adherents preferred to call it – serving in the House of Representatives, the Senate, the Cabinet (as secretary of state), and as ambassador to Russia and Great Britain. Finally elected president at age 65, Buchanan's friends called him “Old Buck,” although he was known to his detractors as “Old Public Functionary.” Given his background, no president had ever been more familiar with the time-tested approach to distributing rewards and emoluments. Regional political leaders would assign major offices, lesser posts would be dispensed at the state level, and so on down the line – with favors allotted in proportion to electoral debts.

On inauguration day in 1857, no person appeared to have a greater claim on Buchanan's largesse than Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. Douglas had been Buchanan's most significant rival for the Democratic nomination in 1856, but he was not a resentful loser. Instead, he had thrown himself into the campaign and had played a leading role in defeating the Republican, John Fremont. After the election, Douglas expected that he or his friends would have considerable control over offices in what were then known as the western states, from Ohio to Wisconsin. The marshal's position in the Northern District of Ohio therefore would ordinarily have gone to someone from the Douglas wing of the party, to be chosen by his ally Ohio Senator George Pugh, if not by Douglas himself.

The relationship between Buchanan and Douglas had never been easy, however, and it was not helped by the president's failure to provide the Illinois senator with a “just proportion of the federal patronage,” as Douglas frankly put it.