Credit: From "James Buchanan: The Lackey of Southern Slave Owners." The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education 35 (Spring, 2002): 139
In this 1857 lithograph, president James Buchanan appears as a flunky of slave owners, helping a bounty hunter chase a runaway slave. Buchanan had a narrow view of the Constitution, which he believed guaranteed the states the right to regulate slavery. His position infuriated abolitionists, especially after the 1857 Supreme Court ruling in Scott v. Sanford overturned the delicate balance of compromises that had held the nation together for decades.
