James Buchanan Quotes
It is our glory that whilst other nations have extended their dominions by the sword we have never acquired any territory except by fair purchase or, as in the case of Texas, by the voluntary determination of a brave, kindred, and independent people to blend their destinies with our own.
James Buchanan, 1791-1868, 15th President of the United States (Democrat, PA), Inaugural Address, Washington DC, March 4, 1857
Sourced by: Eigen's Political and Historical Quotations
In that year Republican President William McKinley reversed Cleveland’s policy against expansionism at the expense of independent peoples. He staved off annexation while he was president because of his views as early as 1893. See {643147}.
Buchanan was then Secretary of State.
In 1908 Austria had designs on the Balkans, whose small countries have been fought over for years.
Adams was then Secretary of State. Although he had designs on Cuba, he did not favor annexation be force. He felt that the Spanish colonization of Cuba was 'unnatural' and when the Spanish were overthrown there would be a natural alliance between Cuba and the U. S.
Between a purchase of lands from the Hudson's Bay Corporation and land grants, Canada annexed millions of acres of land without much political activity or any assent from the people who lived on those lands.
In the midst of the French & Indian Wars, the Board of Trade drafted the royal proclamation of October 7, 1763, forbidding the granting of lands in the vast interior, which was specifically reserved to the Indians. Most whites, themselves interested in land, saw this as a temporary expediency only. This quotation must be viewed in juxtaposition with his of 1767 on the subject: {624055}
This quotation is a good illustration of a practice that existed in the age of Empire where two or more large powers would agree among themselves as to which one of them had the right to seize a smaller power, not part of the compact.
James Buchanan, Jr. was the 15th President of the United States (1857–61), serving immediately prior to the American Civil War. He represented Pennsylvania in the United States House of Representatives and later the Senate, then served as Minister to Russia under President Andrew Jackson. He was named Secretary of State under President James K. Polk, and as of 2016[update] is the last former Secretary of State to serve as President of the United States. After Buchanan turned down an offer to sit on the Supreme Court, President Franklin Pierce appointed him Ambassador to the United Kingdom, in which capacity he helped draft the Ostend Manifesto.; James McGill Buchanan, Jr. was an American economist known for his work on public choice theory (included in his most famous work The Calculus of Consent), for which he received the Nobel Memorial Prize in 1986. Buchanan's work initiated research on how politicians' and bureaucrats' self-interest, utility maximization and other non-wealth maximizing considerations affect their decision making. He was a member of the Board of Advisors of The Independent Institute, a member (and for a time the President) of the Mont Pelerin Society, a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Cato Institute, and professor at George Mason University.
