Thread by @michaelharriot

Thread: I've been holding this story for impeachment day, which is kinda like Christmas but with better presents

Who was the first president subjected to impeachment? (Hint: He was also the most racist president ever.)

If you said Andrew Johnson, you're wrong.

Lemme tell you about a corrupt, white supremacist president, the FIRST race war and a presidential impeachment.

Ladies and Gentlemen, meet James Buchanan.

James Buchanan was UNDOUBTEDLY the most racist president of all time. To find out why you're gonna have to stick around to the end.

And if you think I'm cherry-picking stuff to compare him to Trump, consider this:

1. His father was the wealthiest person in town
2. He didn't go to law school but was tutored by his fathers friend and SOMEHOW passed the bar on the first try.
3. There's no record of his bar exam results because he curiously took it orrally.
4. He served as Ambassador to Russia

He left Russia and was elected to the Senate.

Not by the people, but by Penn. legislators. Why? Because the Senate seat was empty after the Penn. senator up and moved to Russia!

I'm sure it was a coincidence. No collusion. Read the transcript!

Anyway, one of Buchanan's big deals as Senator was fighting FOR slavery. His home state, Pennsylvania, outlawed slavery before Buchanan was even born. But, for some reason, he was a big fan of owning people.

In 1846, he negotiated the Oregon Treaty, which essentially meant that the US now owned the "Oregon Country" which meant the all-white state was...

Wait... Y'all know black people were banned in Oregon, right?

Oh, shit! Lemme tell yall one of the whitest stories of all time!

In 1844, a native American and a black pioneer in Oregon got into a dispute over a horse. So Cockstock, the native American, went back and got four of his cousins and returned to town

He literally said he had to "Go see a man about a horse."

Now the black dude was ready to fight, but when the white people tried to arrest the Native American, all hell broke loose and three people died: Cockstock and 2 white people.

You see where this is going.

In response to the Cocktock Incident, Oregon passed Black Exclusion Laws

They wrote a law forcing every black person to leave the state or "be whipped no more than 39 times"

The first draft of Oregon's proposed Constitution for statehoood contained an amendment that banned black people from entering the state>

It failed.

Not because of the racist amendment, though. They actually liked that part.

On February 14, 1859, Oregon became the first state admitted to the Union that banned blacks

But back to Buchanan. This is why he loved Oregon. Also racists loved him.

So, when the 1856 Democratic National Convention rolled around they wrote all of Buchanan's wishes into the platform. He didn't necessarily campaign for the nomination...

But as one of the top racists in the country, he was a shoo-in.

One of his major platforms was that he wanted to stop people from advocating for abolition, more slave states and, of course, "States Rights"

He won.

At his 1857 inauguration, he belittled abolitionists as traitors to Democracy, promised the South he would fight for slavery and referenced Supreme Court cases. His speech wasn't long because he kept whispering to people in the audience.

You must remember that America was on the brink of its second race war, the Civil War, the Great Dukes of Hazard War, whatever you wanna call it.

Oh, what was the first race war?

Well, I'm glad you asked.

One of the reasons Buchana was elected was because he wanted to expand slavery. (Remember Oregon?) But there was actually a race war going on in Kansas at the time.

Kansas wasn't a state yet but the territory was populated by 2 factions.

The first faction was the pro-slavery people who moved there from Missouri, a slave state. They were excited about the promise of open land and slavery. You know... the American Dream.

The second faction were "free-soilers" who moved there to get away from that slavery BS*

*I know "free-soiler" sounds like someone who advocates for diarrhea. The abolition movement had a TERRIBLE marketing department.

Anyway, both sides thought Kansas' fate would decide the issue of slavery in America once and for all, so it was very contentious.

Like most racists, Buchanan never said: "Fuck black people." Instead, he and the Democrats were about "states rights" and popular sovereignty. Everyone knew Kansas was gonna be a state soon, so Buchanan was like: "Just let them vote"

So the pro-slavery people started rigging elections.

When Kansas sent a non-voting member to Congress, damn near all of the votes were pro-slavery. An investigation determined that 1,729 of the votes were illegal compared to 1,114 legal votes.

So the two sides of "Bleeding Kansas" went to war.

In 1856, a pro-slavery militia seized the armory in Lawrence and took guns, ammunition and a WHOLE cannon. They burned the Free State hotel to the ground, as well as abolitionist newspaper offices and, of course, they lynched.

This violence continued for 3 years When Sen. Charles Sumner heard about it, he gave an impassioned speech on the floor and accused a SC Senator of “the rape of a virgin territory, compelling it to the hateful embrace of slavery.”

The Senator wasn't there, but his cousin was.

So he took his cane and beat Sumner to a bloody pulp in the Senate Chambers.

Kansas was still gonna be a state and there were 4 proposed Constitutions. 3 proposed banning slavery.

The fourth was the Lecompton Constitution

Not only did the Lecompton Constitution propose that Kansas be admitted as a slave state, but it banned FREE blacks from entering the state.

If Oregon could do it, why couldn't they?

Side note: If you think banning black people would have forever eliminated Kansas from the NCAA tournament, you're wrong. There's a loophole

NCAA athletes work for no pay, and white people reap the rewards for their hard work

See? There's always a loophole

Don't forget that Buchanan masked his white supremacy as democracy, so he first went to Congress and gave an impassioned speech for slaveholder rights and the acceptance of Kansas as a state under the Lecompton Constitution.

He wanted them to abide by the vote of Kansas citizens

See, he had already sent someone down to Kansas to rig the referendum on the constitution.

But even after widespread electoral fraud was discovered, Kansas residents rejected the Lecompton Constitution 10,226 to 138

Buchanan STILL wouldn't give up. He pushed for legislators to accept Kansas and put the Lecompton Constitution in place anyway.

The Senate passed it but the house rejected it.

Buchanan STILL give up. He was like: Let Kansas vote one more time.

It lost AGAIN, 11,300 to 1,788.

Right before the 1860 elections, the Republicans created a committee to look into impeaching Buchanan.

The Republicans AND Democrats both agreed that Buchanan had bribed officials and legislatorys to pass the Lecompton Constitution. But they decided it didn't warrant impeachment

They decided that the bribes were basically handled by his cabinet and couldn't pin it directly on him. The report called Buchanan's administration: "The most corrupt administration since the adoption of the US Constitution in 1789."

But here's the thing

If they had known about something else, they DEFINITELY would have impeached Buchanan because he DIRECTLY influenced what may be the most racist moment in US history

Now most historians think the Kansas fiasco is what prompted many southern states to secede from the Union, causing the War Against Southern reason (The Civil War, as it is called by people whose descendants were not enslaved)

But...

Remember that strange sentence I wrote about the whispering at Buchanan's inauguration?

Well, before he was even elected, John Buchanan wrote John Cantron, his friend who just happened to be a Supreme Court Justice.

Buchanan wanted to know how things were looking for an upcoming decision on a case they had already heard. Cantron told him:

"Look bruh, the Stanton dude is probably gonna win, but we're gonna make it a narrow decision that only applies to this specific case."

Buchanan was like:

"Come on, white man! I know you can be more racist than that!"

but Cantron told him that, while he was definitely in favor of white power, he would have to talk to the other justices.

Next, Buchanan contacted Supreme Court Justice Robert Grier and said: "Bobby, you gotta do something about this court case! If you don't, Taylor Swift might bever be born!"

Grier was sold, but told him that it wasn't up to him.

I don't know why Buchanan just didn't send out a mass text, but most historians agree that cell phone coverage was very spotty in 1857 (And there was VERY little wifi) so JB couldn't get in touch with the Chief Justice until he showed up at the inauguration to swear Buchanan in.

Everyone noticed the 2 huddled in a corner whispering for a long time. After their conversation, Buchanan mentioned the Supreme Court case in his inauguration speech saying it will be "speedily and finally settled" which everyone thought was weird and maybe even illegal.

It turned out that Buchanan had convinced the Chief Justice to rule in white people's favor.

On March 6, 1857, two days after James Buchanan's inauguration, the Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling declaring that black people were NEVER meant to be citizens of this country

The opinion was written by Chief Justice Roger Taney who unquestionably broadened it to appease Buchanan.

It is considered the most racist and worst SCOTUS decision ever and would only be changed by the bloodiest war in American history and a constitutional amendment.

Taney wrote that black people were not citizens and were "considered as a "subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race" and therefore had "no rights which the white man was bound to respect"

Dred Scott v Sanford.