Buchanan showed no proactive leadership whatsoever during the impending crisis that existed between the North and the South during his presidency.

By the time Buchanan became President, the nation was heading full speed down a road to Civil War. Lawlessness was rampant in Kansas, where hundreds has been slain in a bloody battle over slavery in the region. Buchanan, like his predacessor, refused to send troops to the region to restore order, but instead, made the situation worse by supporting an immediate vote in the Congress for admitting Kansas to the Union as a slave state. The issue was heavily debated, and was not settled until 1861 when Kansas was admitted as a free state by an overwhelming number of votes by the citizens in the territory. Buchanan also continued his predacessor's policy of peace through appeasement. He supported and possibly influenced the outcome of the Dred Scott Case of 1857 in an attempt to gain points with southernors. The Dred Scott Decision, along with the continued bloodshed in Kansas, deeply divided the Union and was one of the final rungs on the ladder to Civil War. Indeed when the South seceded from the Union, Buchanan seemed at a loss to take any action against the South, which only emboldened the new Confederacy, allowing them free reign to set up a government and military without worries of federal retribution. Had Buchanan taken decisive action when the South seceded from the Union, and thus, prevented them from building up a military, the Civil War may not have been as long and horrific as it was. However, Buchanan's failure to do this allowed gave the Confederacy over six months to establish a government and a military. Buchanan was a prime example of the poor leadership displayed throughout the 1850s. Had Buchanan and his two predacessors exhibited firm and bold leadership, the Civil War would have been at the most a year or two long conflict and at the least, a war of a few small battles between a militarily superior North and a much weaker South.