James Buchanan, Jr. was the fifteenth President of the United States . To date he is the only President from Pennsylvania and the only President never to marry. As president he was a "doughface" who battled Stephen A. Douglas for control of the Democratic Party. As Southern states declared their secession in the lead-up to the American Civil War, he held that secession was illegal, but that going to war to stop it was also illegal. Taking his own advice, he did nothing.