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Meerse, David (1995). "Buchanan, The Patronage, and the Lecompton Constitution: A Case Study". Civil War History. 41 (4): 291–312. doi:10.1353/cwh.1995.0017. ISSN 0009-8078.
Nevins, Allan (1950). The Emergence of Lincoln: Douglas, Buchanan, and Party Chaos, 1857–1859. Scribner. ISBN 978-0-684-10415-7.
Nichols, Roy Franklin; The Democratic Machine, 1850–1854 (1923), detailed narrative; online
Quist, John W.; Birkner, Michael J., eds. (2013). James Buchanan and the Coming of the Civil War. University Press of Florida. ISBN 978-0-8130-4426-2.
Rhodes, James Ford (1906). History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the End of the Roosevelt Administration. Vol. 2. Macmillan.
Rosenberger, Homer T. "Inauguration of President Buchanan a Century Ago."Records of the Columbia Historical Society 57 (1957): 96-122 online.
Silbey, Joel H. (2014). A Companion to the Antebellum Presidents 1837–1861. Wiley. pp. 397–464. ISBN 978-1-118-60929-3.
Updike, John (2013) [1974]. Buchanan Dying: A Play. Random House Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-8129-8491-0., fictional.
Wells, Damon. "Douglas and Goliath."