James Buchanan's Case Study

By the end of the year 1850, Clara resigned from her job as a teacher/principal and moved to Washington, D.C. She made Washington, D.C. her permanent home. Clara had used her connections with her district representative, Col. Alexander de Witt, to get a job at the Patent Office. She became one of the first female clerks working as a U.S. Patent officer. Unfortunately, when the fifteenth president, James Buchanan, took office, she was dismissed due to her position being eliminated. Yet, she returned to the Patent Office when the Civil War broke out. She wanted to help as much as she could, so she offered to do the work of two clerks for the price of one. Clara made the decision to offer her proposal so that two of the male clerks
could be released to fight in the war. However, she was denied and Clara decided to resign. She went on to help in the war by collecting supplies and distributing them to the soldiers. Since Clara was alone for most of her life due to her siblings being way older, she had become very shy, but she didn’t allow this stop her. Clara was extremely capable great perseverance and hard work. At one point in her life, she was interested in Christian Science due to being brought up in the Universalist Church. Although, she was not an active member. Clara was a successful public speaker because she wrote in a clear and interesting style and managed to keep herself well informed on current topics. Yet, she never fully overcome her shyness and was extremely sensitive to criticism. Despite her shyness and hatred of criticism, she published many books/pamphlets, like History of the Red Cross (1882) and Story of My Childhood (1907).