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