Show five minute chats about I 1 our presidents by JAMES MORGAN I 1 A BACHELOR PRESIDENT 1791 april 23 james jame buchanan born in franklin county pa 1815 16 member of the legislature mia tragic death of his hl betrothed tro thed annie C coleman 1821 31 member of congress 1832 34 minister to russia 1834 45 senator secretary of state 1853 ai 56 minister to gre great britain 1856 democratic nominee fr for president IMES BUCHANAN CHANAN nU aras the last ia janiks president to wrap his neck in a stock as monroe was the last to wear knee breeches and he be was the last of ar era an nee age passed away as be t passed out of the white house after Bucha buchanann nans birth at a pennsylvania syl vanla log cabin ills father who was vas an irish imm immigrant lgrant prospered as a country storekeeper and was able to send ills his son to college but the college sent nent him back as a wild spirit that it could not tame the pastor of the scandalized family begged and obtained a chance tor for the wayward youth who improved it so well that lie i graduated first in his class nevertheless th eless the still unforgiving faculty facility denied him the honors of his rank this would be but a dull story of law mid politics we it not for a X 0 akia 0 1 james buchanan single jingle tragic episode which cast a shadow over the whole after ilip of 0 our bachelor president the only president to die a bachelor A young wom sir to whom buchanan was engaged in early manhood mail hood a daughter of p the wealthiest family lit in the county wrote him a letter of 0 dismissal under the pell of a jealousy which had been roused by gossips pride on both tides sides kept tile the no no apart until their separation gopar atlon was ninde made irrevocable by tier her sudden deatle benth probably oy jy suicide in grief and horror the young lover wrote to the father of the dead girl begging the privilege of looking upon tier remains and of following them to tile the grave but the letter was returned to him unopened four and forty years passed and Huch Suc linnan annn vent ment to ills grave without ever having token taken filly any other woman to ills his heart when his executors opened the papers which the aged ex president had left lit in a bank vault they found among them n little packet of treasured love letters from his se sweetheart etheart of long ago but in accordance cor cort corrance dance hince with the request written on the outside those faded mementoes of ills his only love were burned without breaking the lie seal on them buchanan was by DO means a crabbed old bachelor lie ile remained always most courteously attentive to women though with a perfect impartiality tia lity nor did lie keep bachelors liall ball at wheatland ills his country place near lancaster pu pa he brought up irom from early childhood the orphaned son of one of his sisters and tile the orphaned daughter of another who became as miss harriet lane one f the most admired mi stresses of the white bouse after buchanan ila had risen to top rank at the pennsylvania bar with a practice that brought brou glit him lafin ns as much its ci in a year he entered politics bics tics starting as it a federalist lie became a democrat only at the death of the party of ills his first chice ile was elected to the legislature and to congress was thrice elected to the ki enate served as minister to hussla jud ind great britain and was secretary of state li iii folks cabinet for 20 10 years all 1111 unsuccessful candidate for the presidential nomination the veteran politician had all but given up hope ilien hen at last it came to him unsought in 1850 1830 ou on ills his return from a long iong absence as american minister in london As lie he accepted it lie he sighed that tile the honor had been denied him until lie be was too old to enjoy it when all the friends I 1 loved a and n d w wanted anted to reward are dead end and illi all the enemies rie niles I 1 hated ond and had bid marked ivr are arc turned illy trie rift ADRIFT IN A STORM 0 1857 March marcha 4 1 james buchanan inaugurated dent aged sixty five i march 5 dred scott de casion 1859 aug 5 completion of atlantic cable oct 16 john browni raid 1861 feb 4 the southern confederacy formed march 4 buchanan retired from the presidency 1868 june 1 died at wheatland pa aged seventy venty ic seven 0 B the drama of history like t nt at of the theater must have its heroes rant and villains james buchanan has been painted till nil black in the opening scene of the civil war mar loaded down with oil all the weaknesses and sins of his generation and banished forever into the wilderness anyone can call see now with the aid ot of hindsight what buchanan should have done but not what lie he could have done the north itself in the bewildering winter of 1800 61 was tar far from agreed that secession could or should be stopped by force let the union slide the abolitionists said let the tha erring brethren go said horace greo ley wayward sisters depart in peace general scott would have said to the seceding states in common with the politicians of his fast vanishing time buchanan clung to the idea that freedom rather than slavery was to blame for nil fill the trouble lie ile had not gone alth w ith douglas and the northern wing of the divided democrats in the camp campaign sign of ISCO but had sided with the souvern ers and voted for when tha first state seceded he was already within ten weeks meeks ot of the end of his terra term with a hostile congress in front of him and behind him a country ns As irresolute as himself As lie he saw the union falling to pieces he hoped on that it could be patched together again by another old fashioned compromise pro nilst all the while there were southern members of ills cabinet who were staying laying in washington only to ship fe federal derill war supplies south and to fad d in the preparations tor for destroying the government edwin SI 11 stanton of ohio although himself a breckinridge democrat bluntly warned Gu chanan you are sleeping on a volcano the ground li iq mined mine all around and under you and ready to explode and without prompt und ind energetic action you will be the last president of the united statts states s sir mr stanton pleaded the feeble old man for gods sake come in and help me the first day that stanton took ills his sent seat at buchanann Bucha nans cabinet table lie he told the secretary of war floyd ffoyd of virginia that lie he ought to be hanged on oil a gallows higher than lI litmans Hai nans amans for having ordered major anderson without the knowledge of the president to stay in a defenseless old fort at charleston harbor instead of transferring himself to fort sumter its as the major had done in de defiance flance of orders before the he middle of january the cabinet was reorganized all and Boc linnan ot harriet lane was surrounded by stanch union men who swept him along at a n pace which sometimes left him film breathless the new secretary of 0 the treasury john A dix quietly reported one day that lie ha had sent to new orleans his now famous message it if any man at ematt to haul down the american flag shoot him on the spot did you write such a letter its as that buchanan exclaimed no idol nix dix i ro piled 1 I telegraphed it wind buchanan been a ninn of iron irstead read of putty probably lie could have done no good in that chaotic interregnum between the election and inauguration ot of his successor it h ha hall taken any which should hav have hastened Vit gInta and maryland into revolt there would have been no national capital on march 4 1861 the retiring president would A only have milde made heavier envier perlin perhaps ps impossible the task talc which lie he wearily laid upon a stol stouter lter sul when lie transferred the presidency to lincoln rind sadly tottered tattered into the hie sh chados ados copl right I 1 to b joria J griea s burcan |