Show D five minute chats about our presidents by JAMES MORGAN A BACHELOR PRESIDENT 1791 april 23 james buchanan born in franklin county pa 1815 16 member of the legislature 1819 tragic death of his betrothed tro thed annie C coleman member of congress 1832 34 1 minister to russia 1834 45 senator 1843 1845 49 secretary of state 1853 56 minister to great britain 1856 democratic nominee for president ll 11 0 AMES BUCHANAN was the last J JAMES president nt to wrap his neck in a stock ns as monroe was the last to wear irnee and he was the last of 0 ar era an age passed away ns as be passed out of the white house after Bucha buchanann nans birth at a renn vanta log cabin his father who was an irish immigrant prospered pros perel pereC as t country storekeeper and was able to send scud his son to college but the ral gallege lege sent him back as a wild spirit that it could not wine tame the pastor of the scandalized family egged begged t and obtained a chance for the wayward d youth who improved it so well vell that lie ie graduated first in his class nevertheless th eless the still unforgiving faculty denied him the honors of his rank this would be but a lull dull story of law eind and politics wre w re it not nit for a MO K na Z eu N JM JL james buchanan I 1 single angle tragic episode which cast a shadow over the whole after life of our bachelor president the only president to die a bachelor A young woman to whom buchanan was wag engaged in early manhood manlio od a daughter of the wealthiest family in the county wrote him a letter of dismissal under the spell of a jealousy which had been aroused by gossips pride on both sides bides kept the two apart until their separation was made irrevocable by her sudden death probably by ell sul tide ilde in grief and horror the young lover wrote to the father of the dead girl begging the privilege of looking upon lipon ler her remains and of following them to the grine grave but the letter was returned to him unopened four and forty years passed and buchanan went to its his grave without ever having taken any other woman to his healt when lils ills executors executor ss opened the papers which tho the aged ex president had biad left in a bank vault they found among adiong thein a little racket packet of treasured love letters from ills his swe sweetheart eLheart of long ago dot but in accordance cor dance with the request vi written ritten on tile the outside those faded mementoes of his only love were mere burned without breal breaking drig the seal on them buchanan was as by no means a crabbed old bachelor lie ile remained always most courteously attentive to vio women nien though theo with aith a perfect impartiality tia lity nor KM did he keep bachelors bachela ba chelo hall at wheatland ills country place near lancaster pa he brought up from calls caily childhood the orphaned son boo of one of ills sisters all and the orphaned daughter of another nho be became cOnle as miss harriet lane oue one of 0 the most admired mistresses distresses mi stresses of the white house after buchanan Hu chanan had risen to top rank at the pennsylvania bar with a practice that brought jilin him as much as in a year he entered poll ties starting as a federalist lie he became a democrat only at tile the death tit of the party of ills his first hice ue he was elected to the legislature and to congress was thrice elected to to tile the renate t served us as minister to russia and great and was wag secretary ot of i tate iu in folks cabinet for JO 20 years au an unsuccessful candidate for or tile presidential bial tion the veteran politician had nil all but chell up hope when at last it came to hini him unsought in 1856 oo on his return from a ieng absence as american minister ini in longun Lon lon lun As ho he accepted it lie slewed tile the honor hollor had been denied him until lie was wag too old to enjoy it when all the fie friends I 1 loved and wanted to rl rebur ward are arc dead all end all the enemies I 1 hated ond aud blid biad parked fir are turned my loy ADRIFT IN A STORM IQ 0 1857 march 4 james buchanan inaugurated president aged sixty five march 5 dred scott de cislon 1859 aug 5 completion of atlantic cable oct 16 john browns laid 1861 feb 4 the southern con formed march 4 buchanan retired from the presidency 1868 june 1 died at wheatland pa aged seventy seven 11 11 0 6 0 ECA U SE tile the drama of ill history s tory blakc BECAUSE like C 1 11 nt t of tile hie theater must have its heroes and villains james buchanan Buch annn has been painted all black in ill tile lie opening scene of the civil war loaded down with all the weaknesses and sins of his generation and banished forever into the wilderness anyone can set see now with willi the iho aid of bin hindsight d what diat buchanan should have done but not what lie he could have done the north itself in the bewildering winter of 1860 61 was far fro brorn m agreed that secession could or should aboul d be topped stopped by force let the union slide the lie abolitionists said let 13 the 10 erring brethren go said horace gresley wayward sisters depart in peace general scott would liae haie said to the seceding states in common with the politicians of ill his fast time buchanan X clung ling to the idea that freedom rather than slavery was to blat blame lie for all the trouble lie ile had not gone with douglas as and the northern wing of the lie divided democrats in the camp campaign siga of but had sided with the sothern ers lind and voted for breckinridge when tha first state seceded he was already within ten weeks of the of his term with a hostile congress la in front of him and behind him a country as irresolute as himself As lie he saw the union falling to pieces lie he hoped on that it could be patched tog together geaber again bv by another old fashioned compromise all the while there were members of his cabinet who were staying in washington ington only to ship federal war supplies south and to eld in the preparations tor for destroying in the government edwin TL stanton of ohio although himself a breckinridge democrat bluntly warned buchanan you ton are sleeping on a volcano the ground Is mined till all around and under you and ready reads to explode and without prompt and energetic action you will be tha last ins t president of the united stal states avi mr stanton pleaded the feeble old man for gods sake come in and help me the first day that stanton took his seat at Bucha buchanann nans cabinet table lie he told the secretary of war floyd of vir virginia enla that hat he ought to be hanged on a gallows higher than hamans Hai nans for having ordered major anderson andersen without the knowledge of the president to stay in a defenseless old tort fort at charleston fil libor instead of transferring himself to fort Su niter as the major had done in de defiance flance of orders before the lie middle of january the cabinet was reorganized reorganize mid buchanan A t 41 harriet lane was surrounded by stanch unini 1 men ilea ilio swept win along at a pace I 1 which blell sometimes left film breathless the new secretary of the treasury john A dix quietly reported one lay that I 1 lie e now had sent to new orleans his now famous amous liessa message P it if any man attempts to haul down tile lie american flag fla shoot him on the spot did sou write such a letter ns as that milt 9 buchanan exclaimed no dix replied 1 I telegraphed it had buchanan been a man of iron Ii instead istead of 0 putty probably pro bally lie could conlu have hane done it no good in that chaotic interregnum between the election and inauguration atlon of ills successor huc cessor if he had taken any should lia leave ve h lins listened teneil and maryland Mury laud into revolt evolt llero would have been no national n a calil capital tal on oil march 4 1801 tile the retiring president would mould only have ha 0 made heava or perhaps impossible tile the task hlat lie wearily laid it upon a stouter emri nhen lie transferred the presidency to lincoln rod sadly tot acred red into the si idos 1 copyright IDO by janice al muco quo i 1 |