FEATURES FOR SINGLES: Red Letter Dates In Singles History: From Singles, The Magazine for Today's Single If they had had a fast track in those days James Buchanan would have
surely been on it. As a lad James attended school at Mercerburg, studying Greek and Latin. He must have been a bright little bugger, as he began college at the age of 16, being admitted as a junior. He graduated only two years later at the age of eighteen and it was only three years later that James was admitted to the bar. He combined his great knowledge of the law with a talent for public speaking and began a career as a lawyer. It was about this time that James became engaged to be married to a young woman named Ann. Now Ann was from a wealthy family, and this family was not particularly fond of our Jimmy. Rumors were spread that James was a little more than a fortune hunter. There was a quarrel between Ann and James, the engagement was broken, and Ann died only a week or so later. Many believed it was a suicide, and Ann's family held James responsible for the untimely death of their daughter. James friends were more sympathetic however, rallied around our hero, and soon helped the young man enter politics, against his father's advice, and get elected to the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. To be sure, James carried the weight of his engagement tragedy with him, but in spite of this his career flourished. He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives, where he served for ten years. He then went on to became minister to Russia, and negotiated the first commercial treaty between that country and the US, probably taking the first step towards creating what in one hundred years would become The Cold War. Ah, well. James then went on to be elected to the United States Senate and was re-elected twice until resigning to become Secretary of State. It was in this position that James presided over the annexation of Texas, helped settle the Oregon boundary dispute and attempted to buy Cuba from Spain for $120 million. We can only believe that, had he succeeded, there most likely would have been no Cuban Missile Crisis, fifty-one states, and an abundance of cheap Havana cigars and Ricky Ricardo records. Clearly our boy was ahead of his time. Once leaving office James retired, or thought he had, to his newly-built home in Wheatland Pennsylvania. He soon bounced right out of retirement when he was selected to serve as minister to Great Britain. Several years later he won the Democratic nomination for President of the United States. He received less than 50% of the votes but became President anyway. Now where have I heard that before? And so, on March 4, 1857, James Buchanan became the only Single Person to be elected President of the United States! Since Buchanan was single, he chose his niece, Harriet Lane, to act as hostess of the White House. In some places she is listed as First lady, although my dictionary defines the First Lady as the "wife of the chief executive of a country." So you could bet people that you can name an unmarried First Lady, but you might be wrong. Anyway, by all accounts Harriet did a terrific job on the social scene. History doesn't tell us much about life in the White House during the period when it was occupied by this swinging single. It's probably a safe bet to erase any images of Michael Douglas in The American President right out of your mind. Still, you must give ol' James some credit for being an above average host. It is said that when the Prince of Wales came to visit the White House in 1860, he arrived with an unexpected number of guests. Buchanan proved himself an obliging host by sleeping in the hallway! (Had he been married, I'm not sure a Mrs. Buchanan would have acquiesced to that.) Buchanan was also praised in his handling of foreign affairs. It was at home, though, that Buchanan was seen as somewhat less of a success, mostly due to his inability to deal with the every increasing tension over the volatile issue of slavery. He opposed the practice personally, but felt he must support it where it was legal. As time grew, so did the gap between the slave states and the free states. Civil War had already broken out in Kansas when Buchanan urged Congress to admit Kansas into the union as a slave state. Congress refused, and Kansas did not become a state for another three years. In 1860 the Democratic Party split into two groups, and neither of them chose the incumbent Buchanan as its nominee. Neither felt he could win. This split in the Democratic Party virtually assured the election of the Republican nominee in that year, an upstart, lanky lawyer from Illinois named Abraham Lincoln. The election of Lincoln caused Southern states, starting with South Carolina on Dec. 20th, 1860, to secede from the Union during the final months of Buchanan's administration. It's possible this was because Lincoln, unlike the independent carefree, wild and crazy bachelor who preceded him, was a tied-down, stick-in-the-mud married guy. The more likely cause, however, was Lincoln's opposition to the spread of slavery. Buchanan was opposed to secession, but believed there was no way to prevent it. On March 4, 1857, inauguration day, Buchanan escorted Lincoln to the ceremonies and then back to the White House. It was there that our still single but newly ex-president told the new president, "If you are as happy, my dear sir, on entering this house as I am in leaving it and returning home, you are the happiest man in this country." Buchanan once again retired to his bachelor pad in Wheatland, this time for good, and wrote a defense of his administration called, " The Administration on the Eve of the Rebellion." Buchanan died in 1868, still single and still a handy and unfairly accused scapegoat for his perceived inability to avert the Civil War. The facts of his administration and his contribution attempts to avert war were not recognized by history for over one hundred years. Being single. Nobody ever said it was easy. Internet references:
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