The Cairo Bulletin

The Bulletin.
JAMES BUCHANAN'S GRIEF.
The Sorrow That Came to Him
Through an Anonymous Letter.
A correspondent of the Chicago Evening
Journal having given some reasons
why ex-President Buchanan never married,
another gentleman from Upper Sandusky
has written what he knows about
the reasons of Mr. Buchanan's celibacy.
The writer says: The amount of fact in
proportion to fiction in the above little romance
is very small indeed—the sole fact
connected with the lady mentioned is in
being the niece of Miss Ann Coleman, of
Lancaster, Pa., who was the first and only
'fiancee' of the late President Buchanan.
Newspaper reports to the contrary notwithstanding.
The incidents connected with
that sad affair, although occurring when
the writer of this was a youth of seventeen
or eighteen years of age, have haunted his
memory up to the present—when he has
passed the allotted threescore and ten. I
shall briefly state the circumstances as I
remember them. Mr. Buchanan, then
somewhere in the neighborhood of thirty
years of age, had been elected in the fall of
1820 as a member of Congress for the Lancaster
district. The long session extended,
I think, into the month of July. It was a
hot, dusty summer, and the stage coach
did not reach the city until after nine
o'clock in the evening. There were several
printer boys waiting the arrival of the
stage, who congratulated Mr. Buchanan on
his arrival home, and unanimously pronounced
him the best dusted man they had
ever met. At that time the Court House
stood at the intersection of the four main
streets of the city, and Mr. Buchanan's
office and chambers were in the southwest
corner angle. Soon after alighting and chatting
a few moments with acquaintances
who happened to be in the vicinity, he
went to his chambers to undergo a much
needed purgation. This accomplished,
somewhere about ten o'clock he stepped
out in morning gown and slippers and without
hat, and promenaded back and forth in
the angle to catch what little breeze was
stirring. Miss Grace Hubley, sister-in-law
to William Jenks, who resided on the corner
of South Queen street, the terminus of
the southwestern angle, happening to be
sitting in the parlor with all the windows
open on account of the heat, noticing that
Mr. Buchanan had returned, went to the
door, and, passing the compliments of the
evening, invited him in, with which he
complied, and they seated themselves by a
large open window and engaged in conversation.
Not more than twenty minutes
thereafter an anonymous note was handed
to Miss Coleman, stating that Mr. Buchanan
was too tired to call on his affianced, but that
he could call on and sit and chat with Miss
Hubley. To understand what follows I
must here state that Robert Coleman, the
father, was a purse-proud, imperious man,
who, having acquired great wealth at a
time when millionaires did not grow on
every bush, and possessing but little educational
advantage, was very jealous of those
whose cultivation and social position were
in advance of his own, scrupulously stood
sentinel over his own dignity, and was
never ready to resent any fancied infringement
of it. On the night in question there
happened to be several callers at the Coleman
mansion who were sitting in the parlor
in conversation when the note was handed
by the servant to Miss Ann. On perusing
it the lady was naturally somewhat disturbed,
which was evinced in her face,
and immediately attracted the attention of
the jealous and imperious old man, who,
notwithstanding her remonstrances, snatched
and read it. His offended dignity was
at once in arms, and within an hour his
daughter was placed in the family carriage
and on the way to Philadelphia to visit her
sister, Mrs. Judge Hemphill. Knowing the
unrelenting nature of her father, and probably
feeling hurt at the innuendo thus anonymously
conveyed to her, although an
intelligent and accomplished young lady
and very much attached to her betrothed
lover, she became despondent, and in her
despair took laudanum and was a corpse
on the day following her reaching Philadelphia.
Mr. Buchanan requested permission
to attend the funeral as chief mourner, but
was rudely refused. Being a man of ardent
affections and entirely devoted to his betrothed,
Mr. Buchanan's mind was nearly
unhinged by the sudden calamity which
had befallen him—so much so indeed, that
his friends became uneasy, and Judge
Franklin persuaded him to remain in his
family a few days. While there, and wishing
to write the obituary notice himself, he
requested Mr. Dickson to delay the publication
of the 'Intelligencer' as long as he
could, which was done, but as the mail was
only posted once a week to certain points
of the country we were compelled to close
the paper that evening, and I was sent
around to the judge's to see if the obituary
was ready. I was informed that Mr. Buchanan's
mind was so disturbed by grief
that he was unable to write the notice, but
the Judge suggested that I should go into
the parlor, where Mr. Buchanan was alone
in his sorrow, and inform him that he must
close the paper that evening, thinking it
might spur him up to the necessary exertion.
I have witnessed many sad scenes in
the course of a somewhat lengthened life,
but none that made so indelible an impression
on my mind as the grief-stricken appearance
of Mr. Buchanan on that occasion.
To see a man of almost perfect physical and
mental structure bowed to the earth by
irretrievable grief is one of the most painful
sights that a person of average feeling
can witness. Judge Franklin had to
write the obituary himself. I would here
state that I have heard with pain blame
attributed to Miss Hubley in this connection
of which she is wholly guiltless—the
anonymous note having been written by an
envious lady who passed while Mr. Buchanan
and Miss Grace were conversing together