James Buchanan tragically lost the love of his life

In late November of 1819, James Buchanan’s fiancée Anne Caroline Coleman broke off their engagement. She died Dec. 9, 1819. 

In a 1955 essay, historian Dr. Philip S. Klein termed this tragic event “one of the strangest mysteries in American history…a tale of blighted romance that ended with a pledge of lifetime bachelorhood by the future president.”

 

“Anyone who pauses to consider the implications of this episode must instinctively frame the question: How different might have been the course of American history had James Buchanan married Anne Coleman and devoted his life to rural domesticity and the practice of law?” 

Dr. Klein said Anne Coleman was 13 when her wealthy Pennsylvania family moved from Reading to Lancaster in 1809. James Buchanan arrived in Lancaster in 1809, as a newly minted 17-year-old lawyer from Mercersburg, Pa. 

“Anne Coleman was the outstanding ‘catch’ of Lancaster in 1819,” Dr. Klein said. “It was for that reason, perhaps, that she was still unmarried at 23. Her wealth and social position were enough to awe the timid; her father’s protective care created a shield against the overzealous.”

 

“She was…proud, gentle, full of sensibility, lovely in person, tender and affectionate, intelligent and thoughtful – these were characterizations of her by her friends,” Dr. Klein wrote. “Others noted that she was inclined to be high-strung, impetuous and occasionally giddy.” 

“By 1819, Buchanan had built a fine reputation in politics and in the law. He and Anne became engaged in the summer of 1819,” Dr. Klein reported. “Buchanan apparently did not spend very much time in his courtship during October and November 1819. Always conscientious, he consumed his time in business, apparently to the neglect of Anne Coleman.” 

About town, “as the teacups clinked, talk inevitably drifted to Mr. Buchanan being something less than an ardent suitor of Anne Coleman.” He was not treating her with the “affection that she expected from the man she would marry. In consequence of his coolness, she wrote him a note telling him that she thought it was not regard for her that was his object, but her riches.” 

When gossip got back to Anne that Buchanan was seen visiting with a younger woman, Anne flew off the handle and “penned an angry note and released him from his engagement.” 

She then arranged to visit an older sister in Philadelphia on Dec. 4, Dr. Klein said. “A special attraction was a series of plays then being performed at the theater.”

“Early morning Dec. 9, the thunderbolt struck. A special messenger brought the shocking news that Anne Coleman had died at her sister’s home shortly after midnight. The news swept through Lancaster like a soul-chilling wind.” 

“It seems certain that Anne Coleman died of an overdose of laudanum,” Dr. Klein said, “though no one could be sure whether it was taken by instruction, by accident or by intent.” 

Buchanan’s reaction was: “I feel that happiness has fled from me forever.” 

“From this time forth, politics absorbed his whole life,” Dr. Klein said. “While at first it was chiefly a distraction, an escape, a vindication in his home community, politics at length became his chosen profession, in place of the law.

 

“Marriage he purposely shunned throughout the remainder of his life, though there were many who had hopes of leading him to the altar. To such, Buchanan had a standard reply: ‘Marry he could not, for his affections were buried in the grave.’” 

The fact that Buchanan preserved Anne Coleman’s love letters throughout his life “suggests that he never fully recovered from the crushing effect of her death,” Dr. Klein said. 

These he tied in pink ribbon and endorsed with instructions that upon his death, the letters should be burned without reading. Buchanan died in 1868, due to respiratory failure. He was 77.

 

President Buchanan’s niece was his White House hostess

 Harriet Rebecca Lane, a niece of President James Buchanan, served as the surrogate “First Lady of the United States” during Buchanan’s single term in the White House from 1857-61. He was a lifelong bachelor.

 

Harriet, the youngest of four children, became an orphan at age 11. A writer at the Access Genealogy website said that Harriet “attached herself voluntarily to her already distinguished uncle, who was at the time in the U.S. Senate, having but recently returned from Russia where he had negotiated the first commercial treaty” between the United States and Russia. 

When Harriet’s “favorite uncle and guardian” was elected president, Buchanan invited her to accompany him to Washington, D.C., and serve in the role of “presidential hostess.” She was 27.

 

Writing for the White House Historical Association, Allida Black said: “The popular Miss Lane flirted happily with numerous beaux, calling them ‘pleasant but dreadfully troublesome.’ Buchanan often warned her against ‘rushing precipitately into matrimonial connections.’” 

“She enlivened social gatherings with a captivating mixture of spontaneity and poise.” 

Yet, the political climate was ominous, as the nation was becoming divided over slavery and a host of other issues.

 

“As sectional tensions increased,” Black said, “Miss Lane worked out seating arrangements for her weekly formal dinner parties with special care, to give dignitaries their proper precedence and still keep political foes apart.” 

“Her tact did not falter, but her task became impossible – as did her uncle’s,” Black wrote. “Seven states had seceded by the time Buchanan retired from office in 1861.” They were South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas. 

Harriet Lane was married in 1866, at age 35…with her uncle’s approval. Her groom was Henry Elliot Johnston, a Baltimore banker and railroad executive.