Buchanan, James

A group of 4 autograph, and one manusওcript, letters signed by James Buchanan ("James Buchanan"), the fifteenth President, to his friend and confidant William M. Wiley, discussing a variety of topics ranging from his time in London as United States Minister to the Fugitive Slave law

Comprising: Manuscriꦍpt letter signed, one page, Wheatland, 5 December 1849, to William M. Wiley, apologizing for being delayed with his correspondence and promising to help Wiley "obtain the place," with integral autograph address panel.

Autograph letter signed, one page, Wheatland, 28 March 1850, to the President and Directors of the Alexandria & Orange Rail Road Company, offering a reference for William M. Wiley, who was bidding for a contract with the company: “I have been intimately acquainted with him for many years, & know him t🌟o be an active, intelligent & enterprising man whose moral honesty & integrity have never been doubted, In case [his partners] &amꦦp; himself should make such a bid as would be acceptable to you, I have no doubt the contract would be faithfully & satisfactorily executed. … I have doubt he will prove himself to be entirely worthy of your confidence.”

Autograph letter signed, one page, Wheatland, 25 August 1851, to William M. Wiley, commenting sharply on his successor as United Stat🌱es Senator from Pennsylvania, Simon Cameron, later to serve briefly in Lincoln’s cabinet as Secretary of War: “General Cameron is a tyrant at heart & is so selfish that he will never befriend any independent man who refuses to become his instr🍌ument. As a politician he is now ‘on his last legs,’ confided in by none & distrusted by all, I most deeply regret that you should have been made the victim of his vengeance; I trust, as it often happens in life, that this disappointment may eventuate in ultimate good to yourself.”

Autograph letter signed, one page, Wheatland, 24 September 1851, to William M. Wiley, discussing politics and, in particular, the Fugitive Slave law and the Christiana Riot—a violent confrontation in Christiana, Pennsylvania, between an alliance of African Americans and white abolitionists and a Maryland posse trying to capture four fugitive enslaved persons. One member of the posse was killed and two others wounded during the fight. A number of rioters were arrested and charged with treason under the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law. Most were acquitted. Demonstrating the same ඣmisunderstanding of the coming breech between South and North that would cripple his presidency, Buchanan writes: The Christiana murder was a shocking affair, It will try the strength of the Fugitive Slave Law, & I trust in God, that the Court & Jury of Lancaster County may do their duty. But is it not passing strange that Maryland alone, of all the Slave holding states, should advocate a candidate tor the Presidency who refused to vote for the this very law? Without the Fugitive Slave Law, there would be no pretence of a compromise between the North & the South, for all other measures were favorable to the North; & yet General Cass is glorified by his f🥃riends as the great author of the compromise, We are now struggling & I trust successfully to maintain tis law & upon its maintenance may probably depend the fate of the Union; & yet the Democracy of Maryland a State of all others the most deeply interested in it are struggling to elevate to the Presidency a candidate who decline to vote in favor of its passage.”

Autograph letter signed as United States Minister to the United Kingdom, 3 ½ pages, London, 31 August 1854, on stationery of Legationও of The United States, to William M. Wiley, reflecting on England and his time there and anticipating a return home: “Although I have been very kindly treated here my heart is still at home. I have now been here in London more than a year & rejoice in the reflection that should Heaven spare my life & Health, I shall return to my native land by the end of another year, never, never again to leave it, After all it is the only Country on earth where a man feels himself to be a man. … My life here has been one of labor & very great responsibility; & I anticipate with heart felf pleasure the quiet tranquility & retirement of Wheatland. I hear often of Lancaster. … I never could fully realize the extent of my attachment to that place, until my arrival in England. … [T]he British people enjoy much political liberty, The Press is free & uses its freedom,—and life, liberty & happiness are properly secured by law. The Judiciary is able, independent & just. But there is a governing class—of noble families, —as well as a social aristocracy which controls, in a very great degree, the Government;ꦦ & a poor man without family connexions has but little chance of rising.”

Together 5 letters totaling 10 pages, various🉐 sizes; generally very good condition, oc💫casional stains or fold separations.