Beschreibung:

BUCHANAN, JAMES, President. Autograph letter signed ("James Buchanan") to the Honorable J.L. Yost, Wheatland, Lancaster, 28 May 1851. 4 1/2 pp., 4to, 210 x 250mm. (8 x 9 3/4 in.). Fine condition. BUCHANAN FORCEFULLY DEFENDS HIMSELF: "I HAVE [N]EVER PROVED UNFAITHFUL TO DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES" An unusually long letter in which Buchanan expresses unusually strong resentment towards a former political ally, Colonel Frazer, and describes the circumstances which led to their falling out. Buchanan had apparently engineered an appointment for the Colonel's brother-in-law, William John Steele while he was Secretary of State, but could not acommodate the Colonel's father-in-law, for which Frazer vociferously criticized Buchanan's political principles. "After the failure to obtain the first appointment of Wm. Steele,... I asked his appointment from President Polk as a personal favor & he was appointed a purser in the Navy... [After Steele's appointment was secured, Colonel Frazer] appealed to me... to have Major Roche, then the Secretary of the Mint, removed & to have his father in law... appointed to fill the vacancy. This request I considered unreasonable. Had this unexampled partiality been shown by the President to a single family; - had a father & a son, for the first time I believe in our history, been before the Senate at the same moment, for two important & lucrative civil offices, they would most probably have both been rejected. Besides, to have given to Lancaster County, & to a single family in that county two such offices would have been unjust to the other counties of the state. Soon after Colonel Frazer had failed to obtain his father-in-laws [ sic ] appointment as Treasurer of the Mint,... I began to learn that he spoke of me unkindly & disrespectfully, which at first I was slow to believe. He gradually became more open & loud in his personal abuse, until at length his hostility nearly reached monomania... I feel proudly conscious that this hostility must proceed from private reasons above; & not because I have ever proved unfaithful to Democratic principles. My sincere efforts in defence [ sic ] of our time honored & glorious cause have been sanctioned & approved by the Democratic party of my native state for more than a century... What public act have I done to expose me to [Colonel Frazer's] persecution? None, - I answer proudly none. His hostility, therefore, must proceed from private griefs..."