Walking in Wheatland: Home of President James Buchanan
The second of ten children, James Buchanan was born in a log cabin in Pennsylvania in 1791, graduated from Dickinson College, became a lawyer in Lancaster and went on to become a congressman, senator, ambassador and Secretary of State. In 1857 at the age of 66, he was elected the 15th President of the United States and committed to serving only one term in his inaugural address. He began his presidency with high hopes of emulating George Washington’s achievements and reputation. However, in a few short years Mr. Buchanan made what historians have deemed the worst mistake in presidential history: failure to negotiate peace, causing seven southern states to secede. The once-unified nation was torn in half resulting in the Civil War, the bloodiest in American history. Mr. Buchanan was succeeded by Abraham Lincoln.
Mr. Buchanan was the first and only President from Pennsylvania, as well as the only one to have never married. Apart from a few absences scattered throughout his political career, he lived at Wheatland located just west of Lancaster, even using it as his campaign headquarters, until he died in his bed chamber on June 1, 1868. He was 77 years old.
Tours of Wheatland’s mansion, outbuildings and gardens are offered on the hour from 10 am to 3 pm, Monday through Saturday, and include historical exhibits discussing Mr. Buchanan’s extensive political career and his administration’s ultimate failure. The Wheatland mansion was built in 1828 in the Federal Style of the period, which highlighted symmetry and Greek Revival architecture, and the surviving outbuildings include the privy, smokehouse and icehouse.
The test of leadership is not to put greatness into humanity, but to elicit it, for the greatness is already there. — James Buchanan
