The Marquis of Lansdowne at parting from me said: “If Miss Lane should have the kindness to remember me, do me the honor to lay me at her feet.”
Old Robert Owen came in and has kept me so long that I must cut this letter short. I go to Paris, God willing, on Thursday next, in company with Messrs. Campbell and Croshey our consuls. I send a letter from James which I have received open.
Brussels, March 27, 1856.
I write this in the legation of Colonel Siebels. He and I intend to go to-morrow to the Hague on a visit to Mr. Belmont, from which I propose to return to Paris on Tuesday or Wednesday next. It is my purpose, God willing, to leave for Havre for home in the Arago on Wednesday, the 9th of April. I do not believe that a more comfortable vessel, or a better or safer captain exists. All who have crossed the Atlantic with him speak in the same terms both of his ship and himself.
I shall return to Mr. Mason’s at Paris, because I could not do otherwise without giving offence. What a charming family it is. Judge Mason, though somewhat disabled, has a much more healthy appearance, and in the face resembles much more his former self, than he did when attending the Ostend conference. The redness and sometimes blueness of his face have disappeared, and he now looks as he did in former years.
I shall defer all accounts of my doings on the continent until after we meet. I may or I may not write to you once more before embarking.
You might let Eskridge and Miss Hetty know at what time I shall probably be at home, though I do not wish it to be noised abroad. You cannot calculate our passage to be less than two weeks. Should I reach my native shore on my birth-day, the 23d April, I shall thank God and be content. The Arago takes the southern route to keep clear of the ice.
CHAPTER VIII.
1856.
RETURN TO AMERICA—NOMINATION AND ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCY—SIGNIFICANCE OF MR. BUCHANAN’S ELECTION IN RESPECT TO THE SECTIONAL QUESTIONS—PRIVATE CORRESPONDENCE.
Mr. Buchanan arrived at New York in the latter part of April, 1856, and there met with a public reception from the authorities and people of the city, which evinced the interest that now began to be everywhere manifested in him as the probable future President. With what feelings he himself regarded the prospect of his nomination by his party, and his election, has appeared from his unreserved communications with his friends. That he did not make efforts to secure the nomination will presently appear upon other testimony than his own. He reached Wheatland in the last week of April, and there he remained a very quiet observer of what was taking place in the political world. Before he left England, he had been informed that a Democratic convention of his own State had unanimously declared him to be the first choice of the Pennsylvania Democrats for the Presidency. To this he had made no formal or public response; but on the 8th of June he was waited upon by a committee from this convention, and he then addressed them as follows: