I beg of you to say nothing to any of your colleagues in Europe about your continuance in office during the next year. Had it been announced I had informed you, in answer to Miss Wight, that you should continue indefinitely in office, this would have done both you and myself injury. We know not what may transpire in 1857, and therefore, in reference to the mission after that period, I can say nothing. “Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.”
Even if I had the time, I could not communicate any news to you which you will not see in the papers. The pressure for office will be nearly as great as though I had succeeded a Whig administration.
With my kind and affectionate regards to Mrs. Mason and your excellent family, and cordially wishing you and them many a happy Christmas and many a prosperous New Year, I remain, always,
Very respectfully your friend,
James Buchanan.
P.S.—In reading over my letter, I find it is quite too cold in reference to Mary Ann, and therefore I beg to send her my love.
CHAPTER IX.
1857-1858.
INAUGURATION AS PRESIDENT—SELECTION OF A CABINET—THE DISTURBANCES IN KANSAS—MR. BUCHANAN’S CONSTRUCTION OF THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA ACT, AND OF THE “PLATFORM” ON WHICH HE WAS ELECTED—FINAL ADMISSION OF KANSAS INTO THE UNION.
From the communication which has been furnished to me by Mr. James Buchanan Henry, I select the following account of the period preceding the inauguration of his uncle as President, on the 4th of March, 1857:
Soon after Mr. Buchanan’s election to the Presidency, he sent for me—I was in Philadelphia, where I had begun the practice of the law—to come to Wheatland. He then told me that he had selected me to be his private secretary, and spoke to me gravely of the temptations by which I should probably be assailed in that position. Soon afterwards prominent men and politicians began to make their way to Wheatland in great numbers, and the stream increased steadily until the departure of Mr. Buchanan for Washington.