Wheatland, near Lancaster, April 27, 1865.
My Dear Sir:—
Rest assured that I was much gratified to receive your favor of the 22d. If I was indebted a letter to you, I am sorry for it, because I entertain no other feeling towards you but that of kindness and friendship.
In common with you, I feel the assassination of President Lincoln to be a terrible misfortune to our country. May God, in his mercy, ward from us the evils which it portends, and bring good out of this fearful calamity. My intercourse with our deceased President, both on his visit to me, after his arrival in Washington, and on the day of his first inauguration, convinced me that he was a man of a kindly and benevolent heart, and of plain, sincere and frank manners. I have never since changed my opinion of his character. Indeed, I felt for him much personal regard. Throughout the years of the war, I never faltered in my conviction that it would eventually terminate in the crushing of the rebellion, and was ever opposed to the recognition of the Confederate government by any act which even looked in that direction. Believing, always, secession to be a palpable violation of the Constitution, I considered the acts of secession to be absolutely void; and that the States were, therefore, still members, though rebellious members, of the Union......
Yours very respectfully,
James Buchanan.
[MR. BUCHANAN TO REV. P. COOMBE.]
Washington, May 2, 1865.
My Dear Sir:—
I have received your favor of the 29th ultimo, proposing that I should endow a Professorship in Dickinson College for the education of poor students who do not possess the means of educating themselves. The object is highly praiseworthy, but I regret to say I do not feel myself at liberty to advance $25,000 for this purpose. Under existing circumstances my charities, including those to relatives who require assistance, are extensive, and the world is greatly mistaken as to the amount of my fortune. Besides, if I should hereafter conclude to endow a Professorship, whilst I highly approve the theological doctrines of the Methodist Episcopal Church, I could not prefer a college under its direction to a college of the Presbyterian Church, in which I was born and educated, or to the German Reformed College, in my immediate vicinity, in which I have taken a deep interest ever since its origin at Mercersburg, near the place of my nativity.