Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-07-27

O0p1kU0O t0A9 u10, On x0UkD01y WOkus
ing last, in the % year Of her aga while
on viGit TO her friends in Philadelphia,
Miss Annie c. Coleman, daughter OF
Robert Coleman, esquire, o. this CITY. 1t
rarely falls to our lot to shed tear over
the mortal remains of one 80 much and so
deservedly loved as was the deceased. She
was everything which the f0ndest parent
or fondest friend could have wished her to
be Although she was young and beauti-
full, and accomplished, and the smiles OF
fortune shoue upon her, yet her native
modesty and worth made her unconscious
of her own attractions. Her heart was the
seat Of all the softer virtues which en-
noble and dignity the character of woman.
She has now gone to world where in the
bosom of her God she will he happy with
congenial spirits. May the memory of her
virtues be ever green in the hearts OF her
surviving friends. May her mild spirit,
which on earth still breathes peace and
good will, be their guardian angel to pre-
serve them from the faults to which she
was ever stranger
&" The spiders most ettenuated thread
Is cord, Is cable TO q mans tender tie
On earthlybliss-it breaks at every breeze" :"
The following letter, written by Mr..
is all that remains of written evidence to
attest the depth of his attachment to her :
James Buchanan to Robert OolemsD. Esq.
LANCASTER. December 10, 1873.
MY DEAR SIR You have lost child,
dear, dear child. have lost the only
earthly object of my affections, without
whom life now presents to me dreary
blank. My prospects are all cut OIL, and l
feel that my happiness will be buried with
her in the grave. 1t is now no time for
explanation, but the time will come when
you will discover that she, as well as 1,
have been much abused. God forgive the
authors of it. My feeling of resentment
against them, whoever they may be, are
buried in the dust. have now one re-
quest to make, and, for the love of God
and of your dear, departed daughter,
whom l loved Infinitely more than any
other human being could love, deny me
not. Afford me the melancholy pleasure
of seeing her body before its interment.
I would not for the world be denied this
request.
l might make another, but, from the
Misrepresentation which must have been
made to you, l am almost afraid.
would like to follow her remains to the
grave as mourner. would like to con-
vince the world, and hope yet to convince
you, that she was infinitely dearer to me
than life. may sustain the shock of her
death, but feel that happiness has fled
from me forever. The prayer which !
make to God without ceasing is, that
vet may be able to show my veneration
for the memory of my dear departed saint
by my respect and attachment for her sur
viving friends.
May heaven bless you and enable you to
bear the shock with the fortitude of a
Christian.
am, forever, your sincere and grateful
friend,
JAMES BUCHANAN.
In the course of Mr.. Buchanan's long
subsequent political career, this incident
in his early life was often alluded to in
that species of literature called "campaign
documents" accompanied by many per-
versions and Misrepresentation These
publications are each and all unworthy oil
notice. On one location, after he had re-
tired to Wheatland, and after he had
passed the age of seventy, he was shown
by friend newspaper article, misrepre.
senting, as usual, the details of this affair.
He then said, with deep emotion, that
there were papers and relics which he had
religiously preserved, then in q sealed
package in a place of deposit in the city
of New York, which would explain the
trivial origin of this separations His
executors found these papers inclosed and
sealed separately from all others, and with
direction upon them in his handwriting
that they were to be destroyed without
being read. They obeyed tho injunction
and burnt the package without breaking
the seal. 1t happened, however, that the
original of the letter addressed by Mr..
Buchanan to the young lady's father be-
fore her funeral was not contained in this
package. 1t was found in his private
depositaries at Wheatland, and it came
there in consequence of the fact that it
was returned by the father unreal and un
opened.
1t is now known that the separation ol
the lovers originated in a misunderstand
ing, on the part of the lady, of a very
small matter, exaggerated by giddy and
indiscrcet tongues, working on q peculiarly
sensitive nature. Such separation, the
commonest of occurrences, would have
ended, in the ordinary course, in reconcile
alton, when the parties met, if death had
not suddenly snatched away one of the
sufferers and left the other to life-lOng
grief. But under the circumstances feel
bound to be governed by the spirit of Mr..
Buchanan's 8 written instruction to his ex.
ecutors and not to 60 into the details of a
story which show that the whole occur
renee was chargeable on the folly of others,
and not on either of the two whose in
terests were involved.
Among the few survivors of tho circle
to which this young lady belonged, the
remembrance of her sudden death is still
fresh in aged hearts. The estrangement
of the lovers was but ono of those com
mon occurrences that are perpetually
verifying the saying, hackneyed by ever
lasting repetition, that /" the course of true
love never did run smooth"
But it ran, in this case, pure and un :
broken in the heart of the survivor,
through long and varied life 1t became
: grief that could not be spoken of to
which only the most distant allusion
could be made; a sacred, unceasing sor-
row, buried deep in the breast of a man
who was formed for domestic joys hid
den beneath manners that were most en-
gaging, beneath strong social tendencies
and a chivalrous old.fashioned Difference to
woman of all ages and all claims. His
peculiar and reverential demeanor towards
the sex, never varied by rank, or station;
or individual attractions, was dcNbtk 8 in
a large degree caused by the tender men,
ory of what he had found, or fancied, in
her whom no had lost in his early days
by such a cruel fate. If her death had
not prevented their marriage, it is
probable that a purely professional
and domestic life would have filled