Entirely in his hand inked manuscript on a single folded unlined letter sheet with cover addressed to ‘Hon. John Y. Mason, London’ The letter written by on June 19, 1856 reads as follows: ‘Whealland, near Lancaster 19 June 1856 My dear sir; It affords me pleasure to introduce to you the bearer here of Mrs. Ellen Desha, the widow of General Robert Desha of Tennessee. Mrs. Desha with her two daughters, is about to visit Europe; & I bespeak for her and them your kind regards. General Desha was a member of Congress from Tennessee in the days of Andrew Jackson & I was intimately acquainted with him & felt a warm regard for him. I have never engaged the pleasure of an acquaintance with Mrs. Desha; but I have no doubt, from what I learn, that she is worthy of your respect & attention. From your friend very respectfully James Buchanan. Hon. John Y. Mason.’ Buchanan was the U.S. ambassador to the Court of St. James (Britain) at the time and Mason was U.S. ambassador to France. Interestingly The Ostend Manifesto drawn up by Mason, Buchanan & Soule, then ambassador to Spain was written by these three in 1845 in a secret meeting at Ostend. This was a document that described the rationale for the United States to purchase Cuba from Spain while implying that the U.S. should declare war if Spain refused. Cuba's annexation had long been a goal of U.S. slaveholding expansionists, particularly as the U.S. set its sights southward following the admission of California to the Union as a free state (Wikipedia 2015). This letter was written about a year before Buchanan became President.

Normal folds, else Fine.