Buchanan James




James Buchanan and Harriet Lane Inscribe Book on End of Civil War in North Carolina

JAMES BUCHANAN, Autograph Inscription, February 11, 1867, in Cornelia Phillips Spencer, The Last Ninety Days of the War in North-Carolina. New York: Watchman Publishing Company, 1866. 292 pp., 4.75" x 7". Some minor bump damage to edges of cover; foxing on interior pages; very good. Buchanan signed books are super-scarce with only five appearing at auction in the last forty years and only one other signed by H. Lane Johnston, which fetched over $10,000 in 1996.

The last two images of Buchanan's inscription were taken using specialized equipment for the purpose of enhanced viewing of this auction item.

This book on the final three months of the Civil War in North Carolina belonged to former President James Buchanan, given to him by former North Carolina governor David L. Swain (1801-1868), to whom the book is dedicated.

Cornelia Phillips Spencer (1825-1908) was born in New York, but her father soon became a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In 1855, she married James Monroe Spencer and moved to Alabama, where their only child was born in 1859. After her husband's death in 1861, she and their daughter returned to Chapel Hill and she began writing a book and contributed to newspapers. She began publishing a series of essays in the New York Watchman newspaper at the suggestion of David L. Swain, who had served as governor of North Carolina from 1832 to 1835 and as president of the University of North Carolina from 1835 to 1868. They were published in book form in 1866, and Spencer dedicated the volume to Swain "at whose suggestion it was undertaken, and by whose invaluable advice, encouragement, and assistance it has been completed."

Buchanan inscribed this copy "President Buchanan / from his friend / 5 Feb 1867" on the front end papers. In the middle of this inscription is Swain's signature. Buchanan wrote at the top of the dedication page, "11 February 1867. Received from Governor Swain of North Carolina." On the title page Harriet Lane Johnston (1830-1903) added her ownership signature and the date, "1868." Johnston was Buchanan's niece, and he had served as her legal guardian after the death of her mother and father by 1841. In 1854, she joined him in London, where he was the U.S. Minister to Great Britain. From 1857 to 1861, she served as First Lady of the United States for her bachelor uncle. In January 1866, she married Henry Elliott Johnston, and they had two sons. Her husband and both of their children died in the early 1880s. Johnston may have added her signature to this book as part of the disposition of her uncle's belongings after his death on June 1, 1868.

James Buchanan (1791-1868) was born in Pennsylvania and graduated from Dickinson College in 1809. He served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives as a Federalist from 1814-1816. With the collapse of the Federalist Party, Buchanan became a Republican-Federalist and served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1821 to 1831, where he largely supported Andrew Jackson. He served as ambassador to Russia for eighteen months in 1832 and 1833, then as U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania from 1834 to 1845. President James K. Polk appointed him as Secretary of State, a position he held from 1845 to 1849. President Franklin Pierce sent Buchanan as the U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, a position he held from 1853 to 1856. Being out of the country during the increasing sectional tensions caused by the Kansas-Nebraska Act and other controversies aided Buchanan's political fortunes in 1856, when he won the Democratic nomination on the 17th ballot over incumbent Pierce and Stephen Douglas of Illinois. Buchanan supported Douglas's doctrine of popular sovereignty, hoping to keep the divisive issue of slavery out of Congress and national debate. Two days after his inauguration, the Supreme Court issued its Dred Scott decision, declaring that Congress could not outlaw slavery in the territories. Far from settling the issue, the Court's decision fueled more sectional outrage. He took little direct action in response to the Panic of 1857, which hit northern cities and states hardest. Buchanan's poor handling of the Utah War and Bleeding Kansas also contributed to his poor reputation as president. As he left office, he famously declared that the southern states had no right to secede and that the federal government had no right to prevent them. He spent the Civil War weakly supporting the Union war effort and writing a memoir in defense of his presidency, published in 1866. Buchanan never married, the only president to remain a bachelor.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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