What presidential candidate had the most experience? ... You'll be very surprised.

[Staples]

James Buchanan!

From George Will's column today...

The president who came to office with the most glittering array of experiences had served 10 years in the House of Representatives, then became minister to Russia, then served 10 years in the Senate, then four years as secretary of state (during a war that enlarged the nation by 33 percent), then was minister to Britain. Then, in 1856, James Buchanan was elected president and in just one term secured a strong claim to the rank as America's worst president. Abraham Lincoln, the inexperienced former one-term congressman, had an easy act to follow.

[Bicoastal]

1. James Buchanan might have been our first gay president.

He never married, rarely dated, and he and his Vice President were very....um....close.

[goclark]

2. So it goes for experience

Abe was pretty damn good enough for me.

[grantcart]

3. fm wik

In 1819 Buchanan was engaged to Ann Caroline Coleman, the daughter of a wealthy iron manufacturing businessman and sister-in-law of Philadelphia judge Joseph Hemphill, a colleague of Buchanan's from the House of Representatives. However, Buchanan spent little time with her during the courtship; Buchanan was extremely busy with his law firm and political projects at the time, taking him away from Coleman for weeks at a time. Conflicting rumors abounded, opining that he was marrying for her money as he came from a less affluent family, or that he was involved with other women. Buchanan, for his part, never publicly spoke of his motives or feelings, however, letters from Ann revealed she was paying heed to the rumors, and after Buchanan paid a visit to the wife of a friend, Ann broke off the engagement. Ann soon after died; the records of Dr. Chapman, who looked after Ann in her final hours, and who said just after her passing that this was "the first instance he ever knew of hysteria producing death," reveal that he theorized the woman's demise was caused by an overdose of laudanum.<6>

His fiancée's death struck Buchanan. In a letter to her father – which was returned to him unopened – Buchanan said "It is now no time for explanation, but the time will come when you will discover that she, as well as I, have been much abused. God forgive the authors of it... I may sustain the shock of her death, but I feel that happiness has fled from me forever."<6> The Coleman family became bitter towards Buchanan, and denied him a place at Ann's funeral.<7> Buchanan vowed he would never marry, though he continued to be flirtatious, and some pressed him to seek a wife. In response he said "Marry he could not, for his affections were buried in the grave." He preserved Ann Coleman's letters, kept them with him throughout his life, and requested they be burned upon his death.<6>

For fifteen years in Washington, D.C., prior to his presidency, Buchanan lived with his close friend, Alabama Senator William Rufus King<8>. King became Vice President under Franklin Pierce. He took ill and died shortly after Pierce's inauguration, and four years before Buchanan became President. Buchanan and King's close relation prompted Andrew Jackson to refer to King as "Miss Nancy" and "Aunt Fancy," while Aaron V. Brown spoke of the two as "Buchanan and his wife."<9><10> Further, some of the contemporary press also speculated about Buchanan and King's relationship. Buchanan and King's nieces destroyed their uncles' correspondence, leaving some questions as to what relationship the two men had, but the length and intimacy of surviving letters illustrate "the affection of a special friendship",<9> and Buchanan wrote of his "communion" with his housemate <11>. Such expression, however, was not necessarily unusual amongst men at the time. Though the circumstances surrounding Buchanan and King's close emotional ties have led some to speculate that he was America's first homosexual president, there is currently no evidence that King and Buchanan had a sexual relationship.<9>

The only President never to marry, Buchanan turned to Harriet Lane, an orphaned niece whom he had earlier adopted, to act as his First Lady. "I feel that it is not good for man to be alone", he wrote, "and should not be astonished to find myself married to some old maid who can nurse me when I am sick, provide good dinners for me when I am well, and not expect from me any very ardent or romantic affection."<12><13>

[Art_from_Ark]

4. Buchanan was an easy act to follow?

The election of Lincoln ignited the Southern secessionist movement, with none of the South voting for Lincoln and South Carolina seceeding just a month after the election, and war starting just a month after Lincoln's inauguration. Obviously, the relative peace of Buchanan's term, as uneasy as it may have been, was not an easy act to follow.