The Bachelor President

Was he a victim of lies?

The Bachelor President

 

By Elton Camp

 

James Buchanan’s term saw such strife

It probably was best he didn’t have a wife.

Historians his term, generally, do curse.

“Among presidents, he was the worst.”

 

The main reason people blacken his name:

At the hardest time in history his term came.

High on the list of leaders it’s hard to rate

When the union is about to disintegrate.

 

Buchanan couldn’t do much of anything

When his enemies began vile mud to sling.

“He had his Miss Nancy,” Andrew Jackson claimed.

Saying this with the intent the president to defame.

 

William Rufus King had been his good friend.

Until the senator’s death brought that to an end.

Of anything improper there wasn’t the least proof,

But of their relationship the press liked to spoof..

 

“King was the president’s better half,”

Some of the papers said with a laugh.

By then the former vice president had died,

So it was safe enough for them to deride.

 

“I lost the girl I loved in my youth.

I’ll never wed and that is the truth.”

After a spat, Ann Coleman had died.

Many claimed that it was by suicide.

 

This is the statement that he gave:

“The woman for me lies in her grave.”

Ann came to believe that James was a cur

And only for family money marrying her.

 

Ann’s letters James kept all his days.

Then they were destroyed in a blaze.

This was done at his request.

Because he thought it was best.

 

 Whether the man was straight or gay,

Not a single person but he could say.

There was not a reason why

To such talk to make a reply.

 

Thomas Jefferson had shown the way:

“About vicious lies, have nothing to say.”

Thus he said, “Never mind” about Sally his “lover.”

“At my wife’s death, I promised not to take another.”

 

Buchanan had problem enough.

Without any extraneous stuff.

But so it certainly does seem

He’ll never be in high esteem.