ng which the fondest parent, or
the fondest friend could have wished her to be.

"Although she was young and beautiful and accomplished, and
the smiles of fortune shone 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 ennoble
and dignify the character of woman.

"She has now gone to a world, where, in the bosom of her
God, she will be 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
preserve them from the faults to which she was ever a
stranger.

"The spider's most attenuated thread
Is cord, is cable, to man's tender tie
On earthly bliss--it breaks at every breeze."

How deeply he felt her death is shown by extracts from a letter
written to him by a friend in the latter part of December:

"I am writing, I know not why, and perhaps had better not. I
write only to speak of the awful visitation of Providence
that has fallen upon you, and how deeply I feel it.... I
trust to your philosophy and courage, and to the elasticity
of spirits natural to most young men....

"The sun will shine again, though a man enveloped in gloom
always thinks the darkness is to be eternal. Do you remember
the Spanish anecdote?

"A lady who had lost a favorite child remained for months
sunk in sullen sorrow and despair. Her confessor, one
morning visited her, and found her, as usual immersed in
gloom and grief. 'What,' said he, 'Have you not forgiven God
Almighty?'

"She rose, exerted herself, joined the world again, and
became useful to herself and her friends."

Time's kindly touch heals many wounds, but the years seemed to bring
to James Buchanan no surcease of sorrow. He was always under the
cloud of that misunderstanding, and during his long political career,
the incident frequently served as a butt for the calumnies of his
enemies. It was freely used in "campaign documents," perverted,
misrepresented, and twisted into every conceivable shape, though it is
difficult to conceive how any form of humanity could ever be so base.

Next to the loss of the girl he loved, this was the greatest grief of
his life. To see the name of