Buchanan Administration - Family Life
Family Life
In 1819, at the age of 28, he became engaged to Anne C. Coleman, the 23-year-old daughter of a wealthy Lancaster, Pennsylvania, family. In December of that year, however, the couple quarreled, and Coleman broke off the engagement. She then went to visit relatives in Philadelphia, where she died suddenly on December 9, 1819. There has been speculation that her death was a suicide. The source of the quarrel is unknown—according to some rumors, Coleman came to suspect that Buchanan was marrying her for her fortune. When Buchanan died, the executors of his estate, on Buchanan's request, destroyed unexamined materials explaining the reasons for the quarrel. Buchanan was apparently devastated by his fiancée's death. Although Buchanan was reported to have had romantic attachments in his later years, he never married. Instead, he threw himself into politics.
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