00:10 - Buchanan ends up leaving the white house

00:13 - as one of the most vilified politicians.

00:16 - Both in the north

00:18 - the south

00:19 - and the west he comes home.

00:22 - To wheatland

00:24 - kind of a.

00:26 - A really defeated.

00:28 - Individual.

00:30 - Some ways i feel bad for him but in other ways it's like you know

00:34 - he made his own bed

00:35 - that bed's from about eighteen forty eighteen forty two

00:39 - and

00:40 - so we're pretty certain that that was a it's a four poster tester bed

00:45 - but Buchanan never he

00:46 - had a tester on it

00:48 - but the

00:48 - little pins.

00:50 - That can be seen at the top that would have held the

00:52 - the wooden tester frame and place

00:54 - are still there

00:56 - and.

00:57 - Buchanan used that bed all

00:59 - twenty years that he owned wheatland.

01:02 - And that would be the bed that he would die in.

01:05 - At eight thirty in the morning on June 1st surrounded by his family. The Bible

01:09 - that's up there Buchanan bought in eighteen fifty six.

01:13 - It was likely

01:15 - the Bible that he brought with him

01:16 - to.

01:18 - Take his oath of office upon

01:20 - we don't know that for certain but

01:22 - it's likely

01:23 - he signed it like he signed every book that he owned

01:26 - and dated it

01:28 - we know that Buchanan

01:30 - the older that he got the more religious he got.

01:33 - He was raised as a

01:35 - presbyterian.

01:38 - He.

01:39 - Never joined with the church.

01:42 - Until after he left

01:44 - politics completely so

01:47 - we know that when he returned home to wheatland

01:50 - in march of eighteen sixty one.

01:53 - Not too long after that he.

01:58 - Continued to go to church at the presbyterian church in Lancaster city

02:03 - and began the process of

02:05 - going through the motions of joining with the church

02:09 - and when the elders and the pastor asked him.

02:13 - The questions about the principles

02:17 - involved in being an accepted

02:19 - member of the

02:21 - presbyterian faith.

02:25 - One of the principal beliefs at that time.

02:28 - Was predestination.

02:30 - And be can couldn't square himself with answering yes that i believe in that.

02:35 - Because he was raised like

02:37 - i think everyone

02:38 - is raised to believe that

02:40 - we all have free wills.

02:42 - God gave us a free will

02:44 - to believe in what we want and do what we want and.

02:49 - Choose our own destination.

02:51 - He couldn't

02:52 - accept the fact that

02:54 - he was either destined to go live with the devil or live with god.

02:58 - After death so he

03:01 - said no i don't believe that

03:02 - and they rejected him.

03:05 - But

03:06 - he turned to a good friend who was.

03:09 - A former member of the

03:11 - presbyterian church and was an

03:16 - Actual theologian in the

03:18 - German reformed church

03:20 - and he gave him some talking points

03:23 - and Buchanan actually managed to scoot around

03:25 - and skirt around the question enough that

03:28 - they said fine we accept you.

03:30 - So at the ripe old age of seventy one he joined with the church

03:36 - but he always read the Bible

03:37 - and he was always quoting from the Bible

03:40 - his niece

03:41 - henrietta

03:42 - Buchanan.

03:45 - Had come to visit with him

03:48 - in the Christmas of eighteen sixty seven and stayed.

03:52 - Throughout the rest of the year she thought she was going to be able to go home

03:56 - by late spring but his health.

03:59 - Took a nosedive and she stayed with her uncle

04:03 - and sent letters to all the family members keeping them apprised

04:07 - and eventually everyone came around

04:11 - to wheatland and were with him when when he passed

04:14 - and she was holding his hand

04:18 - and when he woke he kept coming in and out of

04:20 - consciousness and when he woke up a little

04:22 - couple of minutes before

04:24 - 830.

04:26 - He could barely whisper

04:28 - but she heard him say

04:30 - oh god.

04:31 - Thou wilt

04:33 - and that was it.

04:34 - Was the last he said.

04:36 - Harriet Lane.

04:38 - Had a lot of mourning jewelry.

04:41 - That she had created.

04:44 - From a local jeweler

04:46 - and a ring that we have of hers from that time has a lock of his hair

04:52 - and inscribed on the side of the ring

04:54 - are the last words that he he whispered

04:57 - to is niece Henrietta.