James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, became the fifteenth President of the United States in 1857. The throes of the Civil War began in his administration. He was a politician, not a statesman, and tried to suit both sides, but ended by suiting neither. But the duties of the White House were never more elegantly administered than while Miss Harriet Lane, the niece of President Buchanan, presided. There are white-haired diplomats living to-day who compare everything now done in the White House with Miss Lane's graceful administration. She had been much with her uncle when he was minister at foreign courts, and they both had many friends among the scholarly men of the legations, so that the White House became the rendezvous of that class more than at any other period. She received the Prince of Wales and his suite most gracefully, omitting nothing which would add to the dignity of the occasion. Jefferson Davis said: "The White House under the administration of Buchanan approached more nearer to my idea of a Republican Court than the President's house had ever done since the days of Washington." Abraham Lincoln, "the noblest Roman of them all," became President March 8, 1861. He is the greatest American that has yet lived. Washington was the result of English influences, but Lincoln is the highest representative of republican influences that has yet governed this nation. A giant in stature, being six feet and four inches in height, his grand physique was but a type of the great heart and strong intellect of a great man. He was called to preside over this nation at the most critical time in its history. Mrs. Mary Todd Lincoln found it difficult to keep up the ceremonious customs of the White House with a husband who followed no conventionalities, but believed the Executive Mansion should be opened at all times to every citizen. Mrs. Lincoln devoted much time to the soldiers in the hospitals, and the White House conservatory was kept stripped of flowers for the benefit of the wounded and sick. Andrew Johnson, of Tennessee, came to the Presidency on the death of Mr. Lincoln in 1865. He was not wise in his judgments, and had he been more amenable to men of experience in governmental affairs his life in Washington would have been much easier. Time is revealing more and more that his troubles were in a great degree the result of the jealousies and disappointments of politicians. The sufferings of the people of the White House during the days of President Johnson's trials can never be estimated.