Buchanan had held so many offices that he was known as “Old Public Functionary"—congressman for a decade, senator for another decade, five years in the diplomatic service as minister to Russia and to Britain, and four years as secretary of state. But Buchanan shared one political attribute with Frémont—availability. He had been out of the country as minister to Britain during the Kansas-Nebraska furor. Unlike Pierce and Douglas, the other candidates for the nomination, he carried no taint of responsibility for the mess in Kansas.
