Harriet Lane, niece of President James Buchanan, is shown in this undated painting. While the then President James Buchanan saw his life-long honors crumbling under the charge of weakness as the civil war approached, his niece, Harriet Lane, triumphed as a paragon of White House Hostesses in Washington. Never losing her balance, she was a fashion leader who had been favored by the crowned Heads of Europe. (AP Photo)