The National Hotel Epidemic

In January and March of 1857, President-elect James Buchanan stayed at the National Hotel in Washington D.C., eventually falling ill to a mysterious illness that would go undiagnosed. In the years since, some have theorized that poison may have played a part...

Listen to "The National Hotel Epidemic" on Spreaker.

James Buchanan was the 15th President of the United States, who was inaugurated in March of 1857. He was the last president to oversee the U.S. before it devolved into a full-blown Civil War, and for that reason, he is widely regarded as one of the worst presidents in our nation's history: a states' rights advocate who punted on the issue of slavery, and left it to be settled by his successor, Abraham Lincoln.

Described as a "Northern man with Southern principles," James Buchanan hailed from Pennsylvania, becoming the first (and only) President from that state. Before his election, he had served as a Representative, Senator, Secretary of State, and Ambassador to both Russian and the United Kingdom. He was also a trusted friend and mentor of Daniel Sickles, another politician whose story I covered in an episode last year ("The Assassination of Philip Barton Key").

At the 1856 Democratic National Convention, Buchanan was able to usurp sitting President Franklin Pierce as the party favorite, due to his ambassadorship to the United Kingdom, where he had been able to avoid the political ramifications of the "Bleeding Kansas" crisis: a civil dispute over slavery, which had started to explode into full-scale violence. Buchanan eventually became the Democratic Party's nominee and faced off in the general election against Republican Party nominee John C. Fremont and American Party candidate Millard Fillmore (who had already served one prior term as president). Buchanan would handily defeat both en route to the presidency, which he assumed the office of the following Winter.

In March of 1857, James Buchanan officially became the 15th President of the United States. Washington D.C. had become a hotbed of politicians and other wealthy individuals, all of whom were hoping to reserve some face-time with the incoming president (if not to get a seat on his cabinet, than to merely make their presence known and curry favor). Many of these individuals had flocked to the National, the largest and grandest hotel in all of D.C. at the time. But in the weeks and months leading up to the inauguration, this would become ground zero for a mysterious disease that would afflict hundreds and leave approximately three dozen people dead over the next couple of years (including some high-profile politicians).

This is the story of the National Hotel Epidemic.

Built on the corners of Pennsylvania Avenue and 6th Street NW, the National Hotel was just a stone's throw away from the Congressional Building (located roughly halfway between it and the White House). Built along Washington D.C.'s National Mall, the National was located adjacent to where the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum stands today.

Noted tavern-keeper John Gadsby was the one who commissioned the construction of the National back in 1826. Having been born in England in 1766, Gadsby had moved to the U.S. decades later (1790s) along with his wife and daughters, and first established himself as a business owner in Alexandria, before opening up a chain of taverns and hotels throughout the DC region, extending up to Baltimore. These were not just regular hotel chains, but luxury establishments where diplomats and other esteemed individuals could stay at while traveling to and from D.C. (and enjoy many amenities that they couldn't find anywhere else). The National was no exception, quickly becoming a go-to place for wealthy landowners and politicians to stay at while visiting the region.

Originally a series of cheaply-constructed row-houses along "Weightman's Row" (a poor neighborhood), the National would undergo a lengthy period of construction to turn it into what it became years later: a prestigious hotel capable of accomodating several hundred people at once. In its early years, it was named after its founder - "Gadsby's Hotel" - before eventually earning itself its more esteemed name, the National.

In addition to having private suites, ballrooms, and grand dining halls, the National also had several stores inside of it, including a bank, a wine store, and a lottery office; making it a one-stop-shop for many wealthy individuals to stay at and enjoy a high standard of life while visiting D.C. By the 1840s, the National had become known as the largest hotel in all of Washington D.C., and by far its most luxurious and regal.

The National quickly earned a reputation for housing high-profile guests, including current and former presidents, such as John Quincy Adams, who attended at least one George Washington Birthright Ball, which took place in the National's ballroom. Andrew Jackson stayed at the National in the lead up to his own inauguration, and James Buchanan's successor - Abraham Lincoln - held his post-inaugural banquet at the National.

The hotel was a regular haunt for the area's politicians; many of whom rented rooms at the National for several years, essentially living there while representing their homes states and districts. In particular, southern members of Congress - those that shared James Buchanan's anti-abolitionist leanings - seemed to take advantage of the hotel's offerings, and often met there in the leadup to the Civil War.

In 1930, the Washington Post would write about the National:

"Apart from the Capitol and the White House, there is no building in this city so historic as this. For more than half a century the history of the Nation was made there."

However, the history of the National isn't entirely glamorous. The National also happened to be the place where Solomon Northrup, an African American musician from New York, was drugged and sold into slavery, beginning a decade-plus endeavor to earn his freedom once again. Northrup would eventually write a book about his ordeal, titled "12 Years A Slave," which was adapted into an award-winning film more than a century later, in 2013. However, Northrup's nightmare started at the National; which is indicative of the hotel's adoration by southern elites.

Even though the hotel's founder, John Gadsby, would retire in 1836 (and pass away in 1844), the National Hotel would outlive him by nearly a century, remaining a haunt for politicians, diplomats, and other wealthy individuals for years to come. It would maintain its esteemed reputation throughout the 1850s when president-elect James Buchanan decided to stay there with a contingent of staff and supporters in the lead up to his inauguration.

On Sunday, January 25th, 1857, President-elect James Buchanan checked into the National Hotel, along with eight others that had traveled with him from Pennsylvania. They were ready to begin setting up shop in D.C. so that they could prepare for his presidency and would enjoy a banquet dinner that evening, before retiring to their rooms shortly after 10:00 PM.

Over the next few hours, several members of this party awoke in extreme discomfort, reporting severe abdominal pain and other symptoms of illness. One such individual, a physician named Dr. Jonathan Foltz, had traveled to D.C. as James Buchanan's personal physician and struggled to recover from his own ailment as he was told that the president-elect was suffering from similar symptoms.

In the ensuing days, almost everyone from Buchanan's party would report numerous symptoms, which included the aforementioned abdominal pain, as well as dehydration, sweating, prostration, swollen tongues (indicating inflammation of the mucous membranes in the stomach), diarrhea, and vomiting. Intriguingly, it seemed like many suffered diarrhea in the morning hours and vomiting throughout the afternoon and evening; a weird distinction that clouded the medical community's understanding of this illness.

It was reported that everyone who had fallen ill had consumed the same food that evening - having all attending a banquet dinner in the National's ballroom - and Dr. Foltz would identify the culprit as food poisoning, speculating a type of soup had resulted in the shared illness. However, to keep the public relatively unaware of Buchanan's ailment, the decision was made to keep the president-elect's illness a secret, in order to not threaten the inauguration.

While Buchanan and his cohorts would seemingly start to recover over the next several days and weeks, that was not the end of their illness; with some experiencing adverse effects for months and years afterward. It was even reported that Buchanan was struggling immensely in the leadup to his inauguration, having returned to his Wheatland estate in Pennsylvania in early February, but closing himself off to visitors entirely later that month. Some reports would even claim that he was nearing his death-bed at one point, but it's hard to tell if that's based on any truth or just exaggerated D.C. gossip from months later.

What is known is that many of the people originally affected would continue to suffer health issues due to this mysterious illness, with some seeming to recover and then seemingly relapsing; or others just quietly suffering continued discomfort and illness over a more prolonged period, ultimately leading to their deaths.

On March 4th, 1857, James Buchanan was inaugurated as the 15th President of the United States (with his inauguration being the first to be captured by photograph). Buchanan managed to make a healthy appearance, having returned to the D.C. region (and the National) days earlier. But what many didn't know is that the day prior, Buchanan had still been relatively sick, and was followed closely throughout the day's events by Dr. Jonathan Foltz, who later became the first physician to be assigned a bedroom in the White House because of Buchanan's lingering health concerns.

That day, Buchanan gave a lengthy inaugural address, in which he deferred the issue of slavery to the Supreme Court: who were set to rule on the 'Dred Scott v Sanford' case days later. Despite this public apathy, however, it would later come to light that Buchanan was communicating with Supreme Court justices behind the scenes to influence their decision-making; hoping to keep African Americans from obtaining rights ensured by the Constitution.

Despite Buchanan moving into the White House later that day, along with his wife and staff, he held his inaugural dinner at the National - a place that he was comfortable and familiar with, having laid low there in the days leading up to him assuming the office of President. Unfortunately, this (dinner) seems to have been the impetus for a second outbreak, with the mysterious illness - which had started to wane away in the preceding weeks - coming back with a vengeance.

Throughout March of 1857, people at the National Hotel - who were staying there or had visited in the lead-up to President Buchanan's inauguration - began to report a resurgence of symptoms similar to those reported back in January. Hundreds of people began to fill ill during this time, all of whom had at least some kind of connection to the National (having stayed there or attended a banquet or other event).

In May of that year, the newspaper The Pennsylvanian would note:

"It is now believed that not less than seven hundred persons have been seriously and dangerously affected by the National Hotel poison at Washington; and some twenty or thirty deaths have occurred in consequence."

Because of this style of open-ended and often-exaggerated reporting, it's hard to tell just how many people were affected or otherwise killed because of this illness, but we do know that several hundred people had been affected. Modern-day estimates put the number of afflicted between 300 and 400; and those same estimates put the dead between two and three dozen, which included many high-profile individuals that visited the National with James Buchanan back in January of 1857.

The name that attracted the most attention early on was Elliot Lane, the 33-year-old personal secretary of James Buchanan, who was - more importantly - the president's nephew. Lane would pass away on March 26th, 1857 - roughly three weeks after Buchanan's inauguration - and his death would end up sparking a lot of coverage in this case. Those that read about the young man's suspicious death in the wake of the president's inauguration believed that this wasn't a simple case of food poisoning; as did many of the newspapers, who began to wait on hand and foot for others with developing symptoms to similarly deteriorate.

John Montgomery, a 51-year-old lawyer from Pennsylvania that had just been elected to Congress, spent his entire time as a Senator struggling to recover from this mysterious illness. He returned to his home in Danville, PA after Buchanan's inauguration in March of 1857, and spent the next five weeks in utter misery, before dying on April 24th.

George McNeir was a 64-year-old veteran of the War of 1812, who had been appointed as a postmaster in 1842 and was later selected by President Buchanan to serve as a judge in a Washington County court. He was present for Buchanan's inauguration but started to exhibit symptoms almost immediately upon his exposure (a physician would later note that there was no incubation period). McNeir would experience lingering issues for several months afterward, before passing away in June of 1857. He was the only person suffering from this illness to be subjected to a post-mortem examination, which suspiciously found no swelling or inflammation of his stomach or intestines (ruling out several theories as to what the cause of the illness was).

John Quitman was a 59-year-old lawyer, who had gained national recognition for his service as a Brigadier General in the Mexican-American War. A devout pro-slavery activist, Quitman owned numerous plantations and dozens of slaves but became well-known for his exploits during and after the war; which included serving as the acting governor for Mississippi, planning public excursions to Cuba, and then being elected to the House of Representatives in 1855. Having been re-elected in 1857, Quitman attended the inauguration of President Buchanan and fell ill shortly thereafter. He would return to his home in Mississippi later that year but would pass away in July of 1858 from complications relating to this mysterious sickness.

David Robison was another lawyer from Pennsylvania, who had served one term in the House of Representatives (from 1855 to 1857) but didn't seek re-election, instead choosing to return to his law firm. He was also present at the inauguration of James Buchanan but would come down ill and suffer adverse effects until his death in June of 1859 at the age of 43.

President James Buchanan would similarly be plagued by health concerns throughout the rest of his life, after coming down with this mysterious illness in January of 1857. The National Hotel disease eventually left him immunocompromised during his presidency, and after leaving office, would suffer progressive heart failure, pneumonia, and other respiratory issues. In June of 1868 - less than a decade after leaving office - Buchanan would pass away at the age of 77.

With all of these victims - especially those that lived for months and years after coming down with the illness - it's hard to tell just how much the National Hotel plague affected them. But at least a couple of these high-profile victims suffered directly from it (including the president's nephew, Elliot Lane, as well as PA representative John Montgomery) and many of their loved ones directly tied their lingering health issues to the disease from the National Hotel, which remained unexplained months and years later.

Whatever had caused this mysterious illness to begin, it seems to have dissipated at around the time of President Buchanan's inauguration; with the largest spikes in the disease occurring during both of his stays at the National Hotel (in January and March of 1857). In the weeks after Buchanan's inauguration, reports of the mysterious disease would begin to wane, leading many to theorize that poison had played a part... either accidentally or intentionally.

The theory among many was that Buchanan and the other guests at the National had been poisoned with arsenic, due to many of the symptoms appearing to be the same. Arsenic, a dangerous substance that is generally tasteless and odorless, expresses itself in abdominal pain, digestive issues, diarrhea, heart arrhythmia, cramps/body discomfort, and rampant skin issues (such as red/swollen skin, lesions, warts, etc.). Many of these were symptoms shared with the National Hotel patients, but not exactly (there weren't any skin issues noted among the deceased or high-profile victims).

After the death of Representative Montgomery, The Pennsylvanian would report:

"Every feature of this disease indicated the presence of arsenic in his system."

Another newspaper, titled The Pittsfield Sun, wrote:

"The opinion is becoming very general that the sickness at the National Hotel in Washington, which commenced about the date of the presidential inauguration of James Buchanan, was the result of a deliberate and fiendish attempt to poison the President and his nearest friends!"

As I've hinted throughout the episode, James Buchanan was disliked by a good portion of the population - even before his inauguration - due to his apathy towards the issue of slavery, which was threatening to tear apart the nation at the time of his election. Buchanan was an open advocate for states' rights and would punt the issue of slavery and civil rights for African Americans to the Supreme Court (and his eventual successor, Abraham Lincoln). Many viewed this apathy as a dereliction of duty for the president, who - as the chief executive - could have used his authority and sway to carefully guide the nation through the issue.

In the wake of these illnesses and deaths, many throughout the nation began to speculate that Buchanan and his cohorts might have been intentionally poisoned: either by abolitionists or their supporters, who likely wanted to do away with the president and his supporters (many of whom stayed at or visited him at the National before and during his inauguration). Some even speculated that slaves had been behind the poisoning, despite none of the staff or servants at the National being African American.

Despite the rumor being that Buchanan and the others had been intentionally poisoned - particularly, by arsenic - there was no evidence that any of the afflicted had been poisoned by the substance. None of the afflicted seemed to show any of the telltale signs of arsenic poisoning (such as skin issues or inflammation of the intestines), and it was not believed that abolitionists or their supporters would want to rid themselves of Buchanan; his vice-president, John Breckinridge, was an ardent supporter of slavery from Kentucky, who would later prove that by betraying his nation and joining up with the Confederacy.

All of that is beside the point, though; with the point being that no one supporting a movement to free slaves would want to assassinate James Buchanan when his successor would be worse in every way possible.

In addition to theories about intentional poisoning, there were numerous theories about Buchanan and the others being accidentally poisoned through the National's water supply. You see, in an effort to rid the hotel of rats, arsenic had been placed in rat traps, and the carcass of a poisoned rat was later found inside of the hotel's water tank. However, the water tank at the hotel was only used for washing - the drinking water was brought in from elsewhere - and this wouldn't explain how several people fell ill after attending banquet dinners.

A committee organized by the mayor of Washington D.C. - which was formed to locate the cause of this disease - was unable to find any proof that the afflicted had ingested or been exposed to any kind of poison (specifically, there was no proof of any water, food, or arsenic poisoning). They found that the sickness was "strictly confined to the block upon which [the National hotel] stands", and that it was "not of a contagious character" (meaning that it didn't spread from person-to-person). Other than that, they could find no proof that this illness was linked to any other local maladies, and that the city of Washington D.C. was "remarkably healthy" otherwise.

Because of this determination, the committee ruled that the strange disease was caused by the location of the National itself, believing that a sewer opening at the southwestern corner of the hotel might have been the root cause. According to the then-mayor of Washington D.C.:

"The hotel was not built on any pre-conceived or well-arranged plan, but has been several times extended and otherwise altered so that it has been impossible to adopt or carry out any regular system of ventilation."

According to at least one member of the committee, the foul odor of the sewer was pushed towards the hotel by a gust that was strong enough to extinguish a candle's flame; and because of this, it was speculated that miasma might have caused the mysterious illness, which eventually led to hundreds of people falling ill and dozens dying.

Miasma, also known as "night air", is a now-discredited medical theory that was replaced by germ theory decades after this incident, which theorized that exposure to sewage and other foul elements could cause sickness. While this wasn't too far away from the truth, the committee's finding wasn't based on any reputable scientific testing, but rather, speculation. This would become the official word on the story for several decades, but the truth of why so many people got sick during James Buchanan's two stays at the National remains unknown to this day.

The most popular theory that lingers to this day is that the people afflicted by this mysterious disease were not suffering from any kind of poisoning or bizarre ailment, but rather, something that we are more familiar with a century-and-a-half later.

Dysentery remains the most likely option, which doesn't explain why everything happened the way it did but shares many similarities with the symptoms exhibited by the sick, including abdominal pain, diarrhea, and dehydration. Cholera is another option floated by theorists, due to the similar symptoms and causes, although it too differs in some minor ways; due to the victims of this affliction not suffering any swelling or inflammation of the intestines.

Others believe that this could have been another illness similar to Legionnaires' disease or Typhoid fever - both of which gained prominence years after this affliction - but, likely, the cause of the illness doesn't lie in poison or miasma, but rather, poor food safety standards (with those dining in the National likely consuming food that was full of an unknown bacteria), making this a story where we likely know what happened, but because so much time has passed, we're unlikely to ever definitively prove it.

Despite the emergence of this strange disease in January of 1857, and a brief-yet-powerful resurgence two months later (at the time of James Buchanan's inauguration), it would disappear entirely by the end of the month, with the only people afflicted being those that had been present at the hotel during this vital period (with a lull in the middle, when James Buchanan had returned to his estate in Pennsylvania). Both outbreaks seemed inexplicably linked to Buchanan's stays at the National, and the disease would not surface again in any of the subsequent months or years; only continuing to affect those that had been exposed in the early months of 1857.

This disease, which had become known as "the Buchanan grip" throughout 1857 (due to its most prominent subject), would eventually earn itself the nickname "the National Hotel epidemic/disease" in subsequent reporting. That reporting would end up exaggerating a lot of the news regarding the illness, which caused a lot of primitive conspiracy theories to arise in its wake (including several that tried to tie in the illness with the divisive issue of slavery, with many believing that abolitionists were attempting to assassinate the new president).

For such an example, The New York Times would write in their coverage of the sickness:

"From every quarter of the country come in denunciations of what is styled - not without warrant - the determination on the part of interested parties to stifle inquiry and hoodwink suspicion concerning what has every appearance of being the most gigantic and startling crime of the age."

Over the next several decades, the National would continue to house those visiting Washington D.C., including many Confederates and their sympathizers (including John Wilkes Booth, who stayed there in the lead-up to his assassination of Abraham Lincoln). However, in the following years, the glitz and glamour from the National would continue to wane, with newer hotels gaining the attention of political elites and the National growing increasingly outdated with every passing year.

In 1921, the National was the site of a vicious fire which ultimately cost the lives of two people (including telephone operator Katherine Deane, who ran into the building to retrieve some items from her room but ultimately succumbed to the smoke). The damage was extensive, and the National was never able to recover, eventually being sold to the city in 1929. The D.C. National Guard would use the building as an armory for a few years, but it was eventually razed in 1942.

The plot of land where the National once stood has since been used for other projects, including the D.C. Employment Security Building for a couple of decades, and then - more recently - the Newseum, a museum about news history which just recently closed its doors for good.

In 2014, professor and author Kerry Walters published a book about this story, titled "Outbreak in Washington, D.C.: The 1857 Mystery of the National Hotel Disease" which explores the story itself in extreme detail (describing what D.C. was like at the time, the situation leading up to and through the epidemic, etc.). And in his introduction, Walters writes (as if able to tap into the future and see what the world would look like in the age of COVID-19):

"The public response to the malady is a good case study of how easy it is for panic to spread. It's also yet another example of how eager people are to embrace rumors of conspiracy, often hanging on to suspicions of foul play long after it becomes clear that such suspicions simply aren't supported by the facts. Fueled by rumor, innuendo, half-truths, partisanship and incendiary journalism, distress of the origins and scope of the National Hotel disease awakened both panic and cloak-and-dagger excitement that, for a while, terrified and titillated the American public."

Even though we likely know the root cause of this mysterious illness, the story of the National Hotel epidemic remains unresolved.

Episode Information

Writing, research, hosting, and production by Micheal Whelan

Published on on July 12th, 2020

Producers: Maggyjames, Roberta Janson, Ben Krokum, Peggy Belarde, Quil Carter, Victoria Reid, Gabriella Bromley, Laura Hannan, Damion Moore, Amy Hampton, Steven Wilson, Scott Meesey, Marie Vanglund, Scott Patzold, Astrid Kneier, Lori Rodriguez, Aimee McGregor, Sydney Scotton, Sara Moscaritolo, Sue Kirk, Thomas Ahearn, Seth Morgan, Marion Welsh, Patrick Laakso, Kelly Jo Hapgood, Alyssa Lawton, Jared Midwood, Travis Scsepko, Meadow Landry, Rebecca Miller, Tatum Bautista, Jo Wong, Erin Pyles, Teunia Elzinga, Consuelo Moreno, Jacinda B., and Ryan Green