Wow, I typed an unique for an! essay and then Word grammar check said it was wrong. But I always thought that the rule was: an = when a word starts with a,e,i,o,u. But then I figured, yeah it does sound strange.
Buchanan was nominated by the Democratic Party in the 1856 presidential election. Throughout most of Pierce's term, he had been stationed in London as a minister to the Court of St. James's, so was not caught up in the crossfire of sectional politics that dominated the country.
The Buchanan/Breckinridge ticket was elected, but the Democratic percentage of the popular vote in the North fell from 49.8 percent in 1852 to 41.4 in 1856 as Buchanan won only five of sixteen free states (Pierce had won fourteen), and in three of those, Buchanan won because of a split between the Republican candidate, former California senator John C. FrÃ©mont and the Know Nothing, former president Fillmore.