BUCHANAN, JAMES. 



85 



the revenue and expenditures at 2,480,000 tha- 

 lers each. The public debt in 1866 amounted 

 to 14,913,796 thalers. The army is organized 

 on the Prussian system, and consists of four 

 thousand eight hundred and fifty- seven infant- 

 ry and cavalry, and five hundred and two ar- 

 tillery. (See GERMANY.) 



BUCHANAN, JAMES, LL. D., President of 

 the United States from 1857 to 1861, born in 

 Stony Batter, -Franklin County, Pa., April 23, 

 1791 ; died at Wheatland, Lancaster County, 

 Pa., June 1, 1868. He was of Scotch-Irish 

 descent, his father being an emigrant (of 

 Scotch-Irish family), from County Donegal, 

 Ireland, in 1783; and his mother, though born 

 in Pennsylvania, being from an Irish Presby- 

 terian family. His early training at home had 

 so thoroughly qualified him for a college 

 course, that he graduated with high honors at 

 Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., at the age of 

 eighteen. He immediately commenced the 

 study of law, and in 1812, when but twenty- 

 one years of age, was admitted a member of 

 the Lancaster bar. Soon after (during the 

 War of 1812), when Baltimore was in peril from 

 the British troops, which had burned Washing- 

 ton, Mr. Buchanan, with many of his fellow- 

 citizens, volunteered as a private soldier to go 

 to the defence of the threatened city, but the 

 danger had passed before their arrival, and 

 their services were not required. He rose 

 rapidly into a large and lucrative practice as a 

 lawyer, his knowledge of 'the law, his bland 

 and courteous manners, and his tact and elo- 

 quence as an advocate, contributing greatly to 

 his success. His name occurs oftener in the 

 Law Reports of the State, between 1812 and 

 1831, than that of any other lawyer. At the 

 age of forty he retired from his profession, 

 with an ample competence, and, except in a 

 single in stance, never pleaded another cause. In 

 1814 he was elected a member of the Pennsyl- 

 vania Legislature, and, though a Federalist, 

 voted and acted for the vigorous prosecution 

 of the war. He was reelected in 1815, and 

 in 1820 was chosen a member of Congress 

 from the Lancaster district, and reelected four 

 times. At the close of his fifth term, in 1831, 

 he declined a reflection. 



During these ten years of service in the na- 

 tional Legislature, Mr. Buchanan supported the 

 Federal authority ; opposed the bankrupt law ; 

 favored a tariff for revenue, with incidental 

 protection only ; discouraged entangling alli- 

 ances with Mexico and the South American 

 republics, and earnestly protested against the 

 island of Cuba falling into the hands of any 

 European power, except Spain, on account of 

 its strategetic importance to the United States. 

 In the Twenty-first Congress (1829-'31) he 

 was chairman of the Judiciary Committee. 

 In 1831 Mr. Buchanan was appointed by 

 President Jackson minister to Russia, but held 

 the post only two years. On his return, in 

 1833, he was chosen United States Senator 

 from Pennsylvania. He continued in the Sen- 



ate twelve years, and during that period was 

 regarded as one of the principal and most 

 trusted leaders of the Democracy. He took 

 the lead in the efforts to stifle the agitation of 

 the subject of slavery, when it first came up 

 in the Senate, and was consistent in his ad- 

 herence to the pro-slavery power through his 

 whole subsequent life. He favored General 

 Jackson's policy with regard to the French in- 

 demnity; supported Mr. Benton's famous ex- 

 punging resolutions; defended the right of 

 resident aliens to the elective franchise on the 

 question of the admission of new States ; op- 

 posed the banking schemes of John Tyler; 

 advocated the preemption rights of settlers on 

 the public lands ; and earnestly supported the 

 annexation of Texas in 1845. He entered Mr. 

 Polk's Cabinet, in 1845, as Secretary of State, 

 and during his administration effected the set- 

 tlement of the Northwestern boundary dispute, 

 though not without serious menaces of war 

 with Great Britain, and influenced, very great- 

 ly, Mr. Polk's policy in the Mexican War. At 

 the close of Mr. Polk's administration, Mr. 

 Buchanan retired to private life. During the 

 administration of President Taylor, and its 

 continuation under President Fillmore, he held 

 no office ; but, on the accession of Mr. Pierce 

 to the presidency, he appointed Mr. Buchanan 

 minister to the court of St. James, where he 

 continued until April, 1856, when he resigned 

 and returned to the United States. His career 

 as minister to England was creditable to him, 

 and he well maintained, at that court, the dig- 

 nity of the nation he represented. The Ostend 

 Conference of the American ministers in Eu- 

 rope, favorable to the purchase of Cuba, was 

 held at Ostend and Aix-la-Chapelle, during 

 his residence in England, and was called at 

 his suggestion. 



In July, 1856, nearly three months after his 

 return from England, Mr. Buchanan was nomi- 

 nated by the Democratic party for the presiden- 

 cy, and, in November following, elected over 

 Colonel Fremont and ex-President Fillmore, 

 the opposing candidates. He was regarded, by 

 many men of all parties, as a safe, prudent, 

 though perhaps a somewhat timid man, and 

 in the exciting questions which had grown up 

 in the preceding administration in regard to 

 the Fugitive-Slave Law, the compromise meas- 

 ures, popular sovereignty, and the perplexing 

 Kansas imbroglio, it was hoped that his pru- 

 dence and tact would prove available in qui- 

 eting the national agitation. His position was 

 one of great difficulty. There was violent ex- 

 citement, liable at any moment to break out 

 in open hostility, between the North and the 

 South ; and though he did all in his power to 

 gain and retain the good-will of the South, 

 with which he had always been disposed to 

 identify himself, he was not fully trusted by 

 either party. John Brown's raid caused him 

 great trouble ; and, though he attempted to put 

 it down with the strong hand, his efforts did 

 not satisfy his Southern friends, while they 



