392 AUTHENTIC HISTORY 



years; though soon after his secoud election, he resigned to take a place in the Cabinet 

 of President Polk, His whole time of service in the Senate, was the same as it had 

 been in the House; viz, 10 years. 



In the body of which he was now a member, he took a similarly high rank to that 

 which he had occupied in the House. He frequently measured arms with Clay, "Web- 

 ster and others, and without discredit or disadvantage to himself. He was, during 

 most of the time, the principal leader of the Administration party, and expressed him- 

 self at large, and very ably, on all the important questions under discussion. During 

 most of the time, he was chairman of the important Committee on Foreign Relations. 



In 1845, he was tendered by the then recently inaugurated President, James K. Polk, 

 the position in his Cabinet of Secretary of State. This position he occupied with great 

 honor to himself and advantage to the country. "While in the State Department, the 

 Oregon Boundary Question was finally settled, the war with Mexico was carried on 

 and successfully terminated, and California acquired. 



In 1849, on the expiration of Mr. Polk's Presidential term, Mr. Buchanan retiree;! to 

 his home at "Wheatland, whei-e he remained till 1853, when President Pierce tendered 

 him, of his own accord, the Mission to the Court of St. James. This Mission he was 

 averse to acceiiting, but, on its being pressed upon him, he at length accepted it. He 

 remained in England till the Spring of 1856. "While there he was treated with marked 

 respect by all classes, fi-om the Queen down. Lord Clarendon had reason to respect his 

 abilities; for he found him more than a match in his diplomatic coi-respondence with 

 him. His dispatches while Secretary of State and IMinister to England, have not been 

 excelled by those of any other Cabinet or other Minister. 



In June of the year he returned from England, he was nominated, (again, without 

 any effort on his part) by the Democratic National Convention, which met at Cincin- 

 nati, as their candidate for the Presidency, and in the following November, he was 

 elected. And, thus, from an humble beginning, after having previously occupied an 

 unusual number of distinguished and honorable positions connected with the Govern- 

 ment, he found himself, at the age of 65, exalted to what is perhaps really the highest 

 jjolitical position on earth. The duties of this high office he discharged with ability; 

 and, though much blamed for his course during the last few months of his adminis- 

 tration (a period, when the affairs of the country had come to the fearful crisis to which 

 they had long been tending) yet, in all he did, and in all he abstained from doing, he 

 was actuated by the highest and purest motives of patriotism. He did that, and that 

 only, which he believed he was authorized to do, and which he thought it best and his duty 

 to do. He himself feared not the verdict of future times, as to his course, and as to his 

 policy; and on more than one occasion, within only a year or two of his death, he had 

 been heard to say, that, had he to pass through the same state of things again, he 

 could not, before his God, see, that he could act otherwise than as he did. In sincere 

 and cordial love for the Union he was second to no one. The principal respect in which 

 he differed from many others was as to what were the best and most legitimate means 

 of iireserving or restoring the Union. At the expiration of his Presidential term, in 

 March 1861, he returned to his home at "Wheatland, where he spent the remainder 

 of his life, enjoying the society of his neighbours and friends, and employing himself 

 with his books and his pen. One of the books most frequently perused by him was the 

 Bible; in the teachings of which he was a firm believer, and on the promises of which 

 he cheerfully relied. He had always been a believer in the Holy Scriptures, and in the 

 truth of the Christian religion; and, besides being always strictly moral in his conduct, 

 had been, in many respects, a devout and religious, as well as a kind and charitable 

 man. But he had never made an open profession of being a disciple of Christ, until 

 within the last few years, when he became a communicant of the Presbyterian Church. 

 He died calmly and peacefully on Monday, the first day of .June, 1868. On the Thui-s- 

 day following, his remains were followed to the grave, by such numbers of his fellow- 



