HE value of a government or an order of society is tested by its results in human ability and character. The fact that American society has been very productive of great men, and that even from its primitive plantings its products have been large and generous, indicates that it is founded upon principles promotive of human well being. A tree is known by its fruits; men by their deeds, and society by the people it produces.

ANCESTRY AND EDUCATION.

We have, in James Buchanan, another instance of a distinguished man rising from the humblest origin. His father was a poor Irish immigrant, who came to the New World to better his fortune, in 1783, just as the revolutionary war was closing. He settled in Pennsylvania, and five years after did the right thing to mend his fortune by marrying Elizabeth Spear, the daughter of a good farmer.

The next good thing he did was to go a little way into the "forest primeval," stake out a tract of land for a farm, build a cabin, and establish a home. Now he was an American citizen, a freeholder, a husband, a farmer. The independent, thinking, self-directing American man was enthroned in this new home in the woods. Soon came the little boy, whom they named James,

to cheer the solitude and add for a time to the work and responsibility. In this sylvan retreat this child of the woods had the freedom of his obscure home in which to get a good start in muscle and mind. The place was called Stony Batter, Franklin county, Pennsylvania, where, April 22, 1791, James Buchanan was born.

When he was eight years old the family moved to Mercersburg, and the boy went into school to go rapidly through the rudiments of an education, and be fitted for college at fourteen. He entered Dickinson college, and graduated at eighteen. This quick transit through a course of collegiate study told the character and force of his mind. He was now tall, athletic, vigorous, graceful, and exuberant of spirit.

BUCHANAN THE LAWYER.

He began at once the study of law in the city of Lancaster. When twenty-one he was admitted to the bar. He entered immediately upon his profession, and soon attained a lucrative practice.

BUCHANAN THE LEGISLATOR.

In 1820 Mr. Buchanan was elected to the Lower House of Congress, where he continued ten years.

He was a federalist in his early life-believed in the constitution, in a secure and strong government, capable of selfperpetuation; he believed in the nation having power over all its parts.

But as the Jeffersonian party, in opposition to the federalists, went over more and more to the state-rights doctrines, and became more and more assured in its majorities and power in the country, Mr. Buchanan went with it, so that he said, a little after middle life: "The older I grow the more I am inclined to be what is called a state-rights man."

When the second war with England, in 1811, broke out, Mr. Buchanan vigorously supported the government, and enlisted himself as a private soldier to repel the British, who had sacked Washington and were threatening Baltimore.

In Congress, and as a politician, Mr. Buchanan was opposed to internal improvements by the national government; opposed to a protective tariff; opposed to a national bank; was afraid the national government had in it some root of tyrannical power which would grow to be a dangerous oppression upon the states, if not held vigilantly in check. He became a zealous Jackson man in his time, and supported him in his erratic and dictatorial administration. In the succeeding administration he supported Van Buren with equal zeal; so that when the slavery question came to the front he was so committed to all the doctrines and measures of the democratic party of that time, that the defense of slavery seemed to him to be the support of the country. Jackson sent him to Russia to arrange a treaty of commerce with that country. Under Van Buren, he supported the president's independent treasury scheme. Under Polk, none was more active and pressing in support of the annexation of Texas, as he said, "to afford that security to the southern and southwestern slave states which they have a right to demand."

In 1833, he was elected to the Senate of the United States, and in his position as an influential and untiring advocate of the doctrines of his party and its presidents, he was able to wield a great influence in shaping its course in its sectional measures which were all the while tending to make slavery paramount to country or humanity, in the minds of its advocates. And yet all the time he seemed to himself to be a national politician, broad and fair-minded to all sections. He said: "If I know myself, I am a politician neither of the east nor of the west, of the north nor of the south. I therefore shall forever avoid any expressions, the direct tendency of which shall be to create sectional jealousies, and at length disunion-that worst and last of all political calamities." In his argument for the annexation of Texas, he seemed to make himself believe that the benefit would accrue more to the north than the south, for he said: "But to the middle and western, and more especially to the New England, states it would be a source of unmixed prosperity. It would extend their commerce, promote their manufactures, and

increase their wealth." So do great men, perhaps meaning well, misunderstand themselves.

He stoutly approved of Jackson's doctrine, that "to the victors belong the spoils," and his practice of removing from office all not of his party.

SECRETARY OF STATE.

Upon Mr. Polk's ascendency to the presidential office, he appointed Mr. Buchanan to the cabinet office of secretary of state.

He had the settlement of the northwestern boundary question, with England, which had remained open until now.

In all the sectional questions of Mr. Polk's administration, Mr. Buchanan was loyal to the pro-slavery views which he had so strongly advocated. He sustained the Mexican war in its beginning, progress and close, and counted it a national glory.

At the close of Mr. Polk's administration, Mr. Buchanan retired to private life, having served his party to its great satisfaction, and especially the southern portion of it. Yet he was too deeply interested in the great questions of the time to keep quiet concerning them, and in letters and public addresses sought to allay the northern agitation of slavery by advocating the southern view of it, in all the differing phases in which from time to time it came up.

MINISTER TO ENGLAND.

Soon after Mr. Pierce became president he appointed Mr. Buchanan minister to England. The principal object of his mission related to the settlement of questions left open in relation to the Central American States and Spain. Cuba was Spanish territory and near the southern states. Spain might resolve to free the slaves, or the slaves might do as they did in St. Domingo, free themselves. In either case it would be dangerous to slavery in our country, and must be looked after. Mr. Buchanan was a self-constituted servant of the institution, and willingly took up this mission. After awhile Mr. Mason and