Grand River times. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1851-18??, 1856-06-25

minds His argument in favor of the clear
and unquestionable title of the American
people, to all Oregon, won for him the APP
plause of the whole liberal world, and was
published in several languages in Europe
The State papers on the great questions, pro-
ceeding from his pen during the four years
he remained in the department of State,
were SO many contributions to the column
which celebrates his eminent fitness, and his
unsulled integrity.
When the Wilmot Proviso was introduced
into Congress, it was James Buchanan who
at once denounced, and exposed, and rallied
the democracy against it.
Mr.. Buchanan remained in connexion with
Mr.. Folks administration until March 4th,
lS49, when he once more returned to
Pennsylvania, and from that period up to the
election of the present Chief Magistrate, he
engaged himself in pursuits congenal to a
statesman of large and extended experience.
During the Presidential contest of 1852,
Mr.. Buchanan stood in the van of the demo-
cratic ranks.
And when the campaign resulted in tri-
umph, President Pierce rendered to Mr.. Bu-
chanan the leading foreign mission, which
was accepted. Circumstances have transpir-
ed, within the last few years, to make the
American mission to the Court of St. James
singulary important, and it has happened
that during Mr.. Buchanan's stay in London
several great questions of a vexatous and
character have disturbed the in
tercouse between the two countries.
1t has become proverbal that the selection
of wise, able and experienced man to rep
resent the United States at the British Court
is one of the first duties of an executive, hard
ly secondary to the selection of its own chief
cabinet ministers, because the English mis-
sion is always intensely important to the i'm
mediate interests of our people. During the
trying time of Mr.. Buchanan's mission, the
whole nation seem to have become impressed
with the Importance and justice of these OBJ
servations. They felt that in the American
minister they had man upon whose safe
character and wise counsels they could con-
fidently lean. Their eyes were constantly
fixed upon him. Every steamer brought
news occasioning the greatest anxiety to the
and other classes. On more than
one occasion collision seemed to be inevitable,
but every panic passed off. The correspon-
dence of Mr.. Buchanan, such of it as has
been published, exhibits on his part vigi-
lence, discretion, an industry, and at the
same time dignity of character, that have
madchis name favorite name in every section
of the Union. In the later troubles which have
given rise to so much excitement and discuss
ion in Congress and the country, Mr.. Bu-
chanan has lowered in all the dignity of his
high character and intellectual superiority.
He left his post to give way to his success
ors, having established renewed kind rela-
tions between the two countries, and having
fixed upon the hearts of the English people
the impress of a republican character, which
never, for single moment, yielded its sim
plicity and its truth to aristocratic blandish-
ments. Courted and fattered during his
stay, he studiously abstained from paying
tribute to English vanity. In all circles and
on all occasions, he displayed his American
dignity and his American patriotism. New
er gratuitously obtruding his country or her
advantages, he never hesitated to speak of
her as one speaking of parent; nor was
he ever actuated by any spirit of offensive
As he went so he returns, the
same plain, untitled, unpretending American
citizen.
One great reason why Mr.. Buchanan's
name is at this moment SO acceptable to his
is, because he stands before them
not merely as an eminently capable, but as
an eminently safe man. In the growing
greatness of our republic, its increasing i'm
portance, commercially and politically, its
extended and extending relations with other
powers not to speak of the efforts of reckless
agitators against the constitution, and all the
security and guarantees of our domestic safe
ty and tranquility, we see the evidences that
such man would be able to confer signal
benefits upon the American people in the
Presidential Chair. For the first time in
many we behold in the person of JAS. Bu-
chanap, a statesman who combines the rare
quality of having been among the very first,
in every emergency, to take the most pro-
gressive view of every great question, and
yet of being able to preserve, in the midst of
such emergencies, the bearing, and to exer-
else the influence of sagacous aud we'll
poised statesman. 1t is this combination of
elements which has awakened in his behalf
the favorable sentiment of those classes of
citizens who look for wise aud judcious Ad-
of the Federal Governments, and
u Il