Columbia Democrat and Bloomsburg general advertiser. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1850-1866, 1861-06-22
From the National Iatelligeneerl
The Retiring President.

"The distinguished individual who is
about to retire from the administration of
the Government Of the United States has
lived in cventful times and performed
conspicuous part on the stage OF public
events. No incumbent of the highcst of.
flee in the gift Of the people has been more
honored and none deserves to be held in
more grateful remembrance for the benefits
he has actually conferred upon the coun-
try, for the impulses he has given to our
commerce and manufactures, for the firm
ness with which he has repclled the ag
gression upon our rights by foreign nations,
and for the skill with which he has often
distangled the web of difficulties in which
our domestic affairs have been involved by
wars of parties and the conflicts of sec.
tions with each other.
Mr. Buchanan has united the advanta-
ges of clear and vigorous understanding
and thorough information with large ex--
perience, acquired in eminent and respon.
siblc positions, both at home and abroad.
His purposes have been uniformly pacific
and liberal, embracing the interests Of the
whole country. In one of the earliest
speeches which he made in the House OF
Representatives. the subject under consid
GRAFTON being the tariff on Imports he said:
"lt | know myself, | am a politician
neither of the East nor of the West, OF
the North nor of the South. | therefore
shall forever avoid any expressions, the
tendency of which must be to create sec
tioral jealousics, sectional divisions, and at
length disunion, that worst and last of all
political calamites,'
He supported revenue tariff, revenue
being as he said, the rule, and protection
incidental. He fought against a general
bankrupt law as equally demoraliziug and
unconstitutional. He was, at the COM
mencement of his Congressional career,
and always has been in favor of the acqui
sition of Cuba. He advocated in 1928
Gen. Jacksons election to the Presidency
and sustained most of his measures. Du-
ring his administration he was placed at
the head of the judiciary Committee in
the House of Representatives; and being
appointed one Of the managers to conduct
the prosecution of Judge Peck, made in
that case a most able and eloquent argu-
ment. In 1881 Gen. Jackson appointed
him Envoy Extraordinary and Minister
Plenipotentiary to st, Petersburg, where
he negotiated treaty of great value tc
our commerce and navigation in the Baltic
and Black Seas. On his return from
Russia, in 1888, he was elected to seat
in the United States Senate. In 1885 the
reception of abolition petitions had become
a subject of angry controversy between the
North and South. His idea was that the
petitions should be received, but there
should be distinct and positive declaration
on the part of Congress, that it had nc
power to legislate Oh the subject of slavery
He desired to leave it, he said, where the
Constitution had left it, to the States them
selves. On this subject his course ha.
been uniform, and he has ever manifested
an unhinching determination to maintain
the rights and institutions of the Soutl
against all opposition. He was among th'
earliest of the Senators to urge the rccog
milton of the independence Of Texas anC
her admission into the Union, He main
tanned the justice Of the claims of Ameri-
can citizens for indemnity against tn
French Government, reviewing the Who'll
J subject with mastery ability,