The Bedford gazette. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1805-current, 1868-06-12
DEATH OF EX.PRESTDENT RUCHAN,
AN.


As we were going to press, last week,
we received the sad intelligence of the
peath of JAMES BUCHANAN, and were
obliged, for want of space, to confine
our announcement of the melancholy
event, to a simple statement of its oc-
currence.
Mr.. BUCHANAN was born at Stony
Batter, Franklin county, Pa, April
y, 1871, and died at WheatIand, near
Lancaster city, on Monday morning,
June /, 1868. He graduated at Dick
inson College, in 1909, being then just
eighteen years of age. In 1912 he was
admitted to the practice of the law, at
the Lancaster Bar, and one year after
ward was elected to the lower house of
the State Legislature, to which body
he was subsequently reelected. Dur
ing the war of 1S12-15, he was a vol
unteer soldier and served in the cam
paign against the British at Balti-
more. In 1920 he was elected to Con-
gress, to represent the Lancaster dis
trict, which had previously been car
ried against his party by heavy majori-
ties. In 1881, having served ten years
in Congress, he declined a reelection,
but was appointed, by President Jack
son, Minister to Russia. During his
Congressional service, he became dis
tinguished as the opponent of the
Bankrupt Law, the advocate of a tar
iff for revenue and the supporter of the
famous Monroe Doctrine" In 1923
he succeeded Daniel Webster as Chair
man of the Judiciary Committee of the
National House of Representatives a
distinction which singled him out as
the first lawyer in that body. AS
minister to Russia, he completed the
first commercial treaty between the
United States and that country. In
1888 Mr.. Buchanan was elected to the
L. S. Senate, in which body he ranked
with Clay, Webster rand Calhoun, whom
he often met in the onset of debate, in
the discussion Of the great questions
which they agitated the American
public. When Mr.. Polk became
President, he was appointed Secretary
of State, and under his premiership,
was made the brilliant adminiStra-
tion which added new empire to this
country and gave us untold wealth of
the acquisitions on the Pacific. At the
close of President POlk's term, Mr..
Buchanan retired from public life, but
was recalled from his retirement in
1853, by President Pierce, who APP
pointed him minister to the court of
st. James. In 1856, he was nomina-
ted by the Democratic Party, as its
candidate for the Presidency, and was
triumphantIy elected. The history of
the eventful period during which Mr..
Buchanan occupied the Presidential
chair, is fresh in the popular recolIec-
ton, and, therefore, needs not be re-
peated here. Suffice it to say, that it
was the chief desire of President Bu-
chanan to administer the affairs of
Government in such manner as would
most conduce to the peace and happi-
ness of the whole people. This fact
was apparent in all his measures. He
dreaded, with the honest fear Of a true
patriot, the awful portents of approach
ing civil war. To arOid such q lcar,
was the purpose. which underlay all
his dealings with the veXed questions
of slavery and its concomitant issues.
That no single hostile gun was fired
until after his successor was installed in
Office, shows how successfully his pur-
pose was accomplished.
Tho writer Of this articI knew Mr.
Buchanan intimately during the last
eleven years. But here let US pause.
The tear of sorrow is the only betting
euIogy. He was our friend. We
mourn his departure let Others write
his epitaph. The world will praise
him soon enough, now that it has lost
him.