The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1868-06-02
Death Of Ex-President Buchanan.

succeeds General ScHof1ELD. 500 i
Death of Ex-President Buchanan.
It was announced by telegraph yesterday
that ex-President JAMES BUCHANAN died
Yesterday morning at his residence, neal
Lancaster, Pennsylvania. He was in hit
seventy-seventh year, having been born in
1871, April s23d. He had been for. some
time in declining health, but had improved
so much that his life was not considered in
immediate danger. = sr,s - So IS sSe q; !;
Mr.. BUCHANAN was the son Of Irish pa.
rents, and WAS born in Franklin county
Pennsylvania--then wilderness. He ra.
pidly passed through the limited course Of
education Of his times, and graduated al
Dickinson College, Carlisle. He studied
law under JAMES HOPKINS, of Lancaster,
and went to; the bar at the age of twenty
one, in 1872. He soon took front rank among
LAWYERS, was elected to the State Senate,
and at the age Of thirty was elected a dele
gate 10 Congress. He served as private
in the war of 1912, and afterwards again
went to the Legislature. In 1920 he was
returned to Congress, when his disti N,
guished career as national statesman be-
gan. rs -. i, ,T,-z;,.
Mr.. BUCHANAN was n member OF the
House of Representatives until March,
1881, when he retired, declining . re-
election. General JACKSON appointed him
to the Russian mission in May following,
which post he filled until 1884; and upon
his return home was elected by the Legisla-
ture of Pennsylvania to the United States
Senate, in which body he remained until
March, ls45, when he was appointed Score
tary of State by President Polk, which po-a
sition he filed until the close of Mr.. PoLK's
administration. President PIERCE, in 1853,
appointed Mr.. BUCHANAN Minister to Eng
land, which position, he resigned in 1885,.
He arrived at home in April, and was in the
following spring nominated for the Presi-
dency. He was elected in the fall over
Mr.. FILLMORE, the nominee Of the Wings
and Know-Nothings. His administration
covered a stormy period in the history of
the nation, and closed almost amidst the
thunders of the revolution through which
we have just passed. Who can imagine
the deep grief of this venerable man,
while occupying the Presidential chair,
at beholding the destruction Of that Con-
stitution and Union which he and his.
compeers had idoli2ed To hardly an,
other man in the Union could there come
the exact same mental agitation and agony;
and his parting moments must have been.
deeply embittered by thinking Of his un--ss
happy country. From the close, Of his
administration he has remained quietly at
his private residence, Wheatland, near Ian
caster, Pa, where he breathed his last. r. ,5,;
Mr.. BUCHANAN, although not o brilliant t.
man, was amongst the first at q time when
there were giants. His chief foible was,
perhaps, want of holiness and decision.
1t was manifest possibly most gclearlys1n
his relation to the JACKSON and CLAY i'm.
broglio of 1924, with which he; was con-
nected, and in what. he had to say there ,.'l'
was too much of the diplomat TO please
General JACKSON or satisfy DIT. ,s clay Ak.
His chief fault sorely embarrassed him
in the stormy period of his admins lli-
tration. He did not come up fairly to
the southern view of his State rights
" II tFl.ET ast
doctrines; while his sense. of Justice,
and horror of the ferocity Of the Radi-
calls, restrained him from conforming to
their views of his duty or sympathizing
with their feelings. Hewas, therefore, un-
fortunately situated. While the southern
ers did not feel any great obligation to him,
he was the object Of Radical yituperation
unequalled for its malignity at any pre-
ceding period in the history Of the nation.
Mr.. BUCHANAN, if We except the yene-
rable JOIN BELL, fs the very last of the
great statesmen whose characters and ins
tellects made the political history Of this
country illustrious the first half Of this
century. He was a worthy associate of the
greatest among them, His private life was
not only irreproachable. but was adorned.
by virtues worthy alike to be admired and
emulated. His history, old bachelor as he
was, had a trace of romance, which proved
TINT his affections were Of the deepest and
most constant nature. We cannot but feel
that in the death Of Mr.. BUCHANAN link
that united the present with the, hest and
happlest days Of the Republic has been
shattered. ID
The --latest National Disgrace.
The Radical House Of Congress- in the
election. e.a..,. -