The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1883-10-05
JAMES BUCHANAN,

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The following by J. NJ. Buckley, ID.
ID, editor of the Christian 1dCocate
in literary notice of September 20,
1888, think should be widely circu-
lated. The italics are mine, but it
seems to me the whole article ought to
be in italics, and read by every citizen.
Twenty-three years ago was trying
era in our country. Time has vindi.
Gated many who were then under the
ban of Republican censure.
Truth crushed to the earth shall
rise again"
| f. M. TEwKsBURY.
Catawissa, Pa
Twenty years ago few believed that
a Life Of james buchanan could
ever find a market north of Mason and
Dxons line. Despised by loyalists of
both parties as weakling, if not de-
tested as a traitor, he retired from the
Presidency, to die in 1868 with little
more than formal honor to his memory.
The giant passions of the civil war had
not then begun to die out, men had not
then to look calmly and judicially on a
career which seemed to have crowned
itself only with weakness and indecis-
ion. The popular mood of that time
made small account of character or
public services which preceded the
struggle for the national life. What
men believed and did during the war
were the criteria by which they were
judged. James Buchanan was believ.
ed to be unsound in his Constitutional
views and over-sympathetic with trail
tors. That was enough. That he
he had been a statesman and diploma
list OF unstained honor was nothing
1t is perhaps too much to say that the
mastery life of James Buchanan by
George Ticknor Curtis wholly relieves
him of the charges which have been so
universally believed. But it is not too
much to say that the most strenuous of
those who have discredited the 10y
atty and patriotism of Mr.. Buchanan
will, if responsive to truth, be Obliged
TO reciSe their judgments and acqut
Tim Of Intentional mJajthtulneSs to
tie Union. Such 2cW see that If the
President did not take more dctice
steps to preSeroe tie Union 10 cos be-
cause tie Republican Congress dis
trusted the President and refused to
put tie means Of action acithjn his
reach. There does not upon
the evidence now before us, seem to
have been a sufficient justification for
the conduct of Congress. From a GER
tain point of view this distrust was
natural All the craftsmanship"
which preceded the war was of the
compromise kind. 1t had failed to Sc
cure quiet because it was a concession
to wrong. But Mr.. Buchanan was not
to blame for believing, according to
his education and famous precedents,
that Cancellation to the utmost should
precede war. He still seems weak and
timid, a man of late expedients and
tentative compromises. But he can no
longer be justly esteemed traitor,
nor can his devotion to the Union be
fairly questioned. When candid men
remember their own rapid growth of
opinion from the time of Lincoln's
election to the shot on Sumter, they
will see that President Buchanan was
in place of extreme difficulty, at an
age when complications are seldom
boldly cut, and when new views are
entertained with difficulty. They will
see that he acted with patience, aojs-
dom, and q union lOci,lg spirit. and
that TO his care IL is due that the acor
dill not earlier 6rahe ont under con-
ditions OF feeling at the North less
likely to have permitted that wonder
full unifcation of purpose which was
secured at later time,
In two large volumes, with portraits
of Buchanan in early manhood and in
later life, Mr.. Curtis tells the story of
the statesman's career. OF Scotch
Irish descent, of God-fearing parents,
Buchanan felt during his early life
and through his whole existence the in
tluences of the integrity and piety
characteristic of his ancestry. TO his
mother, woman of great industry
and ability, he owed his liberal educa-
ton. His college life was singular
mixture of hard study and a wildness
of conduct which nearly brought him
to expulsion. After graduation he
studied law and gave early promise of
the eminence gained later on. He
was elected to the State Legislature in
1914 and made reputation at once for
sagacity and legal ability. Just pre-
vious to his election to Congress he
becomes engaged to a lady worthy of
his love, who, for some reason not
fully explained, cancels the engage.
ment and dies shortly afterward,
Never again does Mr.. Buchanan ap-
pear to have contemplated matrimony
though it is known that the cause OF
alienation was one that was trivial
and would have been temporary but
for the death of the lady. AS a relief
from sorrow the young lawyer enters
upon political life, and accepts nomi,
nation for Congress without hope OF
election, but is elected,
| Henceforth his life, until the close OF
his Presidential term, is the history OF
the United States, AT twenty-nine
on entering Congress, he already pos,
sessed legislative experience and de
batting power. His political principles
were still unsettled, and political
stagnation of Monroes administration
needed the storm which followed tC
isolate and clear opinion, Opposition
to John Quincy Adams was the force
which broke up the truce of parties
and gave the warning factions the
names of National Republicans and
Democrats. Mr.. Buchanan, in lead
ing, with others, the opposition tc
Adams and Clay, found himself &
Democrat.'
| The account of Mr.. Buchanans Con
gressional career is enlivened, no
only by the interest of the facts, bu
by excellent sketches of his contem
lporaries, written at the time, or al
recollections in later life. The core
spondence, which Eliminates the inne
political life of the time, is amazing il
lquantity, and of the highest order o
ability. These documents must here