Year: 1868

We publish to-day full biography Of James
Buchanan, ex-President of the United States,
together with an announcement Of his death.
The vacillating policy of President Buchanan
during the months previous to the out
break of our late war--a policy so different
from that which President Jackson might have
been expected to adopt in similar emer-
gency-has conferred on his name an unenvi-
able distinction. But now that he is dead and
he war is over the most violent political oppo-
nents of the "Old Public Functionary" may
admit that his conscientious and consistent
resistance to the anti-slavery agitation, from
which he early anticipated disastrous conse-
quences, and his adherence to the now ex-
ploded theory Of State rights, influenced his
conduct in the premises quite as much as his
constitutional timidity and his misapprehen-
sion of the real nature and ultimate results of
the conflict which he at once dreaded and
deplored.


That he was unequal to the emergency is
painfully patent from his utter failure to avert
the impending war. But when it is remem-
bered with what alacrity in the war of 1912
young Buchanan, though himself federalist,
volunteered as private soldier, and with what
energy in 1914 he supported in the Legislature
of Pennsylvania every measure of national de-
fence, there can be not the slightest doubt of
his patriotism. That it was a patriotism as
enlarged as it was sincere is manifest from his
memorable declaration in Congress in the
Of daha IN fho 10 in
l know myself" said Mr.. Buchanan, 81 am o
politician neither of the East nor of the West, of
the North nor of the South" As United States
Minister to st. Petersburg, and subsequently
to London, his diplomatic duties were per-
formed with single eye to the interests of the
government which he represented. And the
record of his prolonged career in public life,
from his election to the Pennsylvania Legisla-
ture, at the age of twenty three, to his inau-
guration as President of the United States. in
1857, bears honorable testimony to his patriotic
motives, to his activity and industry and to
his far more than ordinary intellectual ability.
His amiable disposition and the elegant hos
pitality, of which he so well preserved the
traditions, doubtless facilitated the political as
well as social success which he 80 early won
and 80 long retained. II the unprecedentedly
difficult and trying circumstances of the last
year of his Presidential term proved too much
for one who was nat gifted with the highest
genius for craftsmanship and who lacked
many OF the requisite elements of the heroic
character, his weakness proved also politically
fatal to him. It is altogether unlikely that
history will reverse the verdict which con-
signed him for ahe remnant of his declining
years to obscurity. Nevertheless, it would be
unjust TO hold any one individual responsible,
however exalted his position, for catastrophe
which was, perhaps, inevitable, for q war
which was the accumulated results Of complex
and manifold causes in operation during long
series OF years. The American people, slowly
recovering from the scverest shock to which
our government has ever been exposed, and
looking forward already to glorious future,
can afford to apply to the late ex-President
the charitable motto-De mortuis NIL nSss
boRam.