BUCHANAN, James, fifteenth president of the United States, was born near Mercersburg, Pa., Apr. 23, 1791. James Buchanan's parents were of Scotch-Irish descent. His father was born in the county Donegal, Ireland, in 1761, and emigrated to America in 1783, settling in Cumberland county, Pa., where he married and was blest with eleven children. His son James was the second of these children and his father seems to have been well-todo, as the boy was educated first at a good school in Mercersburg and afterward, in 1807, entered the junior class in Dickinson College, from which he was graduated two years later. He went to Lancaster where he studied law, and in 1812 was admitted to the bar in that town. This was the time of the war with Eng. land, and Buchanan's political principles being those of the federalist party, were against war, yet his first public address in Lancaster was in behalf of the enlistment of volunteers, and he enrolled his own name as one of the earliest to take up this duty. This was in 1814, and in October of that year he was elected a member of the lower house of the Pennsylvania legis.

James Buchanan

lature, and re-elected in 1815. After the close of the session he retired to Lancaster and returned to the practice of his profession in which he was already becoming well known and somewhat distinguished. About this time occurred the romantic experience which caused him to always remain unmarried, and had an important influence in shaping his career. He was engaged to a young lady of fine personal character and great beauty, and it was his intention to devote himself entirely to his profession and not to again enter public life, when the death of this young lady changed all his plans,

and being offered the nomination for congress he accepted it gladly and was elected to the seventeenth congress, being at the time twenty-nine years old. At this time the country was politically quiet; war excitement was forgotten; there was no sectional disturbance and the turn of legislation was rather toward improvements and bills for the amelioration of conditions, than anything more grave. An illustration of this was a bill introduced in December, 1821, for the purpose of establishing uniformity in the matter of bankruptcy. The discussion of this act continued nearly three months and brought Mr. Buchanan forward as a debater. The measure itself included commercial insolvency only, and in this form would doubtless have passed, but an amendment intended to cover all insolvent debtors was the cause of a great deal of feeling. Mr. Buchanan was in favor of the bill but opposed to the amendment, claiming that the measure had a very wide bearing, and that if it should become a law it would virtually amount to a judicial consolidation of the Union, an object which showed the tendency of Mr. Buchanan's mind at this early period of his career, and which was displayed just forty years later when the question of the absolute disintegration of the Union was on the tapis. In speaking to the bill in question Mr. Buchanan said: "Let a bankrupt be presented to the view of society who has become wealthy since his discharge and who, after having ruined

a number of his creditors, shields himself from the payment of his honest debts by a certificate, and what effects would such a spectacle be calculated to produce? Examples of this nature must at length demoralize any people. The contagion introduced by the laws of the country would for that very reason spread like a pestilence, until honesty, honor, and faith will at length be swept from the intercourse of society. Leave the agricultural interests pure and uncorrupted, and they will forever form the basis on which the constitution and liberties of your country may safely repose. Do not, I beseech