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 380 BUCHANAN four years old. The year 1579 was marked by the publication of his De Jure Regni apud ticotos, a treatise, under the form of a dialogue, concerning the institutions of Scotland, upon the principles of government and society. For nearly two centuries this book, which incul- cates the doctrine that governments exist for the sake of the governed, was held up as con- t lining the sum of all heresy and rebellion. It was burnt, together with the works of Milton, in 1683, at Oxford, and again in 1684 received a formal condemnation and burning from the Scotch parliament. His last production, Rerum Scotiearum JfMoria, in 20 books, was pub- lished in 1582. Bll'HAXAN, James, fifteenth president of the United States, born at Stony Batter, Franklin co., Penn., April 22, 1791, died at Lancaster, Penn., June 1, 1868. His father emigrated to the United States from Ireland in 1783; his mother was the daughter of a farmer of Adams co., Penn. He graduated at Dickinson college in 1809, studied law at Lancaster, was admit- ted to the bar in 1812, and soon obtained a largo practice. Although a federalist, and avowedly opposed to the war of 1812, he headed a list of volunteers, and enlisted as a private in a company which marched to the defence of Baltimore. He was elected to the Pennsylvania legislature in 1814, and in 1821 was elected to congress, where he remained ten years. In respect to the tariff he held that duties ought to be imposed merely for revenue purposes, although indirectly certain branches of manufacture might happen to be benefited more than others. In the presidential election of 1828 he took an active part in favor of Gen. Jackson, and in the next congress was chairman of the judiciary committee. In 1829 articles of impeachment were passed against James H. Peck, judge of the United States court for the district of Missouri, who had committed to prison and debarred from practice a lawyer who had published some strictures upon one of his judicial decisions. Mr. Buchanan was chosen one of the five managers on the part of the house of representatives, and closed the case, confining himself to the legal and consti- tutional principles involved. Though the sen- ate, by a vote of 22 to 21, refused to convict Judge Peck, it shortly afterward unanimously passed an act obviating whatever technical objections then stood in the way of his convic- tion, and so framed the law that no judge has since ventured to commit a similar offence. In 1831, at the close of his fifth term, Mr. Bu- chanan withdrew from congress, and was soon afterward selected by President Jackson as en- voy extraordinary and minister plenipotentiary at St. Petersburg. He concluded the first commercial treaty between the United States and Russia, which secured to our merchants and navigators important privileges in the Bal- tic and Black seas. In 1833 he was elected to the United States senate. A great revulsion in politics had taken place during his absence from the country. A rupture had occurred between President Jackson and Mr. Calhonn, which eventually led to the dissolution of Jackson's first cabinet ; a new tariff had been enacted after a sharp struggle, and the battle against the renewal of the charter of the United States bank had been led to a final is- sue. An attempt was made to deprive the president of the power of removal from office without the advice and consent of the senate. Mr. Buchanan defended President Jackson, and urged the necessity of appointing officials by the president alone during the recess of con- gress. During the session of 1835-'6 a new element was introduced into national politics. Up to this period the anti-slavery agitation had been mainly confined to a small body of per- sons. The only political aspect of the ques- tion was the presentation to congress of peti- tions for the abolition of slavery in the District of Columbia, and the prohibition of the slave trade between the states. Mr. Buchanan de- sired to stifle the agitation in the beginning, by preventing the discussion of slavery in con- gress. He urged that congress should receive and consider petitions for the abolition of sla- very in the District, and then declare that congress had no power to legislate on the sub- ject. He said that the proper way was " to leave this question where the constitution has left it, to the slaveholding states themselves." He was in favor of the recognition by the Uni- ted States of the independence of Texas, and at a later day advocated the admission of Texas into the Union. Toward the close of Jackson's administration the French indemnity question had risen to a threatening importance. The president insisted on the prompt payment by France of the debt due to our citizens ; and when the French chambers rejected the recom- mendation of Louis Philippe's ministry to pro- vide for the payment of the indemnity, President Jackson asked an appropriation of $3,000,000 for the increase of the navy and the defence of our maritime frontier. Mr. Buchanan, in sup- porting this demand of the president, reviewed the whole question, and clearly established the justice of the claim. During Mr. Van Buren's presidential term Mr. Buchanan's powers as a debater came especially into play in support of the leading administration measure, the estab- lishment of an independent treasury. He de- fended the preemption privileges of settlers on the public lands ; opposed the bill to punish by fine and disability federal officers who should attempt to interfere with any citizen's vote ; sustained the veto power in opposition to Mr. Clay during the administration of John Tyler; and spoke against the ratification of the Web- ster-Ashburton treaty, not so much because the northeastern boundary line between the United States and the British provinces of North America, determined by that treaty, did not correspond with what he thought it ought to be, as because it did not settle other matters of dispute then existing between the two gov-