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elected to the National Senate and, during the following year, removed to Concord, where he at once took rank among the leading lawyers of the State.

Though Mr. Pierce had declined the office of Attorney-General of the United States, offered to him by President Polk, he, nevertheless, when hostilities were declared against Mexico, accepted a brigadier-generalship in the army, successfully marching with twenty-four hundred men from the sea-coast to Puebla, where he reinforced General Scott. The latter, on the arrival of Pierce, immediately prepared to make his long-contemplated attack upon the City of Mexico. At the battle of Contreras, on the 19th of August, 1847, where he led an assaulting column four thousand strong, General Pierce showed himself to be a brave and energetic soldier. Early in the fight his leg was broken by his horse falling upon him, yet he kept his saddle during the entire conflict, which did not cease till eleven o'clock at night. The next day also, he took part in the still more desperate fight at Churubusco, where, overcome by pain and exhaustion, he fainted on the field. At Molino Del Rey, where the hottest battle of the war was fought, he narrowly escaped death from a shell which bursted beneath his horse.

The American army triumphantly entered the City of Mexico on the 13th of September, 1847. General Pierce remained there until the following

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December, when he returned home and resumed the practice of his profession. In the Democratic Convention which met at Baltimore, June 1st, 1852, Cass, Buchanan, and Douglas were the prominent candidates. After thirty-five indecisive ballots Franklin Pierce was proposed, and on the forty-ninth ballot he was nominated for the Presidency. He was elected by an overwhelming majority, and was inaugurated Chief Magistrate on the 4th of March, 1853, receiving two hundred and fifty-four electoral votes, while his opponent, General Winfield Scott, received but forty-two.

Though both the great parties of the country had adopted platforms favoring the recent compromise measures of Clay, and deprecating any renewal of the agitation of the slavery question, General Pierce's Administration, by reason of the bringing up of that very question, was one of the most stormy in our history. Douglas's bill for the organization of Kansas and Nebraska, by which the Missouri Compromise Act of 18 20 was repealed allowing slavery to enter where it had been forever excluded, and which, having the support of the President, became a law on the last day of May, 1853, excited the most intense indignation in the free States, and greatly increased the strength of the anti-slavery power. In Kansas a bitter contest, almost attaining the proportions of civil war, began between the partisans of the South and the North. This contest was

still raging when Mr. Pierce's term drew to its close. Other events of his Administration were the bombardment of Greytown, in Central America, under orders from our Government; efforts under Government direction for the acquisition of Cuba; and the use of the President's official influence and patronage against the Anti-Slavery settlers of Kansas.

His friends sought to obtain his nomination for a second term, but did not succeed. On the 4th of March, 1857, therefore, he retired to his home at Concord. That home, already bereaved by the loss of three promising boys-his only children, -was now to have a still greater loss,-that of the wife and afflicted mother, who, grief-stricken at the sudden death, by a railroad accident, of her last boy, sunk under consumption, leaving Mr. Pierce alone in the world-wifeless as well as childless.

The sorrowing ex-President soon after took a trip to Madeira, and made a protracted tour in Europe, returning home in 1860. During the Civil War he delivered in Concord a speech, still known as the "Mausoleum of Hearts Speech," in which he is regarded as having expressed a decided sympathy for the Confederates. He died at Concord on the 8th of October, 1869, having lost much of his hold on the respect of his fellowcitizens, both North and South, by his lack of decision for either,

F

JAMES BUCHANAN,

IFTEENTH President of the United States, was born in Franklin County, Pa., April 22d, 1791. His father, a native of the North of Ireland, who had come eight years before to America, with no capital but his strong arms and energetic spirit, was yet able to give the bright and studious boy a good collegiate educa tion at Dickinson College, Carlisle, Pa., where he graduated in 1809. He then began the study of law at Lancaster, and, after a three years' course, was admitted to practice in 1812. He rose rapidly in his profession, the business of which increased with his reputation, so that, at the age of forty, he was enabled to retire with an ample fortune.

Mr. Buchanan early entered into politics. When but twenty-three years old, he was elected to the Legislature of Pennsylvania. Though an avowed Federalist, he not only spoke in favor of a vigorous prosecution of the War of 1812, but likewise marched as a private soldier to the defense of Baltimore. In 1820, he was elected to the lower House of Congress, where he speedily attained eminence as a finished and energetic speaker. His political views are shown in the following extract from one of his speeches in Congress: “If I know myself, I am a politician

neither of the West nor the East, of the North nor of the South. I therefore shall forever avoid any expressions the direct tendency of which must be to create sectional jealousies, and at length disunion-that worst of all political calamities." That he sincerely endeavored in his future career to act in accordance with the principles here enunciated no candid mind can doubt, however much he may be regarded to have failed in doing so, especially during the eventful last months of his Administration.

In 1831, at the close of his fifth term, Mr. Buchanan, having declined a re-election to Congress, was sent as Minister Plenipotentiary to St. Petersburg, where he concluded the first commercial treaty between the United States and Russia. On his return home in 1833, he was elected to the National Senate. Here he became one of the leading spirits among the supporters of Presi dent Jackson, and also supported the Administration of Martin Van Buren. He was re-elected to the Senate, and his last act as a Senator was to report favorably on the admission of Texas, he being the only member of the Committee on Foreign Relations to do so.

On the election of Polk to the Presidency, in 1845, Mr. Buchanan was selected to fill the important position of Secretary of State. He strongly opposed the "Wilmot Proviso," and all other provisions for the restriction of slavery,