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BUCHANAN

JAMES

AMES BUCHANAN was the son of an Irishman, who emigrated from Donegal, Ireland, to Pennsylvania, and who there became a well-to-do farmer. James was born in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, in 1791. He took a B.A. degree at Dickinson College, Carlisle, in 1809, and was admitted to the bar three years later. He soon acquired at Lancaster a lucrative practice. In his early life he was a zealous Federalist, and, as such, was elected in 1814, and again in 1815, to the State Legislature. In 1820 he became a member of Congress. In 1828 he supported General Jackson at the Presidential election, and in the following year succeeded Daniel Webster as head of the Judiciary Committee of the House. On completing his fifth term in 1831, Buchanan retired from the House of Representatives, and the next year was appointed Minister to the Court of Russia. On his return to the United States, he was elected a United States Senator, and retained his seat until 1845, when he was appointed Secretary of State under President Polk. At the close of his term of office in March, 1849, he retired into private life, but four years later he accepted from President Pierce the post of United States Minister to Great Britain. In 1854 he was the originator of the so-called Ostend Conference, called for the purpose of furthering the acquisition of Cuba by the United States. He returned from England in 1856, and the same year was elected as the Democratic candidate to the Presidential chair. During his administration he gave his support to the pro-slavery party, and dissensions grew to such an extent that disruption and war between the North and the South followed the election of his successor. From the date of his withdrawal from the White House in March, 1861, he led a retired life and died at his estate of Wheatland in Pennsylvania, on June 1, 1868.

Fellow- Citizens:

I

INAUGURAL ADDRESS

APPEAR before you this day to take the solemn oath "that I will faithfully execute the office of President

of the United States and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

In entering upon this great office I must humbly invoke the God of our fathers for wisdom and firmness to execute its high and responsible duties in such a manner as to restore harmony and ancient friendship among the people of the several States, and to preserve our free institutions throughout many generations. Convinced that I owe my election to the inherent love for the Constitution and the Union which still animates the hearts of the American people, let me earnestly ask their powerful support in sustaining all just measures calculated to perpetuate these, the richest political blessings which Heaven has ever bestowed upon any nation. Having determined not to become a candidate for re-election, I shall have no motive to influence my conduct in administering the government, except the desire ably and faithfully to serve my country and to live in the grateful memory of my countrymen.

We have recently passed through a Presidential contest in which the passions of our fellow-citizens were excited to the highest degree by questions of deep and vital importance; but when the people proclaimed their will the tempest at once subsided and all was calm.

The voice of the majority, speaking in the manner prescribed by the Constitution, was heard, and instant submission followed. Our own country could alone have exhibited so grand and striking a spectacle of the capacity of man for self-government.

What a happy conception, then, was it for Congress to apply this simple rule, that the will of the majority shall govern, to the settlement of the question of domestic slavery in the Territories! Congress is neither "to legislate slavery into any Territory or State, nor to exclude it therefrom, but to leave the people thereof perfectly free to

form and regulate their domestic institutions in their own way, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.'

As a natural consequence, Congress has also prescribed that when the Territory of Kansas shall be admitted as a State it "shall be received into the Union with or without slavery, as their Constitution may prescribe at the time of their admission."

A difference of opinion has arisen in regard to the point of time when the people of a Territory shall decide this question for themselves.

This is, happily, a matter of but little practical importance. Besides, it is a judicial question, which legitimately belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, before whom it is now pending, and will, it is understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their decision, in common with all good citizens, I shall cheerfully submit, whatever this may be, though it has ever been my individual opinion that under the Nebraska-Kansas act the appropriate period will be when the number of actual residents in the Territory shall justify the formation of a Constitution with a view to its admission as a State into the Union. But be this as it may, it is the imperative and indispensable duty of the government of the United States to secure to every resident inhabitant the free and independent expression of his opinion by his vote. This sacred right of each individual must be preserved. That being accomplished, nothing can be fairer than to leave the people of a Territory free from all foreign interference, to decide their own destiny for themselves, subject only to the Constitution of the United States.

The whole Territorial question being settled upon the principle of popular sovereignty-a principle as ancient as

free government itself-everything of a practical nature has been decided. No other question remains for adjustment, because all agree that under the Constitution slavery in the States is beyond any human power except that of the respective States themselves wherein it exists. May we not, then, hope that the long agitation on this subject is approaching its end, and that the geographical parties to which it has given birth, so much dreaded by the Father of his Country, will speedily become extinct? Most happy will it be for the country when the public mind shall be diverted from this question to others of more pressing and practical importance. Throughout the whole progress of this agitation, which has scarcely known any intermission for more than twenty years, while it has been productive of no positive good to any human being, it has been the prolific source of great evils to the master, to the slave, and to the whole country. It has alienated and estranged the people of the sister States from each other, and has even seriously endangered the very existence of the Union. Nor has the danger yet entirely ceased. Under our system there is a remedy for all mere political evils in the sound sense and sober judgment of the people. Time is a great corrective. Political subjects which but a few years ago excited and exasperated the public mind have passed away and are now entirely forgotten. But this question of domestic slavery is of far graver importance than any mere political question, because, should the agitation continue, it may eventually endanger the personal safety of a large portion of our countrymen where the institution exists. In that event no form of government, however admirable in itself, and however productive of material benefits, can compensate for the loss of peace and domestic security around the

family altar. Let every Union-loving man, therefore, exert his best influence to suppress this agitation, which, since the recent legislation of Congress, is without any legitimate object.

It is an evil omen of the times that men have undertaken to calculate the mere material value of the Union. Reasoned estimates have been presented of the pecuniary profits and local advantages which would result to the different States and sections from its dissolution, and of the comparative injuries which such an event would inflict on other States and sections. Even descending to this low and narrow view of the mighty question, all such calculations are at fault. The bare reference to a single consideration will be conclusive on this point. We at present enjoy a free trade throughout our extensive and expanding country such as the world has never witnessed. This trade is conducted on railroads and canals, on noble rivers and arms of the sea, which bind together the North and South, the East and West, of our confederacy. Annihilate this trade, arrest its free progress by the geographical lines of jealous and hostile States, and you destroy the prosperity and onward march of the whole and every part, and involve all in a common ruin. But such considerations, important as they are in themselves, sink into insignificance when we reflect upon the terrific evils which would result from disunion to every portion of the confederacy-to the North not more than to the South, to the East not more than to the West. These I shall not attempt to portray, because I feel a humble confidence that the kind Providence which inspired our fathers with wisdom to frame the most perfect form of government and union ever devised by man, will not suffer it to perish until it shall have been peacefully instrumental, by its § 2-Orations-Vol. VIII.

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