ELBRIDGE GERRY. "transcendental politics" arose spontaneously in that age; the Constitution is based on them; and in urging them America probably influenced France more than France affected America. There is now a reaction against them, and perhaps it is as well that these oscillations of the pendulum should take place; but I am not one of those who believe that the people of the United States will ever outgrow the Declaration of Independence. One of the most momentous acts of the Continental Congress had been to receive from the State of Virginia the gift of a vast unsettled territory northwest of the Ohio, and to apply to this wide realm the guarantee of freedom from slavery. This safeguard was but the fulfillment of a condition suggested by Timothy Pickering, when, in 1783, General Rufus Putnam and nearly three hundred army officers had proposed to form a new State in that very region of the Ohio. They sent in a memorial to Congress asking for a grant of land. Washington heartily indorsed the project, but nothing came of it. North Carolina soon after made a cession of land to the United States, and then revoked it; but the people on the ceded territory declared themselves for a time to be a separate State, under the name of Franklin. Virginia, through Thomas Jefferson, finally delivered a deed on March 1, 1784, by which she ceded to the United States all her territory northwest of the Ohio. The great gift was accepted, and a plan of government was adopted, into which Jefferson tried to introduce an antislavery ordinance, but he was defeated by a single vote. Again, in 1785, Rufus King, of Massachusetts, seconded by William Ellery, of Rhode Island, proposed to revive Jefferson's rejected clause, but again it failed, being smothered by a committee. It was not till July 13, 1787, that the statute passed by which slavery was forever prohibited in the territory of the Northwest, this being moved by Nathan Dane as an amendment to an ordinance already adopted-which he himself had framed-and being passed by a vote of every State present in the Congress, eight in all. Under this statute the Ohio Company-organized in Boston the year before as the final outcome of Rufus Putnam's proposed colony of officers-purchased from the government five or six millions of acres, and entered on the first great movement of emigration west of the Ohio. The report creating the colony provided for public schools, for religious institutions, and for a university. The land was to be paid for in United States certificates of debt, and its price in specie was between eight and nine cents an acre. The settlers were almost wholly men who had served in the army, and were used to or From the steel engraving by F. O'C. Darley in Irving's "Washington," by permission of G. P. Putnam's Sons. ton, "was ever settled under such favorable auspices as that which has just commenced at the Muskingum." It had been provided that the new Constitution should go into effect when nine States had ratified it. That period having arrived, Congress fixed the first Wednesday in January, 1789, for the choice of Presidential electors, and the first Wednesday in March for the date when the new government should go into power. On March 4, 1789, the Continental Congress ceased to exist, but it was several weeks before either House of the new Congress was organized. On April 6 the organization of the two Houses was complete, the electoral votes were counted; and on April 21 John Adams took his seat as Vice hall was a table covered with crimson velvet, upon which lay a Bible on a crimson cushion. Out upon the balcony came with "superb dignity" the man whose generalship, whose patience, whose selfdenial, had achieved and then preserved the liberties of the nation; the man who, greater than Cæsar, had held a kingly crown within reach, and had refused it. Washington stood a moment amid the shouts of the people, then bowed, and took the oath, administered by Chancellor Livingston. At this moment a flag was raised upon the cupola of the hall; a discharge of artillery followed, and the assembled people again filled the air with their shouting. Thus simple was the ceremonial which announced that a nation was born. JA JAMES BUCHANAN.* AMES BUCHANAN was born on the 23d day of April, 1791, and died on the 1st day of June, 1868. Of this long life the larger part was devoted to the service of the United States. In 1820 he was elected to the House of Representatives. In 1832 he was sent as Minister to Russia. In 1834 he was elected to the Senate. In 1845 he was made Secretary of State. In 1853 he was sent as Minister to England. In 1856 he was elected President of the United States. We have said he was in these various positions the servant of the people. The old times were not as these times. Office-holders during the period covered by the public life of Mr. Buchanan were servants, and hardworking servants. In our day there is too much of the notion prevalent that the holder of even a petty office is above the people, not under them, and that he is responsible only to the ring or the immediate holders of the influence which put him in and may put him out of office. A study of the biography of a statesman of the past generation is therefore a study of much of the history of the country. No book contains a more important condensation of the history of our home and foreign policy, the development to maturity and power among nations of our government, than this biography, beginning with the administration of James Monroe, and ending with that of Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Buchanan went to Washington in the first years of Mr. Monroe's second term as President. Mr. Monroe had been elected with very slight opposition. Party politics was scarcely known, and there were no exciting public questions on which the people were divided. It was the business of men at Washington to study and effect the prosperity of the country, and they set themselves to the work. In the House were such men as George McDuffie, Joel R. Poinsett, Reuben H. Walworth, Benjamin Gorham, William Lowndes, John Randolph, John Sergeant, and a host of like spirits, whose names, to the American familiar with the history of his country, sound with a golden ring out of a golden past, in which the land prospered, and the foundations of our greatness were laid deep and broad. It was Mr. Buchanan's habit in later times to make careful notes of important incidents and conversations, and he made now and then a note of his memories of persons and things in his earlier life. These notes, terse, clear, and sententious, form a valuable feature of the biography, and preserve for history many characteristics of the men with whom he came in contact. Thus he has left on record a tribute of profound admiration to one who, had he lived, would probably have occupied a high position in the affections and respect of his countrymen, William Lowndes, of South Carolina, and whom he characterizes as "the ablest, purest, most unselfish statesman of his day." John Sergeant said of him: "With so much accurate knowledge, and with powers which enabled him to delight and instruct the House, there was united so much gentleness and kindness, and such real, unaffected modesty, that you were prepared to be subdued before he exerted his commanding powers of argument." We have lived so fast, and so many men have arisen to be, and so many others to seem, great, that the name of Mr. Lowndes, once a prominent candidate for the Presidency, has almost passed out of American memory. "John Randolph of Roanoke," says Mr. Buchanan, in the same note, "was the most conspicuous, though far from the most influential, member of the House when I first took my seat. He entered the House in 1799, and had continued there, with the exception of two terms, from that early period. His style of debate was in perfect contrast to that of Mr. Lowndes. He was severe and sarcastic, sparing neither friend nor foe when the one or the other laid himself open to the shafts of his ridicule. He was a fine belles-lettres scholar, and his classical allusions were abundant and happy. He had a shrill and penetrating voice, and could be heard distinctly in every portion of the House. He spoke with great deliberation, and often paused for an instant as if to select the most appropriate word. His manner was confident, proud, and imposing, and pointing, as he always did, his long forefinger at the object of attack, he gave peculiar emphasis to the severity of his language. He attracted a crowded gallery when it was known he would ad- | reads it will-supposing it possible-foredress the House, and always commanded go all interest in political history, and the undivided attention of his whole audi- seek only the story of a life which was ence, whether he spoke the words of wis- passed among men and women of the dom, or, as he often did, of folly. For generation now nearly gone, the life of a these reasons he was more feared than be- man of education, of accomplishments, of loved, and his influence in the House bore established social position, of sometimes no proportion to the brilliancy of his tal- high official position, and yet of a man ents. He was powerful in pulling down who, while in the social world of his day, an administration, but had no skill in seems never to have been exactly of that building anything up. Hence he was al- | world, but rather an observer of it, he will most always in the opposition, but was find in this biography ample material for never what is called a business member. thoughtful study and instruction. To me he was uniformly respectful, and sometimes complimentary, in debate. I well remember Mr. Sergeant putting me on my guard against Mr. Randolph's friendship." That he was not of the world which surrounded him may perhaps be illustrated by a single remark. He had throughout life an extended correspondence with men of his time-eminent men on both sides of It is worth while, by way of reminding the Atlantic-from which the biographer young readers of the rapid advance of the has largely extracted. We do not find in country, to note that among the first pub- all this record of friendship and associalic questions which occupied Mr. Buchan- tion that any one ever addressed him as an as a young statesman was the Cum- "Dear Buchanan," or that he ever addressberland Road, a national turnpike-roaded any one in that which is the ordinary from Maryland to the banks of the Ohio River. This road was the great line of travel to the "far West." Its opponents were Pennsylvanians who owned stock in a turnpike from Philadelphia to Pittsburgh. Mr. Buchanan, however, favor ed the national road, on the general principle that it was a bond of union between the East and the West. In these days of innumerable railways it seems almost incredible that but fifty years have passed since the United States Congress was legislating on a turnpike as an all-important bond of union of the States. The old road was kept up awhile after that, and as late as 1845 we remember the sunrise seen from the window of a stage-coach on the summit of the Alleghany ridge as we were pursuing the then quickest route from New York to Cincinnati. It is not our purpose to follow Mr. Buchanan's public career. That would be to reprint a large portion of the volumes, in which the reader will find an admirable condensation of the political history of the administrations of the successive Presidents under each of whom Mr. Buchanan was in public service, until he became President himself. Mr. Curtis's work may be divided into two parts, and each part has its separate interest to the reader. In the one is found the history of the man, in the other the history of his country. If one who style of correspondence between intimate friends. From his earliest days his affections, so far as this record informs us, were devoted to those of his own household. There, indeed, the warmth of a very calm but very earnest heart abundantly glowed. It has been excellent judgment on the part of the biographer to give such extended space to his correspondence with his niece (Miss Harriet Lane), to whom he was in place of a father. When she was a young girl he wrote to her letters recognizing, and thus leading her to recognize, the dignity of even a young girl's life, and doubtless confirming in her mind the assurance that she had always surrounding her the affectionate and firm guidance of a guardian on whose love and care she could depend. While she was at school he wrote to her such wise and pleasant words as these, which we quote from various letters: You "Your letter afforded me very great pleasure. There is no wish nearer my heart than that you should become an amiable and intelligent woman; and I am rejoiced to learn that you still continue at the head of your class. can render yourself very dear to me by your conduct; and I anticipate with pleasure the month which, I trust in Heaven, we may pass together after the adjournment of Congress. I expect to be in Lancaster for a week or ten days about the 1st of April, when I hope to see you in good health, and receive the most favorable reports of your behavior." "It is one of the first desires of my heart |