elected to Congress, and remained there ten years. In 1831 he was sent by President Jackson as minister to Russia, where he made the first commercial treaty between that country and the United States, which gave our merchants many valuable trading privileges on the Baltic and Black Seas. Two years later he was elected to the United States senate, of which he was a member for 12 years, until 1845. Here he was an active and able supporter of the doctrines and measures of the Democratic party, as well as a strong upholder of slavery and the rights of the separate states. When President Polk was elected, he made Buchanan secretary of state; and under President Pierce, he was appointed minister to England. In 1856 he was elected president. During his administration a Mormon rebellion in Utah was quietly settled. In the last year of his administration the trouble between the north and the south came to a head, and in December, 1860, South Carolina withdrew from the Union. The president declared that Congress had no power by the constitution to prevent any state from withdrawing if it wished and that the president could not treat with the representatives of any state, but must refer the matter to Congress. Soon afterward, Lincoln was elected president. Buchanan spent the remainder of his life at his home in Lancaster, Pa. In 1866 he wrote a book to defend his administration. He died in 1868.
|
| JAMES BUCHANAN |
Buchanan, Robert, an English poet, novelist, critic and literary free lance, was born in Staffordshire, England, in 1841, and educated at Glasgow University, Scotland. His early work appeared when he was a journalist and won him considerable fame, especially two volumes o f verse entitled U ndert ones and London r^oems. His other poetical writings i n-clude A Lyrical Drama; The Drama of Kings; Ballads of .Love, Life and Humor; The Ciiy of
ROBERT BUCHANAN
Dreams; and The Wandering Jew. Hi? chief novels are A Child of Nature; God and the Man; Come Live with Me and be My Love; and The Shadow of the Sword. He also wrote a bright jeu d'esprit, entitled St. Abe and His Seven Wives. He also issued a number of dramas and popular plays. His biting pen, as a critic and essayist, made him many enemies; though the good in him, on the other hand, won him many warm friends. He died June 10, 1901.
Bucharest (bod'ka-resf), the capital and seat of government of the kingdom of Rumania, which, since 1861, includes the now united principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia, stands on the plain of the small river, Dambovitza. The city has a number of handsome buildings. A university is situated here, and there is a large trade centering in Bucharest between Austria and the Balkan Peninsula. There is an unusual number of cafes and gambling houses; and the presence of all the vices and few of the refinements of Paris has given Bucharest the reputation of being the most wicked capital in Europe. The city has been the scene of many military operations, and has suffered from floods, earthquakes and pestilences. The population is 300,000.
Buck, Dudley, an American organist and composer, who has achieved fame for his song music, operettas and fine organ compositions, was born at Hartford, Conn.. March 10, 1839, and received his professional education at the Leipsic Conservatory of Music. For several years he was organist at the Music Hall, Boston, and latterly organist of Holy Trinity Church, Brooklyn and director of the Apollo Club. He wrote a number of admired songs, cantatas and festival hymns, besides several long compositions, especially his Golden Legend, based on Longfellow's well-known poem with that title. He died Oct. 6, 1909.
Buckeye (genus Msculus), a group ol trees distinguished by large winter buds; conspicuous flowers in pyramidal racemes; leaves large, compound and opposite; large nuts the fruit. In all the buckeyes the leaflets are branched at the end of the stem. There are eleven species, four native to this country. One very well known is the Ohio buckeye, once so abundant in Ohio as to give the state the name Buckeye, and the tree the name Ohio. It is gradually becoming rare, the disagreeable odor exhaled by the bark counting strongly against it. The tree is also known as the fetid buckeye. It is found from Pennsylvania south to Alabama, west to Michigan and Oklahoma. The bitter nuts are not edible, and are poisonous to cattle. The wood is valued specially in the making of artificial limbs. The tree grows from 20, 40 to 70 feet high, has slender spreading branches, and in April and May bears small, pale yellow-green flowers*
