BUCHANAN. 002 BUCHANAN. 629; plurality for him. 496,90.5. He had the votes of every slaveholding State except Mary- land, which went for Fillmore. The vote also ■•are Buchanan Indiana. Illinois, Pennsylvania, California, and New Jersey. In the executive chair he was uniforinlv subservient to Southern politicians, and allowed their threats of seces- sion to influence his actions. Among other acts of his administration were the temporary sup- pression of the Mormon troubles and the vetoing of the Homestead Bill. -Ifler Lincoln's election Buchanan was more than ever anxious to sti- fle the slavcrv discussion, and in his last mes- sage to Congress (.ointedly charged the North with havino brought about the existing crisis in na- tional affairs bv a discussion which had "pro- duced its malign influence on the slaves, and in- spired them with a vague idea of freedom. While holding that the States had no right to secede, he weaklv added that the nation had no power to prevent"it ; for it could not employ force, he said, except upon the demand of the lawtul authorities of the State, and in South Carolina no such authority then existed. A few days later he was confronted bv conimissioners from South ■Carolina (that State having passed an act of se- cession on December 20, 18G0), who came to de- mand the surrender bv the President to the seceded State of all public property, and to ne- gotiate for the continuance of "peace and amity between that Commonwealth and the Government at ashington." His reply was that he had no power, and could only refer the matter to Con- gi-ess; he could only receive them as "private gentlemen of the highest character," and treat Tespectfullv such propositions as they might make. He'did, however, decline to accede to their demand for the removal of the troops from Charleston Harbor. The Cabinet was immediately reorganized. Cass was Secretary of State, but resigned when the President refused to order re- inforcements to the Charleston forts; the Sec- retary of the Treasury and the Secretary of the Interior had already gone, and the Secretaiy of War also resigned. Under the influence of the reorganized Cabinet, including J. S. Black. John
Dix J. Holt, and E. il. Stanton, Buchanan
displayed less timidity, attempted a reinforce- ment "of Sumter, refused to surrender the ■ United States property to South Carolina, and announced his intention to protect it it assailed, measures which gained for his administration, during its last months, more of the conhdence of the nation. After the accession of Lincoln Mr. Buchanan wrote to John A. Dix: '"The present administration had no alternative but to accept the war initiated by South Carolina or the South- ern Confederacy. ' The North will sustain the adn.iinistration almost to a man, and it ought to be sustained at all hazards." Buchanan's administration was marked by con- siderable activity in diplomatic afltairs. He se- cured a satisfactory commercial treaty with China and the recognition by England of the rights of neutral ships. Relations with Mexico continued to be important as well as nnsatisfac- torv. In his attitude toward the struggle^ in Kansas and his action upon the Lecompton Con- stitution (q. v.) Buchanan subjected himself to severe criticism. Shortly after his retirement, lie published what may be termed a defense, en- titled Mr. liuchaiian's Administratton on the Lve of the Reunion (New York, 1866). The chief authority for his life is the Memoir by George Ticknor "Curtis (2 vols.. New York, 18S3). In ISSS the messages of Mr. Buchanan were col- lected and published by J. Buchanan Henry, with an appendix containing a number of letters from members of his Cabinet at the close of his Presi- dential term (New York, 1888). He died in Lancaster, Pa., June 1, 1868. See United St-^tes. BUCHANAN, Robert Christie (1811-78). An American soldier. He was born in Baltimore, Md. ; graduated at West Point in 1S30; took part as second lieutenant in the Black Hawk War of 1832, being in command of the gunboats on the Wisconsin during the battle of Bad Axe River; and in 1837-38 served in the Florida, or Semi- nole, War. In the Jlexican War he participated in both the Northern and the Southern cam- paigns, and was brevetted major and lieutenant- colonel, respectively, for gallantry at Palo Alto and ilolino del Rey. Soon after the outbreak of the Civil War he was promoted to be lieutenant- colonel, and in 1862 commanded a regiment, and later a brigade in the Peninsular Campaign. From November, 1862, to March, 1863, he served as a brigiidier-general of volunteers in the Rap- pahannock campaign, and at the close of the war he was brevetted brigadier-general in the regular army for gallantry in the battle of Mal- vern Hill, and major-general for gallantry in the .second battle of Bull Run and the battle of Fredericksburg. He commanded the District of Louisiana from January, 1868, to January, 1869, and the Department of Louisiana from .January to .March, 1869; and in 1870 retired from the service. BUCHANAN, Robert William (1841-1901). Aw English poet, dramatist, and novelist. He was born in Cavcrswall, Stafl'ordshire, was educated at the University of Glasgow, shared hardships in London with the promising Scotch poet David Gray (q.v.), and gradually became known as a journalist. His first juiblication, Undertones, a collection of verse, appeared in 1862, and was followed in 180.5 by Idylls and Legends of Ifiverhurn, and in 1S66 by London Poems. In 1860 he gave in London a series uf selected readings from his poems. comi)lete edi- tions of which wore published in 1874 (3 vols.), and 188') (1 vol.). He early essayed the drama, in which field his most noteworthy success was Sophia, a skillful adaptation of Tom Jones; and from 1876 wrote a number of novels, such as God and the Man (1881). In 1880 he visited America. In verse he displayed at his best an unstudied strength of genius, but by degrees grew definitely assertive and painfully egoistic, as he is, for' example, in The Wainlcriiui Jew (1893) . As a critic, he was indeed acute and sin- cere: but in his judgments was by many accused of the same bias and intolerance which disfig- ured the art of his later poetry. Two reviews by liini, "The Fleshly School of Poetry: D. G. R'ossetti" (in the Contemporary Revieir for Oc- tober, 1871, with the signature Thomas Mait- land) and "The Voice of the -Hooligan'" (an ar- raignment of Rudvard Kipling, in the Contem- porary for December, 1899), evoked much eon- troversr. It has been said that his chief defect was one of taste; he was qualified for creative work, but he preferred critical aggressiveness.
