VOL. XVI.
No. IQ.
BOSTON.
OCTOBER, 1904.
JAMES BUCHANAN AS A LAWYER. BY EUGENE L. DIDIER. THE distinction which James Buchanan acquired as United States Senator, as Secretary of State, as Minister to England, and as President of the United States dimmed, if it did not totally eclipse, his early fame as a lawyer. The persevering industry of his father enabled him to give the future President a classical education, and he graduated with high honors at Dick inson College, Pennsylvania, in 1809. Within a few months of his leaving college he be gan the study of the law, and was ad mitted to the bar on November 17, 1812. He had been a hard student, and he was fully equipped for the practice of his chosen profession. The War of 1812, in which he volunteered for the defence of Baltimore, interfered with his professional business; also, the two terms in the legislature of Pennsylvania, 1814-15, during which he was £> zealous supporter of every measure of na tional defence. At the close of his second legislative term, he retired from public life with the determination to devote himself exclusively to the law. His practice increased rapidly, and, con sidering the time and place, was quite lu crative. From a memorandum kept by him, it appears that the first year he was at the bar, his fees were nine hundred and thirtysix dollars. They continued to increase steadily, year after year, excepting in 1820, until they reached $11,297, in 1821, when he had been at the bar only eight years. After he went into politics, in 1820, his pro fessional income fell off rapidly, and, in 1829,
his last year at the bar, his fees amounted to a little more than $3000. Once only after his retirement did he appear again at the bar, and that was to defend a poor widow who was threatened with ejectment from her only piece of property. He succeeded, after considerable difficulty, in establishing her claim, much to the astonishment of every one, and to the great joy of the poor woman, who overwhelmed her benefactor with thanks, and with offers of money, but Mr. Buchanan declined to accept any pay for his services. In 1816-17, Mr. Buchanan gained great distinction by his able defence of the Hon orable Walter Franklin and his associates on the bench of the Court of Common Pleas, in the district comprising the coun ties of York, Lancaster and Lebanon, who were brought before the Senate of Pennsyl vania on articles of impeachment. The case, which attracted great attention at the time, was, in brief, this: In July, 1814, the Presi dent of the United States made a requisi tion on the Governor of Pennsylvania for the services of certain regiments of the State militia. The troops were accordingly mustered into the service of the United States. One Houston, a citizen of Lancas ter, refused to serve, and was tried by a court martial under the State authority, and fined. He brought suit in the Court of Com mon Pleas against the members of the court martial, and the officer who had col lected the fine. On the trial, Judge Frank lin, who was the only lawyer on the bench,
