f Scotch-Irish parentage, and to this blending of
blood were probably in part due his deep love and steadfastness. There
was rather more of the Irish than of the Scotch in his face, and when
we read that his overflowing spirits were too much for the college in
which he had been placed, and that, for "reasons of public policy,"
the honours which he had earned were on commencement day given to
another, it is evident that he may sometimes have felt that he owed
allegiance primarily to the Emerald Isle.

Like others, who have been capable of deep and lasting passion, James
Buchanan loved his mother. Among his papers there was found a fragment
of an autobiography, which ended in 1816, when the writer was only
twenty-five years of age. He says his father was "a kind father, a
sincere friend, and an honest and religious man," but on the subject
of his mother he waxes eloquent:

"Considering her limited opportunities in early life [he
writes], my mother was a remarkable woman. The daughter of a
country farmer, engaged in household employment from early
life until after my father's death, she yet found time to
read much, and to reflect deeply on what she read.

"She had a great fondness for poetry, and could repeat with
ease all the passages in her favorite authors which struck
her fancy. These were Milton, Pope, Young, Cowper, and
Thompson.

"I do not think, at least until a late period in life, she
had ever read a criticism on any one of these authors, and
yet such was the correctness of her natural taste, that she
had selected for herself, and could repeat, every passage
in them which has been admired....

"For her sons, as they grew up successively, she was a
delightful and instructive companion.... She was a woman of
great firmness of character, and bore the afflictions of her
later life with Christian philosophy.... It was chiefly to
her influence, that her sons were indebted for a liberal
education. Under Providence I attribute any little
distinction which I may have acquired in the world to the
blessing which He conferred upon me in granting me such a
mother."

If Elizabeth Buchanan could have read these words, doubtless she would
have felt fully repaid for her many years of toil, self-sacrifice, and
devotion.

After the young man left the legislature and took up the practice of
law, with the inte