FOREIGN AFFAIRS.--_Mexico._--Owing to the inaccuracy of the map used in the treaty between the United States and Mexico, a dispute arose with regard to the boundary line. General Gadsden negotiated a settlement whereby Mexico was paid $10,000,000, and the United States secured the region (map, Epoch VI) known as the "Gadsden purchase." _Japan._--Commodore Perry's expedition to Japan (1854) excited great attention. He negotiated a treaty which gave to the merchants of the United States two ports of entry in that exclusive country. POLITICAL PARTIES.--The compromises of 1820 and 1850 being now abolished, the slave question became the turning-point of the election. New party lines were drawn to meet this issue. The whig party ceased to exist. The republican party, absorbing all who opposed the extension of slavery, nominated John C. Fremont, who received the vote of eleven States. The democratic party, retaining its organization, nominated James Buchanan, who was elected President. [Footnote: A third party, called the Know-Nothing or American party, was organized to resist the influence of foreigners. It carried the vote of only one State, Maryland. Its motto was "America for Americans." The party aroused bitter feelings, but had a transient existence. (Read list of Political Parties, Barnes's Pop. Hist., p. 654.)] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. [Footnote: James Buchanan was born 1791; died 1868. The "bachelor-President" was sixty-six years old when he was called to the executive chair. He had just returned to his native country, after an absence of four years as minister to England. Previously to that he had been well known in public life, having been Representative, Senator, and Secretary of State. As Senator in Jackson's time, he heartily supported his administration. With Van Buren, he warmly advocated the idea of an independent treasury (see p. 179), against the opposition of Clay, Webster, and others. Under Tyler, he was urgently in favor of the annexation of Texas, thus again coming into conflict with Clay and Webster. He cordially agreed with them, however, in the compromise of 1850 (see p. 193), and urged the people to adopt it. Much was hoped from his election, as he avowed the object of his administration to be "to destroy any sectional party, whether North or South, and to restore, if possible, that national fraternal feeling between the different States that had existed during the early days of the Republic." But popular passion and sectional jealousy were too strong to yield to pleasant persuasion. We shall see in the text how the heated nation was drawn into the horrors of civil war. When Mr. Buchanan's administration closed, the fearful conflict was close at hand. He retired to his estate in Pennsylvania, where he died.] (FIFTEENTH PRESIDENT: 1857-1861.) DOMESTIC AFFAIRS. _Dred Scott_