us blessings and conferring a power and influence which our fathers could hardly have anticipated, even with their most sanguine hopes directed to a far-off future. The sentiments I now announce were not unknown before the expression of the voice which called me here. My own position upon this subject was clear and unequivocal, upon the record of my words and acts, and it is only recurred to at this time because silence might perhaps be misconstrued." After a fervent tribute to the greatness of the Union, he continued: "The founders of the Republic dealt with things as they were presented to them, in a spirit of self-sacrificing patriotism, and, as time has proved, with a comprehensive wisdom which it will always be safe for us to consult. Every measure tending to strengthen the fraternal feelings of all the members of our Union has had my heartfelt approbation. To every theory of society or government, whether the offspring of teverish ambition or of morbid enthusiasm, calculated to dissolve the bonds of law and affection which unite us, I shall interpose a ready and stern resistance. I believe that involuntary servitude, as it exists in different states of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution. I believe that it stands like any other admitted right, and that the states wherein it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the constitutional provisions. I hold that the laws of 1850, commonly called the compromise measures, are strictly constitutional, and to be unhesitatingly carried into effect. I believe that the constituted authorities of this Republic are bound to regard the rights of the south in this respect, as they would view any other legal or constituted right, and that the laws to enforce them should be respected and obeyed, not with reluctance, encouraged by abstract opinions as to their propriety in a different state of society, but cheerfully, and according to the decisions of the tribunal to which their exposition belongs. Such have been and are my convictions, and upon them I shall act. I fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no sectional or ambitious, or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions, or obscure the light of our prosperity. We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis. Wise counsels, like those which gave us the Constitution, prevailed to uphold it. Let the period be remembered as an admonition, and not as an encouragement, in any section of this Union, to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard. Let it be impressed upon all hearts that, beautiful as our fabric is, no earthly power or wisdom could ever reunite its broken fragments.”

President Pierce was fortunate in securing a cabinet of above average strength, and that worked so well together that no change was made therein during his administration. Coming into power as he did during the years of conflict that filled all the decade before the great civil war. his lease of power was one of anxiety, and fraught with chances for grave

mistakes. The President was fully committed as to his position, and there could be no misunderstanding by the public in that regard. He did all that lay in his power to conciliate the south, but events showed that all his endeavors were in vain. The "impending crisis" was fully at hand, and no statesmanship could stand in its way.

In his first message to congress, in December, 1853, President Pierce spoke at some length regarding foreign relations, territorial extension and. other matters of that character, making some wise and timely suggestions, and in conclusion referred to the great question at issue in these general

terms:

"It is not merely as an interesting topic of speculation that I present these views for your consideration. They have important practical bearings upon all the political duties we are called upon to perform. Heretofore our system of government has worked upon what may be termed a miniature scale in comparison with the development which it must thus assume within a future so near at hand as scarcely to be beyond the present of the existing generation. It is evident that a confederation so vast and so varied, both in numbers and in territorial extent, in habits and in interests, could only be kept in national cohesion by the strictest fidelity to the principles of the Constitution as understood by those who have adhered to the most restricted construction of the powers granted by the people and the states. Interpreted and applied according to those principles, the great compact adapts itself with healthy ease and freedom to an unlimited extension of that benign system of federative self-government, of which it is our glorious, and, I trust, immortal charter. Let us, then, with redoubled vigilance, be on our guard against yielding to the temptation of the exercise of doubtful powers, even under the pressure of the motives of conceded temporary advantage, and apparent temporary expediency. The minimum of federal government compatible with. the maintenance of national unity and efficient action in our relations with the rest of the world should afford the rule and measure of construction of our powers under the general clauses of the Constitution. A spirit of strict deference to the sovereign rights and dignity of every state, rather than a disposition to subordinate the states into a provincial relation to the central authority, should characterize all our exercise of the respective powers temporarily vested in us as a sacred trust from the generous confidence of our constituents."

The year 1854 was marked by disasters that drew the attention of the people somewhat from politics, and in his message to congress in December of that year President Pierce made the following reference thereto; "The past has been an eventful year, and will be hereafter referred to as a marked epoch in the history of the world. While we have been happily preserved from the calamities of war, our domestic prosperity has

not been entirely uninterrupted. The crops in portions of the country have nearly been cut off. Disease has prevailed to a greater extent than usual, and the sacrifice of human life through casualties by sea and land is without a parallel. But the pestilence has swept by, and restored salubrity invites the absent to their homes, and the return of business to its ordinary channels."

The struggle over the question of slavery soon took on a form that went beyond the province of argument and debate to which it had largely been held. At the demand of the south, the Missouri compromise was repealed, and all the territories of the Union were thrown open to slavery. The troubles in Kansas commenced. The portion of that territory west of Missouri was made up mainly of northern men, who favored the exclusion of slavery therefrom. The invasion of an armed mob from Missouri occurred and President Pierce found it within his judgment and of ficial oath to recognize the state government formed by these invaders as the legal one, and to give it his official countenance and support. His position in this matter alienated from him a great portion of the north, while the south rewarded him for it by securing the nomination of James Buchanan at the close of his term of service.

Outside of this overtowering issue, the administration of President Pierce saw the enactment or completion of a number of measures of value to the country. Among them were the settling of the boundary dispute between the United States and Mexico by which the former secured possession of Arizona; the exploration of the routes of proposed railways between the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean; the amicable settlement of the fisheries dispute between the United States and Great Britain; and the treaty negotiated in 1854 between these great powers providing for commercial reciprocity between this country and the Canadian provinces. The treaty of Commodore Perry with Japan was also concluded in the same year. Among the bills signed by President Pierce was that to reorganize the consular and diplomatic system of the United States; to organize the court of claims, and to provide a retired list for the navy. He also vetoed a number of bills, among which were several for the completion and improvement of public works; one appropriating public lands for the relief of the indigent insane; and one for the payment of the French spoliation claims.

President Pierce on January 24, 1856, sent a message to congress, in which he represented that the formation of a free-state government in Kansas was an act of rebellion against the United States, and in which he took occasion to justify the principles of the Kansas and Nebraska acts. This position was warmly endorsed by the slave-holders, and by a majority of the party to which the President belonged, and it was expected by his friends that he would be endorsed by a renomination to the

position in which he had tried to do so much for the slave-holding power. But that belief was not prophetic. In the National Democratic convention that met in June of 1856 the claims of the President were put aside, and James Buchanan was made the standard bearer of the party in his stead.

The remaining portion of his administration was quietly passed, unmindful of the political chances of the future as they might involve his personal interests, but with continued devotion to the principles he had in the past maintained. Before the adjournment of congress in August of the year last named, the house of representatives made an amendment to the army appropriation bill, providing that no portion of the army should be used to enforce the laws made by the territorial legislature of Kansas, until congress should have passed upon its claim and determined. its validity. This action was taken lest the executive should employ the army in sustaining the pro-slavery faction, which a majority of the house were determined to prevent. The proviso was couched in the following language:

"Provided, nevertheless, that no part of the military force of the United States herein provided for shall be employed in aid of the enforcement of the enactments of the alleged legislative assembly of the territory of Kansas, recently assembled at Shawnee Mission, until congress. shall have enacted either that it was or was not a valid legislative assembly, chosen in conformity with the organic law by the people of the said territory; and provided that, until congress shall have decided on the validity of the said legislative assembly at Kansas, it shall be the duty of the President to use the military force in said territory to preserve the peace, suppress insurrection, repel invasion, and protect persons and property therein and upon the national highways in the state of Missouri from unlawful siezures and searches. And be it further provided, that the President is required to disarm the present organized militia of the territory of Kansas, and recall all the United States arms therein distributed, and to prevent armed men from going into said territory to disturb the public peace, or aid in the enforcement of resistance of real or pretended laws."

out.

This clause was the source of vehement debate and excitement, and when the bill reached the senate the objectionable measure was stricken When the bill went back to the house it was again promptly replaced. A series of conferences took place between the two houses, but no result of agreement was reached. Each held to its position with determination, and thus matters remained when the hour of adjournment fixed by law had expired, and the session was at an end. The result was that the supplies for the support of the army had not been voted, and matters were left in a chaotic condition.

The President had no hesitation as to the course he should pursue. He instantly issued a call for an extra session of congress, naming the third day following, August 21, as the date. In his proclamation he assigned as his reason for the step the fact that while hostilities existed with various Indian tribes on the remote frontiers of the United States, and in other respects the public peace was seriously threatened, congress had adjourned without granting necessary supplies for the army, depriving the executive of the power to perform its duty in relation to the common defense and security. On the assembling of congress as thus called together, he laid before it in a message in which he expressed the following views:

"To refuse supplies to the army is to compel the complete cessation of all its operations and practical disbandment, and thus to invite hordes of predatory savages from the western plains and Rocky Mountains, to spread devastation along a frontier of more than four thousand miles in extent, and to deliver up the sparse population of a vast tract of country to rapine and murder. Such, in substance, would be the direct and immediate effects of the refusal of congress, for the first time in the history of the government, to grant supplies-the inevitable waste of millions of public treasure; the infliction of extreme wrong upon all persons connected with the military establishment by service, employment or contracts; the recall of our forces from the field; the fearful sacrifice of life, and incalculable destruction of property on the remote frontiers; the striking of our national flag on the battlements of the fortresses which defend our maritime cities against foreign invasion; the violation of the public honor and good faith, and the discredit of the United States in the eyes of the civilized world." The contest between the two houses was once more renewed, and continued until August 30, when the lower body receded from its position. and by a vote of 101 against 97, allowed the objectionable proviso to be stricken out and the army appropriation bill to become a law.

President Pierce's last annual message to congress was submitted in December, 1856. The document was important mainly as it reiterated more strongly than ever the opinion of its author upon the question of lavery, and conveyed an emphatic criticism upon those of the north who had associated for the spread of abolition sentiment. "To accomplish their objects," said he, "they dedicate themselves to the odious task of depreciating the government organization, which stands in their way, and of calumniating with indiscriminate invective not only the citizens of particular states, with whose laws they find fault, but all others of their fellow-citizens throughout the country who do not participate with them in their assaults upon the constitution framed and adopted by our fathers, and claiming for the privileges it has secured and the blessings it has conferred the steady support and grateful reverence of their children. They