i» -i* •SMS* ^$* <* • 1 .-. *> °«- -."SSI 4? <$> o 4P »^^'* ^ V" •!••• O. ■°, r- % *+ s* W v^'.-a %**"^ '*U°° %**♦ ^ - V* *L!rL* > W 0° ..1^1*>o ./ VV V-0 T >oV $*+ <4- 4> ■4? > ^ ^ * v isi^'. ^ y ^vi\\ t ^ ^^' \T> b J ^^- <, sT A r oK v-o^ • • • , ^^ * > i T EULOGY V T OS THE LIFE AXD CHARACTER OF JAMES K, FOLK, uic PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. DELIYEttea AT WASHINGTON CITV, JlLV H, IMS. BY HON. H. S. FOOTE. WASHINGTON: TUaaUkS EIICHII, IJUM£*.. 1519. EULOGY UPON THE 1IFE AND CHARACTER OF JAMES K. POLK, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, DELIVERED AT -.WASHINGTON CITY, JULY 9, 1849, { BY HON. H. S. FOOTE WASHINGTON: THOMAS RITCHIE, rRINTEK. ........ 1.849. fen-) CORRESPONDENCE Washington, July 9, 1S49. Sir:< The committee of arrangements return you their grateful thanks for the admirable manner in which you have complied with their request, to deliver a eulogy upon the life and character of James K. Polk, late President of the United States. Devoid of fulsome praise, it spoke truth in its most convincing form, and was an effort worihy one statesman, occupying a proud andhonoiable position, to the memory of an illustrious brother statesman — now no more. In order that it may be laid before the American peop'e, and in conformity with the resolution of the Jackson Democratic Association, we request of you a copy of your address for publication. We are, with the highest regard, your obedient servants, B. F. BROWN, J. E. DOW, THOS. RITCHIE, JOHN M. McCALLA, J. D. HOOVER, THOMAS J. GALT, GEO. W. PHILLIPS, Z. W. McKNEW, Committee of Arrangements. To the Hon. Henry S. Foote. Washington, July 9, 1849. Gentlemen : A copy of the eulogy to-day delivered by me, upon the life and character of James K. Polk, late President of the United States, is herewith transmitted to you for publication, as you have decided that this is the proper disposition to be made of it, and have requested me to enable you to make it. For the very kind terms in which your request is couched, you will please accept my cordial acknowledgments. I have the honor to be, with sentiments of the highest respect and the warm- est kindness, your friend and fellow-citizen, HENRY S. FOOTE. Messrs. B. F. Brown, J. E. Dow, Thomas Ritchie, and others. EULOGY Friends and Fellow-citizens : Seldom, if ever before, has it occurred that a whole people have had occasion to pour forth their united lamentations over the sudden and unexpected decease of a distinguished fellow-citizen under circumstances more interesting than those which now surround us. An illus- trious statesman, who, for almost a full quarter of a century, has been closely connected with the administrative concerns of the republic, and who, for the greater part of that period, has occupied places of high civic trust, has been withdrawn for- ever from the view of his countrymen, at a time when they were least expecting that a calamity so serious would befall them, and whilst they were still confidently hoping that his sage and salutary counsels would be continued for many years to themselves and to their children. A renowned political chieftain, whose wisdom, firmness, and fidelity had been made manifest on a thousand striking occasions ; whose patient per- severance amidst difficulties and trials, however severe ; whose never-failing energy and hopefulness amid scenes of trouble and disaster had associated him in a very peculiar manner, both with great measures of state and vital principles of party policy, has, but the other day, whilst all his high claims to general es- teem and confidence remained yet strong and unimpaired, gone down at once to the gloomy and companionless sepulchre, where neither the voice of censure nor applause can be ever heard re- sounding, and where neither the strains of triumph nor of defeat will be able to rouse the revered sleeper from his last dream- less repose. He who, but a few months since, worthily, useful- ly, and gloriously sat invested with the authority of First Magis- trate of a great nation, has been abruptly torn away from the busy and tumultuous scenes of earth and earth's frail habitants, whilst yet the glad voices of grateful millions were chanting in exultant chorus the immortal story of his achievements, and all the true votaries of freedom to be found beneath the sun were still joyously re-echoing the swelling accents of gratula- tion. An upright and virtuous citizen, whose life from the cradle to the days of opening manhood, from manhood to the close of his earthly career, had been constantly marked with the amiable and unostentatious display of all those moral graces which secure repose and happiness to the social circle, and make home a paradise of joys, has been called to bid a last solemn adieu to country, friends, and beloved relatives, amid sorrowing lamentations and tears of affectionate regret, such as have been seldom seen lending consolation and ornament to the last horns of expiring greatness. James K. Polk, late Presi- dent of the United States, departed this life, at his own resi- dence in the city of Nashville, on the 15th of June, 1849, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. In entering upon the task, to the performance of which I have been invited by the Jackson Democratic Association of this city, I find myself in some degree relieved from the ne- cessity of entering into detail by the extended circulation of several well-written and accurate biographical sketches of ex- President Polk which has taken place in the last five years. In the remarks, therefore, which I propose to submit by way of eulogy upon the deceased, I shall limit myself to a notice of certain prominent events in his civic career, accompanied by a few observations upon his character and conduct as a demo- cratic statesman. Time alone can effectually extinguish prejudices, which, springing up in the mind of man in the ordinary intercourse of life, become associated in some way with one or more of the stronger feelings of our nature. It is, notwithstanding, true, that both the political friends and adversaries of Mr. Polk have already concurred in recognising his public example as afford- ing a remarkable instance of that rarest of all civic virtues — consistency in opinion and conduct. There is, indeed, so little division of sentiment touching his merit in this respect, that I feel authorized to proceed at once to inquire how it did thus happen, that this admitted consistency as a politician came to be one cf the most shining ornaments of a personage, who, for many years of his life, was a zealous and active participant in scenes of high party excitement, and whose fate it was to be called almost every day to take his stand upon questions con- nected with the action of the government, of a novel and com- plex character? Are we to ascribe to him intellectual facul- ties altogether superior to those of other statesmen, which en- abled him to understand at a glance, and accurately, what years of studious contemplation could only empower other minds to master imperfectly, and not without a serious admix- ture of truth and error 9 Or shall we conclude that he was in- debted, for the enviable advantage alluded to, to that wonder- ful command which he is known to have at all times exercised over his own temper and feelings, and which enabled him to escape entirely the thousand delusory influences which are spread about the pathway of a public man in this country — influences which give rise to such numerous false judgments, and to such an astonishing multitude of visionary and imprac- ticable schemes of mistaken expediency ? I am not prepared to decide how far precisely the causes named may have con- tributed to the production o"f that grand moral result which we are now considering ; but I cannot doubt that there were also other agencies at work to which great efficiency must an jus- tice be ascribed. Mr. Polk was a strictly conscientious man ; he worshipped Truth with a fidelity and fervor which few of her earthly votaries have been known to exhibit ; insomuch , that when he felt himself to be evidently favored with her benignant gui- dance, he would sooner have died than have failed to manifest the fitting homage to her behests, or have refused to execute her homeliest mandates. Endowed with uncommon quick- ness of perception, and blessed with great strength as well as clearness of judgment, he was often able to attain reliable con- clusions with a rapidity quite surprising to persons of slower and more plodding intellect ; and yet, though of a most lively temperament, and richly imbued with the" noble progressive spirit of the age, there was to be observed about all his public movements a certain circumspective guardedness, which ren- dered him, of all men living, most averse to the hasty declara- tion of opinion upon subjects which he was conscious of not having sufficiently explored. It is therefore not to be at all wondered at, that though somewhat celebrated for the prompt- itude with which he matured and announced his views upon new and difficult questions of national policy, and though evincing in ail cases of real emergency and peril a decision of character which has never been surpassed, his opinions, when they had been once formally declared, were found invariably to stand the test of dispassionate and searching scrutiny, and were perceived to bear the genuine impress of mature and med- itative wisdom. Under such circumstances, it is not in tin- least degree difficult to discover how it occasionally happened with Mr. Polk, as it has happened in other noted historic instances which could be mentioned, that measures recommended by him for adoption, and which were pronounced at first, by superficial theorists and shallow dogmatists to be in the highest degree rash and precipitate, turned out, after all, to have been both judiciously conceived and seasonably suggested. Those who knew the late President most intimately, and who had the mot favorable opportunities of observing his conduct as Chief Exec- utive of the nation, all agree that his moral courage was equal to any crisis which he was ever fated to encounter ; and the individuals who have been most near him in seasons of real turmoil and commotion, assert that his self-possession was not inferior even to that of A'nlrew Jackson himself. After ah% though, I cannot help believing that his admirable consistency as a politician must be in part attributed to what has not yet been distinctly specified — his thorough comprehension of, and his devout reverence for, the written constitution of the republic. No man, I am sure, ever lived who had devoted himself more assiduously to the study of this sacred instrument, or who bet- ter understood it in all its sublimity and grandeur of moral out- line and proportion. He had looked closely into the facts con- nected with its formation and adoption, and was conversant with all the controversial learning to which, at different periods of our national history, it had given rise. I rejoice to be able to announce that he was always, and without the shadow of change or misgiving, a genuine Jefferson democrat • and that,. in dealing with questions involving the fundamental law of the Union, as from time to time they arose, he was uniformly guided and regulated by the principles of the time-honored democratic creed as expounded by the illustrious fathers of the strict construction school. The value of such a knowledge of the constitution, and of such a respect for its requisitions, can- not be too'highly estimated; and I confidently believe that the day is not now distant when the merits of Mr. Polk, in these respects, will associate his name in deathless connexion with the names of our most venerated Presidents of formertimes. 1 shall be excused, I hope, for offering here a few observa- tions of a somewhat more general character, but which I flatter myself will be found more or less elucidative of the lofty topic already in part discussed. The federative system, as at this moment in vigorous and beneficial operation in the United States, is acknowledged by all statesmen worthy of the name on either side of the Atlantic to present the most successful experiment of free government which has been attempted in any age of the world. Its capacity for dispensing with facility all the blessings which spring from sound and equal legisla- tion, over an extended territorial surface, has been repeatedly admitted even by the professed advocates of monarchy; and so conclusive is the evidence on this head which experience itself has supplied, that it is now doubted, and with reason, whether there be authority for the designation of any precise geographical limits within which this system must of necessity be restricted, in order to realize the utmost utility of which it is susceptible. The happy apportionment of governmental power for which it provides between federal and State depositories seems to secure all the vigor requisite for the suppression of domestic violence, or for energetic defence against foreign hos- tility. It may be safely pronounced that, so far as we have yet advanced in our progress as a nation, our dignity as a sepa- rate and independent power has been fully maintained abroad, and that the supremacy of the central department, when acting in its appropriate sphere of authority, has been at all times sufficiently apparent ; whilst, through the efficient and whole- some instrumentality of local legislation on the part of the States respectively, a well-regulated police, a sound and eleva- ted state of social morals, and, in fine, everything necessary to municipal prosperity and intellectual advancement, has been steadily preserved and promoted by each succeeding generation of our countrymen, up to the sixty-first year of our separate existence as a people. But this governmental plan, worthy of admiration as it is by reason of the wisdom displayed in its conformation, is far more complicated in its arrangements than any other now existing. Nor is ifat all certain that it would be found altogether suited to any people, who, at the period of its adoption by them, should not have made considerable pro- gress in the art of political self-government, and who should not have been already in some degree habituated to the sober and scrutinizing examination of great public measures. The framers of the constitution of the United States were men pro- foundly conversant with the history of all governments, ancient and modern. They possessed, likewise, a knowledge, both accurate and minute, of all the peculiar characteristics of their own countrymen, and knew precisely how far to trust to their capabilities as a people. They adapted the government which they founded, with singular nicety and precision, to the popu- lation over which its authority was to be exerted, and by whose virtue and good sense it was at last to be made effectual. This is the grand secret of that wonderful success which crowned the labors of those patriarchs who sat in the federal convention of 1TS9. A declaration, I am sure, may be here indulged in -reference to the general population of the United States, even at that early period of our history, which could hardly be hazarded in relation to any other people for whom a new government has been at any time set on foot : t/ie people aided, understandingly and efficiently, in the fabrication of the government itself. They were formally consulted in regard to all the fundamental articles of the constitution ; and the whole instrument was regularly laid before them in the newspapers of the period. Its chief provisions were discussed by able wri- ters ; and its supposed merits and demerits were freely canvass- ed by public speakers seldom if ever surpassed, either in wis- dom or true eloquence. The views of the people themselves were diligently elicited, and their lightest objections listened to with affectionate respect. Nor did it become the supreme law 10 of the land until nine different conventions had ratified it ; in each of which the full majesty of a sovereign State was made manifest in the persons of men long celebrated for their learning, their astuteness, and their unwavering patriotism. When the federal constitution commenced its career of author- ity, it had already been written upon the hearts and understand- ings of three millions of freemen. It was not like the laws of ancient Crete, introduced by Lycurgus into Sparta; nor yet like the system of jurisprudence prepared by the wisdom of Solontfor the government of Athens; nor yet, again, like, the same Attic law transplanted by the decemvirs to Rome, and in- scribed on the twelve tables of immortal renown; all of which were made known to the people subjected to their sway, for the first time, by the very means employed for their practical en- forcement. In this respect, it is evident that the new system of government in the United States enjoyed peculiar advantages. Another circumstance which has proved not less propitious, is this : A large majority of the people of the United States, through each succeeding generation, have possessed an ac- quaintance with the leading provisions both of the federal and State constitutions. Scarcely, indeed, would it be possible, in any of the more enlightened sections of the Union, to enter a dwelling without finding its inmates supplied with a volume containing all these sacred guaranties of liberty; and often would the stranger from less favored regions be surprised by judicious views of constitutional law flowing from the lips of humble cottagers, whose bosoms have never felt the fierce throb- bings of political ambition, and whose aspirations are directed alone to their country's happiness. An ordinary citizen of the United States would be ashamed to avow his entire ignorance of material alterations effected either in the federal or State con- stitutions', and more especially would he feel chagrined at being discovered not to have kept pace with the changes which had occurred in the constitution of his own State. A very large portion of the people of the United States are readers of news- papers, from the columns of Avhich they derive early informa- tion as to every new measure of government proposed in the national councils, long before it can assume the character of a law. They are secured, in the same way. an opportunity of examining at leisure, and under circumstances of seclusion and repose favorable to arriving at correct conclusions, all the argu- ments offered in Congress either in opposition to or in support of particular measures; and they are, in addition, frequently convened at public meetings, where they listen to cogent ad- dresses from members of their own body — from men who, like themselves, belong to the constituent class, and who are, there- 11 fore, not under the delusive influence so apt to arise from official incumbency. These men being known to them personally',' they are at no loss to determine how far their opinions are entitled to respect as mere authority, or may require the adduction of stronger arguments than they appear able to bring forward. Thus enlightened, they are prepared through the medium of memorials, resolutions, and instructions to their own represent- atives, almost to participate in the process of legislation itself. If the national government should be guilty at any time of en- tering upon the exercise of powers not confided to it by the constitution, the people of the respective States, sooner or later, in one form or another, would be sure to find it out, and through the action of their local governments, if by no other means, would be able to apply a seasonable corrective. Their politi- cal welfare they believe to depend, in a great degree, upon the preservation of their written constitution inviolate; and ill a very especial manner, upon confining the central power of their federative system within the orbit plainly prescribed to it. They cherish State authority with a pions zeal, as the oldest, most paternal, least aspiring, and, therefore, least dangerous part of their governmental organization. To the State govern- ments, among which combinations perilous to liberty are ren- dered almost impossible by their number and the complexity of local interests, they look for the exercise of a bold and sleep- less vigilance over all the movements of the federal head, and expect from them, in cases of plainly usurped power, such prompt and efficient action as may serve to check at once all movements of aggressive violence, ere yet the reserved rights of the States and people may have received serious detriment ; and in the event of any gross infraction of these rights having been actually consummated, or of any scheme of covert hos- tility being put in execution, which, if successful, must result in intolerable injustice and oppression, they confidently expect from the same source the suggestion of appropriate remedies. I feel it to be due to Mr. Polk that I should here add, that the class of politicians to which he belonged, and of whose doc- trines he was as fine an exemplification in all respects as could be desired, have ever asserted that the people, who constitute the true sovereigns in this republic, have equally a right to de- mand at the hands of the executive department of the govern- ment, in all cases of imperious necessity, the fearless and con- scientious exercise of that high conservative faculty with which the first officer of the nation has been providently armed, as the PRESERVER, PROTECTOR, aild DEFENDER of the Constitution it- Self audits sacred equipoise of powers ; in order that all the fundamental guarantees of liberty and right may be saved from 12 dangerous invasions; and (he Union itself le rescued from ruin, (in cases easy to be specified,) by arresting the progress of hasty and inconsiderate legislation ; thus stifling the unprincipled schemes of faction ere yet they have acquired the strength and consistency of law. Whether the views now expressed shall be approved by this worthy audience and the country, or not, they were certainly such as characterized the career of Mr. Polk as a member of Congress, and as President, and to the successful enforcement of which he owes the greater part of his fame as a statesman. For fourteen years of his life he was a member of the House of Representatives in Congress, during which period he was suc- cessively chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means and Speaker of the House. His ability as a debater, and his famili- arity both with the details of business and with the party his- tory of the country, very early gave him a decided ascendency in the deliberations of that body ; and his efficient opposition to the recharter of the United States Bank, to the establishment of an unconstitutional system of internal improvements by the federal government, and to other kindred schemes of legislative policy at that time urged upon the country, won for him a hold upon the confidence and esteem of the democratic portion of his countrymen which few persons have attained in so short a period. His extraordinary diligence as a member of Congress may be inferred from a declaration incidentally made by him- self in his parting address, as Speaker, to the House of Repre- sentatives in March, 1S39, in which he thus expresses himself: u My service here has been constant and laborious. I can per- haps say what but few others, if any, can — that I have not failed to attend, the daily sittings of this House a single day since I have been a member of it, save only on a single occa- sion, when prevented for a short time by indisposition." His success in discharging the duties of Speaker is sufficiently evinced by another statement extracted from the same address, which is as follows: "It has been made my duty to decide- more questions of parliamentary order, many of them of a com- plex and difficult character, arising often in the midst of excite- ment in the course of our proceedings, than had been decided, as is believed, by all my predecessors from the foundation of the government. This House has uniformly sustained me, without distinction of the political parties of which it has been composed. Our records will show that, upon the numerous appeals which have been taken to the House, I have been sus- tained by both political parties, and often by large and decided majorities." 13 No unprejudiced mind can ever so cursorily glance alons the administrative course of Mr. Polk for the last four years, with- out being most forcibly struck with that brilliant succession of grand results which have cast such a beamy effulgence, such unequalled glory, upon the period of our history which has just closed. Nor will such a person, I think, be less inclined to admire — and admiring, to approve — that singular concord which prevailed in Mr. Polk's cabinet during the whole term of its existence. Coming into power without solicitation on his own part, or on the part of his friends, he was able to avoid all personal pledges as to the offices which he might, as Presi- dent, find necessary to be filled anew; and knowing most of the leading democratic statesmen of the country well, from having served with them in Congress, he found it to be a task of no great difficulty to call around him, as he did, gentlemen whose abilities, moral worth, political experience, and ascer- tained fidelity to principle, seemed to make it next to impossi- ble that they could fail to harmonize with himself and with «ach other, or that their co-operating energies, under his own steady supervision, should prove in the least degree inadequate to those high purposes which he hoped by their aid to accom- plish. All will acknowledge that he executed faithfully and to the letter every political pledge which he had given previous to his election. Finding, upon his inauguration, that a favorite measure of democratic policy — the annexation of Texas, so felicitously commenced and carried forward by his immediate predeces- sor — was not yet fully consummated, he lost no time in putting the finishing hand to this noble undertaking, and soon he had the honor of formally introducing another bright star into the galaxy of the confederacy. The Oregon question remaining in an unsettled condition, he applied himself without delay to its definitive adjustment ; and in due season, after surmounting difficulties and triumph- ing over obstacles, some of which were scarcely to have been anticipated, he eventually succeeded in arranging the whole matter of controversy with the British government upon terms decidedly more favorable than any of his predecessors seem to have had it in their power to procure. The administration of Mr. Polk may be well regarded as constituting an era in the history of our commercial and finan- cial concerns. By the tariff of 1846, a nearer approach has been made to the abrogation of all illiberal restrictions upon trade, than had been before realized in modern times; and whilst by this act the taxes on commerce have been reduced 14 about one-half, the revenue accruing from imports has increased almost a fourth. By the organization of the independent treasury, the currency of the Union has been at last placed upon the most stable foundations; whilst by means of the warehousing system, now in successful operation, our Ameri- can ports are destined to become ere long the entrepots for uni- versal commerce. Even the British corn laws have been seen to give way before the force of our example ; and the colonial restrictive policy, so long the subject of complaint and remon- strance in this country, has in all probability by this time re- ceived its death-blow. The establishment of ocean steam navigation intercourse with several States belonging to the European continent has greatly enhanced both our commerce and our revenue; whilst, through the efficient agency of the transit law now recently en- acted, a large portion of the trade of the Canadas and of the St. Lawrence has been poured into the cities of New York and Boston. Various commercial treaties with foreign powers, both in our own hemisphere and beyond the ocean, have been effect- ed during the administration which has just terminated; among which the treaty with New Grenada deserves to be specially men- tioned, as by its provisions a railroad communication between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans has been at last secured. Mr. Polk found it necessary to make known in his first mes- sage to the two houses of Congress the interruption of our usual friendly relations with the republic of Mexico, and the actual suspension of " all diplomatic intercourse between the two countries by the acts of Mexico;" and at the same time he brought up to the view of Congress the fact, that Mexico had already been "marshalling and organizing armies, issuing proclamations, and avowing the intention to make war on the United States, either by an open declaration, or by invading Texas." After much vaporing and menace, the Mexican gov- ernment, powerfully operated on by influences which had their origin beyond the ocean, and encouraged, as must with mor- tification be confessed, by the factious and indiscreet conduct of a part of our own citizens, presumed to invade our territory, and to shed the blood of our citizens upon our own soil. The commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the Union, under such circumstances, did not fail to do his duty; and as far as he had constitutional power, it was fully exerted for the vindi- cation of the honor of the republic and the punishment of the audacious foe. Congress having resolved upon the recognition of the existence of war, commenced " by the act of Mexico," and having amply provided for its vigorous prosecution, meas- ures were speedily taken, under the authority of the President, 15 to fulfil what appeared to be the general wish of the nation. In spite of peculiar obstacles, cast in his way by domestic oppo- sition which can neither be too deeply deplored nor too strong- ly censured, the war was so discreetly and energetically con- ducted, both upon the land and upon the sea, that the restora- tion of peace was speedily achieved ; and in the progress of that war, memorable battles' were fought, brilliant victories achieved, and instances of individual prowess exhibited, which have greatly elevated the character and enhanced the glory of the nation; whilst a most inviting field has been opened to the enterprise of our citizens in California and New Mexico; our territorial domain has been increased at least one-third in ex- tent; the amount of our maritime coast has beeu enhanced proportionately; the long-desired and invaluable ports on the Pacific have been acquired ; the future command of the East Indian trade secured, with the eventual control of the com- merce of the world. All this has been done, too, without add- ing oppressively to our national indebtedness, or impairing our fiscal credit; for even whilst the war was yet raging, pecu- niary negotiations were kept in progress by the Treasury De- partment which realized la^rge premiums upon loans contract- ed; the government obtaining, in fact, upwards of fifteen mil- lions more for forty-seven millions of stock and treasury notes than was received for nearly double that amount in the war of 1812. It is a remarkable fact, that, by the wise policy of the late administration, even war itself became ancillary to pur- poses of revenue and the great ends of commerce; for, instead of breaking up the trade of all nations with Mexico by keeping her ports subjected to a rigorous system of blockade, we open- ed the whole interior of that republic to the commercial enter- prise of our own and other nations ; and, by establishing and enforcing a moderate tariff of duties upon imports, we increased our own financial resources to the extent of several millions of dollars. It will ever be a gratifying recollection to the friends of Mr. Polk, that whilst he at all times cautiously avoided such acts as might lead to u entangling alliances" with other powers, he did not fail to manifest, on all suitable occasions, a most liberal and encouraging sympathy in behalf of the heroic stragglers for freedom in other lands; insomuch that it may, without the least exaggeration, be asserted, that there is no country under the sun, where the oppressed of long centuries of bondage have risen up at last against their oppressors, and have dared to as- sert in arms their sacred and indefeasible right to civil and reli- gious liberty, in which the name of our illustrious democratic ex-President is not pronounced with fervor and with gratitude, and in which he has not himself been recognised as the high- 16 •sotiled and magnanimous First Magistrate of the model repub- lic of the world. It now only remains to be stated, that the last days of Mr, Polk's administration were in felicitous unison with his whole antecedent course as President. For a year or two previous to his retirement from the presidency, he had exerted himself to the utmost for the suppression of all feelings of sectional dis- cord and rancor among his countrymen residing in the North and in the South, and had labored to bring to a close the angry and unprofitable contentions which factious and unprincipled men had thought proper to keep in progress in the two houses of Congress for their own benefit. To the last he struggled to effect an honorable and fraternal compromise of all local differ- ences. Seeing the exposed condition of our fellow-citizens in California and New Mexico, cut off as they were from the se- curity afforded by regular government, and subject to all the evils of social anarchy, he employed all his power as President, and all the influence which either character or position could give him, for the protection of our suffering brethren in those distant regions. The appalling scenes which have already en- sued in California, and those far worse scenes now fearfully apprehended, the dismal intelligence of which may reach us in less than a week from the present moment, Mr. Polk long ago anticipated and predicted as certain to occur, in the event of a neglect or refusal on the part of Congress to perform its un- questionable duty in the case ; and he labored night and day, in every legitimate and constitutional mode, to prevent the threatened dangers from arising. It is therefore that I feel au- thorized to declare, that if uproar and confusion shall continue in California, no blame is to be imputed to him whose untime- ly death we now mourn. If those fair fields, so lately con- quered by our victorious legions, shall be fated hereafter to be rent with civil feuds and drenched in fraternal blood, it is not the illustrious democratic statesman, the splendors of whose public career we have now met to commemorate, that will be held responsible to this age and to posterity. If this noble fabric of confederated freedom, reared by the wisdom of our immortal ancestors, shall be seen to tumble into ruin under the worse than parricidal blows of domestic traitors, let no man dare to attribute a catastrophe so dire, either to the acts or coun- sels of an administration, which so gloriously realized, at its close, the picture of national felicity described by the great Ro- man poet, when he exclaimed : Jam, Fides, et Pax, Pudorqub Prisons, et wglecta redire Virtus Jludet: apparetque, beato pleno, Copia Co/ nw. 146 * O -V . t . . , \$ • Q v . o - a <» • • s ■ 'T* ^°^. »°*n* < . WERT BOOKBINDiNC Canaille Pa jan feb. 198? ^ ++ » / ^ -A