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THE KESUITS 
 
 TWO YEAES' DEMOCRATIC RULE 
 
 THE COUNTRY. 
 
 /[./' 
 
T44 
 
 To frienih in Madison, Carroll, and other parishes of the Third Congressional District of Lou- 
 isiiina, who have asked the publication of my remarks, made after the adjournvunt of Congress, 
 at different points uithin the District, in defence of the results of two gears' Democratic rule in 
 the country. 
 
SPEECH 
 
 HON. JOHN PERKINS, JR., OP LOUISIANA, 
 
 Results of two years' Democratic Rule in the Country. 
 
 Gentlemen : The position of a representative in Congress is one of 
 high and peculiar responsibilities. The regulation of property, its 
 sale and inheritance, the protection of the family relations of husband 
 and wife, parent and child, master and servant, and the guardianship, 
 in fact, of all the thousand little interests that, circling round the 
 family hearth, unite to make the happiness of our homes, belong almost 
 entirely to State legislation. - Your representative to the State legis- 
 lature has these chiefly in charge. 
 
 Your representative to the Congress of the United States has com- 
 mitted to his care interests almost as important, depending upon the 
 relations which the citizens of the different States and the States 
 themselves bear to each other, and the general aggregate relation 
 which the States embraced under the federal government bears to the 
 citizens of the different States, to the States themselves, and to foreign 
 powers. The fact that federal legislation does not make itself so 
 immediately felt by the people as State legislation, and that the 
 sessions of Congress are held at a point remote and out of the limits 
 of the States, give, in my opinion, additional importance to meetings 
 like the present, between the representative and the constituent. 
 Feeling this, and alive to the responsibility of the position I have 
 recently occupied as a representative in Congress, I have preferred, 
 to-day, to address you chiefly upon the practical effect of the legislation 
 of the late Congress upon the local or particular interests of the 
 district. 
 
 Kising above matters, however^ of mere local and personal interest, I 
 feel, gentlemen, that you have a right to know my impressions of the 
 late Congress, and how far it, in conjunction with the administration, 
 has justified the confidence of the country. Happy that I am once 
 more at home, retired from political life — surrounded by those who 
 have been members of both the great political parties that have 
 divided the country, and whose confidence and friendship I enjoy not 
 merely from political sympathy, I feel that I can speak, and it is my 
 duty to speak to you, with a freedom beyond that of one who is merely 
 a candidate for office. 
 
 General Pierce was elected, as the nominee of the Democratic party, 
 President of the United States, in 1852, by an almost unprecedented 
 majority. The Congress that met him after his election was also, by 
 
a very large majority, Democratic. Under these circumstances the 
 country had a right to expect that the principles and professions of 
 the Democratic party would be practically carried out in the admin- 
 istration of the government. Whether tliey have been, in fact, car- 
 ried out or not, the Democratic party is justly responsible for the 
 legislation and administration of the government for the last two years. 
 In discussing the results that liave been achieved during this period, I 
 do not intend to deal in generalities, nor shall I stop to apportion out, 
 censure, or to decide how much credit is due to Congress, and how 
 much to the President. 
 
 Of my action as your rejiresentative I have already spoken. My 
 votes and speeches are on record. To them I refer you, with the ex- 
 pression of my sincere and grateful acknowledgments of the terms in 
 which you have expressed your appreciation of my individual services. 
 I do not disclaim, however, my just responsibility for other measures 
 passed, Avith or without my assistance, or even in spite of my opposi- 
 tion, by tlie Democratic Congress, of which I was a member. For, 
 however independent, as an individual, one may be, yet, if he classes 
 himself of a party, and acts with, and derives consideration from, that 
 party, he must share, to a certain extent, in responsibilit}" for its ac- 
 tion. Gentlemen, I have no Avish to shrink, to-day, from such a re- 
 sponsibility in connexion with the great Democratic party of the 
 country. 
 
 When I look round at the peculiar agitation which, at this time, 
 seems to pervade the public mind of the country, I can find for 
 it no sufficient explanation in the acts of the government. While 
 the great powers of the Old World are engaged in expensive and des- 
 olating war — while thousands of their citizens are being sacrificed to 
 the ambitious views of their rulers — wliilo their foreign commerce 
 and domestic industry are suffering from disturbed national finances — 
 while their working and poorer classes, pressed down by enormous and 
 increasing taxes, are turning u[)on those Avho administer public affairs 
 the bitterest complaints of wilful neglect or utter incompetency to the 
 public exigencies — what a contrast is presented in the peaceful and 
 growing prosjierity of our own country ! We are at peace with all 
 the world. Our commerce is on all the seas, and every breeze wafts 
 wealth to our shores. Our manufactories are flourishing; our agri- 
 culture is reaping abundant returns ; our national debt is fast dimin- 
 ishing; and our citizens, invited by new channels of enterprise, are 
 fixst s])reading themselves over a whole continent. And yet, gentle- 
 men, in tlie midst of this almost exuberant prosperity, avo hear every 
 day complaints, as if we Avere suffering from some great national 
 grievance. I Avill not attempt to analyze this discontent. Much of 
 it is, no doubt, incident to the very nature of free institutions, AA-hich 
 invite criticism upon public men and measures ; and much, no doubt, 
 to the fact, that, as positions of honor and emolument under gov- 
 ernment are open to all through ])opular favor, it is tlie interest 
 of those out of office that this popular favor should be tui'nod a\A'ay 
 from tliose Avho are in office. I Avill not deny, either, that there huve 
 been mistakes — serious mistakes — on the part of tliose in poAA-er. In 
 the administration of the affairs of a great goA'-ernment like ours, 
 where so many different interests are to be consulted, and where 
 
so many jealousies exist,— where upwards of fifty thousand offices are 
 to be filled, and nearly a lumdred million dollars of public patronage 
 is to be distributed — the expectations of all cannot be realized. 
 
 If General Pierce entered upon the Presidency with a moral forCe 
 attaching to his action residting from his being the chief of a great 
 party — triumphant in twenty-seven out of the thirty-one States of the 
 Union— there were likewise great embarrassments resulting from this 
 very unanimity of sentiment. Elevated to power without much per- 
 sonal influence, as the representative of no particular segment of his 
 party, but a compromise selection of a convention composed of men 
 holding different views on the subject of slavery, and who had recently^ 
 before the passage of the adjustment measures of 1850, stood almost 
 in open, irreconcilable opposition, his election created expectations 
 not only among his immediate friends, but among the friends of all 
 the other candidates. Under such circumstances it was impossible 
 that the different influences that struggled to nominate the President, 
 should not also 'struggle to designate his cabinet, and to control his 
 policy. To gratify" the expectations of all was impossible. That 
 the different sections of the party should be in turn somewhat dissat- 
 isfied by the very effort of the President to do injustice^ to none, 
 was to be expected. I pass by, therefore, a great deal of so-called 
 popular clamor against the administration, as the result of dissatisfac- 
 tion arising from the circumstances of General Pierce's nomination, 
 and the divisions in the party existing anterior to that time, for 
 which he and his cabinet, and the late Congress, are in no way re- 
 sponsible. 
 
 I take boldly the position, that, in the same space of time, at no 
 period of our history have so many reforms been effected, and so 
 many important measures been passed by Congress, and carried into 
 execution by the Executive, as during two years of President Pierce's 
 administration. In order to test this by facts, I will refer in detail 
 to the legislation of Congress, and the acts of the administration ; and 
 to simplify the examination, I will consider what has been achieved 
 under the several departments of the government, 
 
 POST-OFFICU DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The faithful administration of this department connects itself inl- 
 mediately Avith the business and convenience of almost every indi- 
 vidual in the country. The interests dependent on it are so extended 
 and delicate, tliat any little obstruction to its operation, however 
 unavoidable or temporary in character, is felt at once over a very 
 wide circuit. 
 
 When we consider the greatly-increased area of territory to be sup- 
 plied with mail facilities, the immense amount of material to be trans- 
 ported, and the difficulties constantly thrown in the way of the de- 
 partment by railroad companies and those contracting to carry the 
 mail, for profit, it is not surprising that the postal arrangements of 
 the country should be a frequent subject of criticism. In no por- 
 tion of the country have complaints on this subject been louder the 
 past year than in Louisiana; and yet, although for a time our river 
 
6 
 
 mail service was greatly neglected, an examination of the Post Office 
 returns will show that, within the same period of time, mail facilities 
 have been much more extended in Louisiana and the South and South- 
 west under the present than under any previous administration. 
 
 Mall service. 
 
 Increase of mail service during the year ending June 30, 
 1(:54 
 
 Increase under new contracts, commencing July J, 1854, in 
 the States of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, 
 Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Iowa, Wisconsin, 
 Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Califoinia, and the Terri- 
 tories of Minnesota, New Mexico, Utah, Oregon, and 
 Washington 
 
 Increase in Louisiana during the year ending June 30, 1855.. 
 
 Annual trans 
 portation. 
 
 Miles. 
 1,494,463 
 
 2,095,*172 
 135, 928 
 
 Cost. 
 
 $i34,708 
 
 395, 373 
 39, 174 
 
 To be more particular, there were in Louisiana, when Gen. Pierce 
 came into power, mail facilities and cost to the following extent : 
 
 Miles on 
 horse. 
 
 Pay. 
 
 Miles 
 coach. 
 
 Pay. 
 
 Miles 1 Pay. 
 steaiu'j't. 1 
 
 1 
 
 Miles 
 railroad. 
 
 Pay. 
 
 Tot. Ill lies 
 of mail 
 route. 
 
 Total ani't 
 of cost. 
 
 3,9?1 
 
 $32,313 
 
 391 
 
 $15,003 
 
 863 
 
 $49,803 
 
 18 
 
 $450 
 
 4,243 
 
 $9:, 567 
 
 There were in Louisiana, in September, 1854- 
 
 Miles on 
 horse. 
 
 Pay. 
 
 Miles 
 coach. 
 
 Pay. 
 
 Miles 
 steainb't. 
 
 Pay. 
 
 Miles 
 railroad. 
 
 Pay. 
 
 Tot. miles 
 nf mail 
 route. 
 
 Total am't 
 of cost. 
 
 4.058 
 
 $54,350 650 
 
 $31,703 
 
 1,128 
 
 $52,454 
 
 23 
 
 $500 
 
 5,859 
 
 $138,907 
 
 Showing an increase of mail facilities in this State alone of more tlian 
 25 per cent, in less than two years. 
 
 To the efficiency of the department there is required, however, not 
 only extent of range, but celerity and security in the transmission of 
 mail matter. To insure these in all seasons of the year and in all por- 
 tions of the country, on our seaboard and on our frontier, wliere the 
 department has in employment at remote points such a number and 
 variety of agents, is something that no Postmaster General, with any 
 regard to economy in expenditures, has yet been able to realize. 
 
 Some reforms, however, have been made by the late Congress, which 
 were loudly called for by the public interest. I will mention only 
 two of them. 
 
 1st. A law for the registration of letters of value, by which, at a 
 very slight additional cost, a letter containing money is made to 
 
record its own passage from post office to post office, in a way to 
 render easy its trace to the place of its disappearance. 
 
 2d. A law, passed in compliance with the Postmaster General's re- 
 commendation^ requiring prepayment on letters, and which went into 
 operation last April. 
 
 So far it has worked most happily. It has made unnecessary a 
 large numher of clerks in the employ of the government, rendered 
 more difficult the embezzlement of the public funds, by introducing 
 a new mode of checking accounts, and greatly simplified in many 
 respects the whole machinery of the department. 
 
 Heretofore the government has been obliged to carry to wherever 
 directed any amount of mail matter that the folly or mischief of any 
 one chose to put into the post office. There could be no discrimina- 
 tion ; whatever was dropped into the post office box, whether valu- 
 able or not, was to be transported. While complaint throughout the 
 Union was general of the disproportion between mail facilities and 
 the expense incurred by the government, the department has been 
 for years actually transporting at heavy expense^ all over the country, 
 worthless mail matter amounting to several tons a week, received at 
 the dead letter office in Washington. 
 
 By the law of prepayment this evil is now greatly abated. 
 
 INTERIOR DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The Department of the Interior is the most recently established of 
 the departments of the government. It was provided for at Ihe close 
 of Mr. Polk's administration, in 1848, and was first filled by a cabi- 
 net officer under General Taylor's administration. Under its control 
 has been placed the management of the public lands, our Indian 
 relations, the pension system, the Patent Office, census, &c. Of the 
 reforms in our Indian affairs and pension system, &c., during the 
 last two years, I have not time to speak as I would desire. Under 
 no previous administration has the business of the Pension Office been 
 greater, or our Indian affairs more extended. Since March 4, 1853, 
 when General Pierce came into power, in two years twenty- one treaties 
 have been negotiated with different Indian tribes, by which the gov- 
 ernment has acquired 52,000,000 acres of land. During the thirteen 
 years prior, from 1840 to 1853, only twenty-two such treaties were 
 formed. 
 
 It is in the reforms of the public land system that you are most 
 interested. The disposition of the public lands has been for years a 
 subject for discussion in Congress. The operations of our Land Office 
 extend over nearly half a continent, and never has it worked more 
 efficiently than under the present administration. New land offices 
 have been established for Minnesota and Oregon Territories ; the 
 Indian title extinguished to large tracts in Minnesota, Kansas, and Ne- 
 braska ; and geological and mineralogical explorations made through 
 the Northwest and Lake Superior country. In addition to this, sur- 
 vey and land offices have been established by law in Washington, 
 New Mexico, Utah, Nebraska, and Kansas Territories, adding 993,935 
 square miles, or 636,118,400 acres to the public domain. 
 
8 
 
 Washington Temtory.. 126,547 square milesj or 80,990,080 acres. 
 
 New Mexico 210,744 " 134^876,160 " 
 
 Utah 187,923 " 120,270,720 " 
 
 Kansas 226,283 '' 80,821,120 " 
 
 Nebraska 342,483 " 219,100,320 " 
 
 Total, as above 993,935 " 636.118,400 '' 
 
 Besides this, in Minnesota Territory alone between five and six 
 millions of acres have been prepared for market, and are now under 
 j)roclamation to be sold in October and November. I go into these 
 details to show you that while the public press and mind of the 
 country have been discussing the principles upon which our western 
 territory is to be settled, the Secretary of the Interior has been quietly 
 and actively discharging his duty in bringing it into market, 
 
 There were introduced into the late Congress propositions to dis- 
 pose of these lands to build insane asylums in the difterent States ; 
 to grant them in homesteads to actual settlers ; to distribute them in 
 land warrants between all of the States ; to grant in part their pro- 
 ceeds to tlie States for railroad purposes ; and to transfer to the 
 States their entire administration. No one of these propositions 
 became a law. Congress passed, however, what is known as the 
 Bounty Act, granting to every one who had served in any of the wars 
 of the country, from the Revolution down, one hundred and sixty 
 acres of land. If for military services one has already received land, 
 he isentitled to enough more, under the bill, to make up the one hundred 
 and sixty acres. 
 
 I suppose it will be generally admitted, that if any of these lands 
 were to be given away, the least objectionable way of disposing of them 
 was to divide them according to the patriotism of the country. 
 
 The public lands of the United States were at an early ])eriod of 
 our history sold on a credit of several years. This stimulated unduly 
 purchases, and the frequency of relief laws by Congress occasioned 
 the first great reform of our land system — sales for cash. The second 
 great reform passed, after an interval of years, was the granting of 
 pre-emj)tion rights to actual settlers. The third great reform, equal 
 in importance to either of the others, is that adopted by the late Con- 
 gress, and called the graduation system. For years it has been pressed 
 upon Congress, but never until the past year did it become a law. 
 It is simply the adoption by government of the common-sense prin- 
 c!i})le, acted upon by every private land-holder in the country, of sell- 
 ing land at its value. Where land has been held for years by the 
 government, and has not commanded the price asked, the law pro- 
 vides it shall be sold at a price reduced gradually down, according to 
 the time it has been in market. Under the bill the government has 
 already been relieved of an immense amount of worthless land, situ- 
 ated within the limits of different States, not subject to taxation, 
 and held heretofore above value ; thus preventing settlement, and 
 causing emigration to pass over the States in wliich it was located, 
 while involving a large annual expense to the federal government in 
 the kc(.'ping np of land ofliees and timber agents. The law went into 
 
9 
 
 operation on the 4th of August, 1854, and acted upon eighty -two 
 million three hundred and seventy-five thousand acres of land, of 
 which, in one year, there has heen sold eight million acres. 
 
 Persons having claims against the government have heen heretofore 
 suhjected to great delays, and frequently to heavy expense, in press- 
 ing, either in person or hy agent, their recognition upon Congress. 
 Those of a donhtful character have been often attached to those per- 
 fectly just, and combinations made for their passage, rendering it 
 almost impossible to decide any one upon its own merits. 
 
 I'or the last twenty years, different remedies for this evil have been 
 urged upon Congress. The late Congress took up all the plans pre- 
 viously introduced, and having first referred them to a special com- 
 mittee, finally passed a bill establishing a Court of Claims. The 
 President has appointed to this court three judges, from different sec- 
 tions of the Union, and their high character gives confidence tliat the 
 court will be (what the National Intelligencer termed it at the time) 
 " one of the wisest measures ever passed by Congress." 
 
 The bill passed gives jurisdiction to the court to hear and determine- 
 all claims founded upon any act of Congress or any regulation of the 
 Executives, or upon any contract, express or implied, with the gov- 
 ernment. The testimony before the court in each case is to be printed 
 and reported to Congress, and the decisions, when favorable, are to 
 be accompanied with bills to carry them into effect. The court is 
 thus to perform the labor now so laboriously and imperfectly per- 
 formed by Congressional committees. It is to decide in open court, 
 and before the whole country, on contested points of law and evi- 
 dence. One decision reported and acted upon by Congress will !?erve 
 ns a basis for action in similar cases, and legislation upon private 
 interests, thus freed from many of its present inconsistencies, will be 
 regulated by rule. 
 
 The action of the court is not, however, to bo final until sanctioned 
 by Congress, the power to revise each case being reserved as a check, 
 similar somewhat to that of an appellate court. No one who has not 
 had personal experience of the annoyance to which claimants have 
 been heretofore subjected, can fully realize the advantage of a tribu- 
 nal which is to act promptly upon every claim presented. 
 
 ATTORNEY GENERAL. 
 
 Gentlemen, speaking to you not as a partisan, nor simply as the 
 eulogist of the present administration, but as a representative, telling 
 frankly to his constituents his views of men and measures, I am bound 
 to say that I am not, and have never been, a political admirer of Mr. 
 Cushing. I regretted his nomination to the cabinet. I was aware of 
 his service in the Mexican war, and I knew his reputation for legal 
 ability and learning ; but I remembered liis long connection with the 
 old Whig party ; and having seen no public repudiation of his former 
 high federal opinions of national policy, I feared they would either 
 control his course in matters of deep interest to the Democratic party ; 
 or if otherwise, and his views were sound, that the country would re- 
 gard them as of little moral weight, and resulting less from convic- 
 
10 
 
 tion than official position. As Attorney General and actual legal 
 adviser of a Democratic administration, with access at every moment 
 to the President's ear — consulted at the moment of signing every im- 
 portant hill, and, from the nature of his office, called upon to give inter- 
 pretation to its terms — I desired to see some well established Democrat 
 of reliable and decided views of strict construction of the Constitution. 
 I thought it due to the Democracy of New England, and in fact to the 
 Democracy of the whole country, that the President should have se- 
 lected some such 2)erson as his Attorney General. President Pierce 
 thought otherwise, and I do not undertake to censure him, as there is 
 no law that I know of against a President's selecting his own advisers. 
 I must say, however, that while I have found, in many instances, 
 my fears of Mr. Gushing' s high federal ideas of the power of the Exec- 
 utive fully justified by the character of his opinions — as, for example, 
 in his interpretation of the extent of the power of the Executive over 
 our foreign relations, by which the President is made as independent 
 of Congress in the selection of the foreign agents of the government 
 as the Queen of England is of Parliament, and is argued into author- 
 ity to commission, at his discretion, any number of native or natural- 
 ized citizens of the United States, and even unnaturalized persons, as 
 ministers or consuls of any grade or rank known to the law of nations, 
 notwithstanding Congress may have expressly declared by law that 
 there should be but one grade — that always of actual citizens of the 
 United States; — still, as there is no obligation upon the other cabinet 
 officers to be governed by an Attorney General's opinions, however 
 elaborately prepared, if counter to their own decided convictions, it is 
 but justice to confine Mr. Cushing's responsibility for the administra- 
 tion simply to his own department. 
 
 In questions involving the rights of slaveholders under the Consti- 
 tution, where from his antecedents I apprehended most danger in his 
 opinions, they have been sound. 
 
 While Benjamin Butler held the clause of the Constitution enjoin- 
 ing the surrender of fugitives escaping from service to apply simply 
 to States, Mr. Cushing has interpreted it in a spirit more consonant 
 with justice and common sense. The question arose upon the sur- 
 render of a slave escaping from service into the Indian territory, west 
 ■of Arkansas. Mr. Cushing's decision is, that "the constitutional 
 tright of a citizen of the United States to reclaim a fugitive from his 
 lawful service extends not only to the States and to the organized 
 Territories, but also to all the unorganized territorial possessions of 
 the United States. And if in such territory there be no commissioner 
 of the United States to act, the claimant may proceed by recapture 
 without judicial process. Such fugitive in the Indian country is there 
 unlawfully, and, as an intruder, subject to arrest by the executive 
 authorities of the United States."' 
 
 When it is recollected that the great battle for the rights of the 
 South, under the Constitution, is to be fought in the Territories, and 
 that this decision will justify the Secretary of War in enjoining upon 
 the military the arrest of all who, beyond the limits of organized 
 authority, attempt to interfere with the ownership or entice away 
 slaves from their masters, its great importance is at once seen. If 
 
11 
 
 all tlie territory around Kansas and Nebraska could be made practi- 
 cally free soil, and agencies established to inveigle off slaves, the in- 
 troduction of these Territories as slave States into the Union would 
 be practically of little importance, as the facilities for escape would 
 deprive slave property in them of any value. 
 
 Of the law officer of the cabinet I will not speak further than to 
 say, that his capacity to labor, and the industrious ability with which 
 he has discharged the duties of his office, has been the subject of re- 
 mark. Perhaps at no other 2)eriodof our history has the government 
 had more important suits before the Supreme Court, involving 
 questions of the gravest character, and affecting title to immense 
 tracts of land in California, which have had to be settled by a discus- 
 sion of the principles of the old civil and Spanish law. In these 
 cases the Attorney General has seemed to be quite as much at home 
 as in his common law studies. 
 
 NAVY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 When General Pierce came into power, there was not a national 
 vessel at command to carry out a minister to China. The individual 
 appointed to that jiost, after waiting months for the means of trans- 
 portation, gave up his commission. 
 
 An English fleet had just before stood guard over our fishing ves- 
 sels on the banks of Newfoundland, and a French fleet had been 
 sailing up and down our Florida coasts under the plea of protecting 
 Cuba from lawless excursions we had not a navy sufficient to repress. 
 The government v/as, in fact, almost disarmed, while a popular pre- 
 judice existed against any increase of our naval expenditure. 
 
 Such was the condition of afiairs when Mr. Dobbin came into the 
 Navy Department. His action was at once characterized by vigor 
 and intelligence. Unlike some of his predecessors, not content to be 
 merely a titular Secretary for the honor of a cabinet place, he at once 
 applied himself to a thorough reorganization of the service in all its 
 branches. His first report to Congress was so clear and forcible in 
 its exposition of existing defects, that his suggestions for reform be- 
 came the theme of eulogy with all parties. 
 
 Bold and comprehensive as were these suggestions of Mr. Dobbin, 
 they were promptly responded to by Congress in the passage of three im- 
 portant measures ; 
 
 1st, The six steam-frigates of the largest class were authorized to be 
 built, and approjiriation made for the repair of other vessels in dock. 
 
 2d. A bill to promote the efficiency of the navy by discharging or 
 otherwise providing for aged and inefficient officers. 
 
 3d, A bill raising the wages of sailors, with provisions of a character 
 to attach them permanently to the service by a wise and judicious 
 combination of rewards and punishments. 
 
 Contrary to what had been previously the custom of the department, 
 the engines of the steamers to be built were made, by the Secretary, 
 open to contract, and all the prominent engineers of the country inn 
 vited to present plans. The successful competitors were required to 
 
12 
 
 agree that the ships should be tried in active service for six months 
 before the full amount of the contract was awarded. By this wise 
 provision, an additional guarantee was secured for tlie prompt and 
 proj)er discharge of the work, and whatever of loss there might be 
 made, not to fall, as heretofore, upon the treasury, hut upon the con- 
 tractors. One of these vessels is already nearly fitted for sea, and 
 the whole six will he complete in about one half the time required for 
 like vessels under the old system. 
 
 The bill to promote the efficiency of the navy has likewise been 
 carried into effect. Many of our captains and higher officers are, 
 through age, infirm, and ill-suited to command squadrons on exposed 
 coasts. By this bill a retired list is provided for such, and young and 
 efficient officers promoted to command. This being done by th(! de- 
 cision of a board of naval officers, the navy is made, as it were, to 
 purity itself. 
 
 Difficulties in the way of efficiency of the service, heretofore deemed 
 insurmountable, are removed ; the administration is freed from the 
 power or the suspicion of political influence in the actual promotions, 
 and there is im])0sed upon the government no additional exj)ense. 
 What of increased pay is given to the younger officers placed upon 
 active duty, is taken from the older officers relieved and placed upon 
 half-pay. 
 
 The materials of the navy, too, as well as its personnel, has been im- 
 proved by the securing of a higher order of men as common sailors. 
 
 From the organization of tlie navy in 1797, up to the past session 
 of Congress, the wages of the sailor remained unchanged. They 
 have now been augmented and made to bear some comparison to those 
 of the merchant service. 
 
 Ever since the existence of our navy w*e have had great difficulty in 
 getting American-born sailors to enlist in our naval service. Mr. 
 Bancroft, under Mr. Polk's administration in 1845, was the first 
 Secretary of the Kavy who restricted, by order of the department, 
 the number of foreigners enlisted into the service. Mr. Dobbin, on 
 entering the department, found the same embarrassment to exist. 
 Among the crew of Captain In graham' s vessel when he rescued 
 Martin Koszta, there were only fifteen native American sailors. It 
 was to remedy in some degree this evil, and provide sailors identified 
 witli the navy, that Mr. Dobbin prepared his system of enlistment of 
 naval apprentices. 
 
 Lads are received in well-appointed vessels in our large seaports, 
 and in addition to instruction in navigation and the duties of ship- 
 board, receive the rudiments of a good education. They are thus 
 prepared to fill with credit to the country all those offices in the 
 service to which by law they can be promoted. 
 
 In the numerical increase of our vessels of war ; in the jirovigion 
 for the promotion of competent men to their command ; in t1ie im- 
 proved material out of which our sailors are to be made ; and in the 
 better regulation for the enlistment and training of those who will 
 fill its subordinate offices, we have every reason to hope the revival 
 of the earlier spirit of our naval service. Certainly, within no ten 
 
13 
 
 years of the sixty of the existence of our navy have such great re- 
 forms been effected. 
 
 They reflect credit upon the Secretary who originated them, and the 
 administration of which he is a member, as well as on the democratic 
 Congress which enabled them to be carried into execution, 
 
 WAR DEPARTMENT. 
 
 No branch of the government requires more ability in its manage- 
 ment than the War Department. In its organization, as well as in 
 its administration, the reforms eftectcd under the present Secretary of 
 War have been so general and thorough, that I have only time to 
 enumerate briefly some of the most important. 
 
 Under its control are placed not only the armv and military defences 
 of the country, but the application of all appixfpriations for the clear- 
 ing out of harbors, and the removal of obstructions to commerce. 
 To these duties has been added, in the last two years, the survey and 
 exploration of the great Western territory, with a view to ascertain- 
 ing the shortest and most practicable route for communication with our 
 possessions on the Pacific ocean. 
 
 In the early history of the countr)% when population confined itself 
 chiefly to the eastern slope of the AUeghanies, and their summits 
 formed our western frontier; or even later, when settlements had only 
 extended into the valley of the Ohio and Mississippi, and communi- 
 cation from distant jioiuts Avas comparcatively easy by means of river 
 communication, no great military judgment was necessary in the dis- 
 position of the ar^3^ for the defence of our citizens. Now, however, 
 our military posts, stretching along the line of our boundary, north 
 and south, extend twice across the continent. They look out upon 
 the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, and stand sentinel among the defiles 
 of the Rocky mountains, surrounded by wild and savage Indian tribes. 
 In the disposition of our small army for the protection of this great 
 extent of territory ; in the location and provisioning efforts to repress 
 Indian disturbances; in the assigning of commands, and in the com- 
 bination and grouping of detached forces at remote points, to be efl'cct- 
 ive in the defence of emigrants and settlers, and yet themselves not 
 beyond the power of relief, are constantly called into requisition, on 
 the part of the Secretary of War, all the elements of an able military 
 commander. 
 
 General Pierce was most fortunate in his selection of Colonel Davis 
 to fill this position. Educated at West Point, and for years an officer 
 in the regular army, and as such engaged in service during the Black 
 Hawk Indian war in the northwest, and afterwards in the volunteer 
 service during the Mexican war in the southwest; in the vigor of life — 
 full of energ}^ and decision, and possessed of a practical legislative 
 experience from several years' service in both houses of Congress, and 
 as chairman in the Senate of the Committee on Military Affairs — 
 Colonel Davis brought to the discharge of the duties of Secretary of 
 War unusual qualifications. 
 
 When the present administration came into power, the army, in 
 proportion to our population and extent of territory, was less than it 
 
14 
 
 had been at any period in the history of our governroent. With a 
 nominal force of nearly (14,000) fourteen thousand men, it had 
 actually loss than three-fourths that number. Particular companies 
 had dwindled down into mere skeletons, with not more than half their 
 proper quantum of men. The wages of the soldier were so low that, 
 although recruiting officers were scattered all through the country, 
 it was with difficulty men could be enlisted. 
 
 Senior officers of a certain grade had exercised the right of grant- 
 ing furloughs to their inferiors, and a large number of captains and 
 other officers were separated from tlieir companies. Com})laint w^as 
 general that while ])articular individuals had passed most of their 
 liyes in service on the remote frontier, others, through influence, had 
 long enjoyed positions of comparative ease, in or near cities. 
 
 These abuses have all been taken up in detail, and made the subject 
 of correction. 
 
 The army has been increased by the addition of four new^ regiments — 
 two of infanty, and two of mounted men. The necessity for this 
 increase, though acknowledged by other administrations, had never 
 been acquiesced in by Congress. Six months have not passed since 
 they were ordered, and in that time they have been officered, and are 
 nearly in condition with full ranks to take the field. From the im- 
 mense crowd of emigrants towards the Pacific requiring protection, and 
 the peculiar fitness of mounted men to deal with the w^andering Indians 
 of the plains, much is expected from this 1)ranch of the army. 
 
 The recruiting service has been facilitated, and the ranks of the 
 army greatly filled, by the passage of a law raising the pay of the 
 soldier more nearly to an equality with that of other pursuits, in- 
 creasing his wages in proportion to periods of service, and proposing 
 bounties for re-enlistment; while new^ spirit and liie have been infused 
 into tlie whole materiel of the army, by placing commissions within 
 the reach of deserving enlisted men. 
 
 This important feature in our military system, although existing in 
 theory, had never before been carried out. As the graduates of West 
 Point have sufficed to fill vacancies created by casualities in the service, 
 the Executive power to commission an enlisted man has been nearly 
 nominal. 
 
 Now, by the ])Ower to confer brevet upon enlisted men, any soldier 
 who establishes a claim by service or cai)acity may have promotion by 
 brevet, and succeed to vacancies as other officers under like circum- 
 stances. 
 
 The power to grant leave of absence, heretofore freely exercised by 
 officers in command, has been restricted to short periods, and appli- 
 cations for long leave required to be addressed to the Secretary. 
 
 To quiet dissatisfaction at the real or supi)Osed unequal imposition 
 of service, as well as to prevent by too much indulgence the loss of 
 military habits, and a knowledge of army details, as well as that pro- 
 fessional feeling so necessary to military discipline, an order has been 
 issued that officers on special duty shall not remain more than four 
 years at any one station. 
 
 A bill for a retired list for the army, similar in some respects to the 
 one for the navy, was prepared by Col. Davis, and submitted %Yith 
 
15 
 
 strong recommendations to Congress for its passage ; with it was a 
 plan for the reorganization of the army. This bill passed one House 
 of Congress, but, for want of time at the close of the session, was lost 
 in the other. 
 
 The Secretary of War has not confined himself, however, simply to 
 increasing the numerical force of the army; filling up its ranks, keep- 
 ing its officers at their posts, raising the wages of the soldier, and 
 awakening his pride of character by opening before him the way for 
 promotion to the highest commands. All this can be ; and yet if an 
 army be not disciplined to the highest improvement of military 
 science, its equipment may prove, in the hour of battle, but decoration 
 for its slaughter. 
 
 By the introduction of light infantry or rifle tactics into our sys- 
 tem of military instruction for the army and militia. Col. Davis has 
 supplied a want long felt, and placed within the reach of our troops 
 an efficiency equal to the best instructed troops in Europe. On this 
 subject I can only speak as military men tell me ; but it seems that 
 although the rifle has always been emphatically the American 
 weapon — attested in the Revolution, and in every war since — from a 
 habit of looking to the warlike systetn of Europe, we have slighted 
 rifle tactics in our text-book instructions. Moved to it no doubt by 
 his own experience in the command of a rifle regiment in the battle of 
 Buena Vista, Col. Davis has introduced into our military discipline a 
 system of rifle tactics, combining the advantages of the light infantry 
 of Europe, and the suggestions of our own service in swam})s, and 
 over mountains and plains. To the militia of the country this Bue- 
 na Vista drill, I am told, is much better suited than the drill now 
 used, because of the intelligence and individuality of action it re- 
 quires — accuracy in its movement being more dependent upon these 
 qualities, than upon long training in the facings and wheelings of the 
 soldier. 
 
 The weapons of our soldiers have also been improved — new models 
 made, and a self-supplying primer, of American invention, made ap- 
 plicable to all our small-arms. Within the last eighteen months a 
 commission of English officei's visited this country to study our na- 
 tional armories, with a view to the introduction of similar establish- 
 ments into Great Britain. 
 
 In view of these reforms, we may fairly congratulate ourselves on 
 being at this time equal, if not in advance of any other nation in the 
 world ill that peculiar species of military science and equipment best 
 adapted to display to the greatest eftect our national power. 
 
 Other results of the present administration of the War Depart- 
 ment, tending to substitute life and activity for the mechanical rou- 
 tine of office, deserve notice; but I must hasten on. 
 
 The energetic and military character of the Secretary has been felt 
 in every branch of the department ; an^;! those in the highest as well 
 as those in the lowest commands have, with impartial justice, been 
 alike subjected to the discii)line of a practised and observant soldier. 
 Detachments have been pushed into positions in the interior of the far 
 West never before occupied. In Utah, among the Mormons — in the 
 sources of the Missouri, among the Indians — in Kansas, Nebraska, 
 
16 
 
 and Orcg;on, new posts have l)een established — military roads have 
 been constructed lor tlie march of troops and the transportation of 
 military stores through tlie Territories and Indian country ; Avliile, 
 at the same time, the surveys of a route to the Pacific, of a character 
 similar, and of the same constitutional authority as these works, have 
 heen conducted by military parties, nnder instructions of the depart- 
 ment, to a triumphant cora})letion. The topograpliical and statistical 
 knowledge thus obtained is of the greatest value in determining the 
 location of forts, and their means of supply, as well as in demonstra- 
 ting our ability to defend our whole Pacific coast by forces raised and 
 prepared in the interior, and thrown, at short notice, to the most dis- 
 tant points. The bare establishment of the fact that such a means of 
 defence exists, that a road can be built, that the rails (as Secretary 
 Davis's report shows) could now be laid down to convey to Oregon and 
 California provision and men collected in the valley of the Mississippi, 
 gives a sense of security to our possessions on the Pacific never before 
 enjoyed. 
 
 Whether a railroad be built through the Territories, the govern- 
 ment aiding by grants of alternate sections of land, and contracts to 
 carry the mail and military stores, together Avith the removal of duty 
 from railroad iron, or whether its construction be deferred until the 
 Territories become states and take the matter in hand, is a (juestion 
 not affecting the value of the results obtained. It has been demon- 
 strated how our Pacific coast can be protected from any hostile power, 
 and that a railroad is practicable across our entire possessions. That 
 these two facts, so valuable in their consequences, are established be- 
 yond a doubt, is due to the enlightened zeal of the Secretary of War. 
 
 TREASURY DEPARTMENT. 
 
 Under this department is placed not only the care of the public 
 funds, and the general management of the finances of the govern- 
 ment, but the direction of the coast survey, and the revenue cutter 
 service ; the superintendence of the different United States mints ; 
 the Light-house Board ; the building of marine hospitals and custom- 
 houses ; together with the supervision and providing of regulations 
 for the collection of the revenue from customs, and the faithful execu- 
 tions of the laws relating to the tariff and warehousing system. 
 
 No officer of the government has duties more varied and responsible 
 than the one under whom centre all these interests. 
 
 General Pierce was fortunate in selecting as Secretary of the Trea- 
 sury a man of ability and of unquestioned integrity. Abruj)t in his 
 manners, and without any of the ])opular arts of conciliation, the 
 stern and rugged honesty of Mr. Guthrie's nature has commanded 
 the respect even of ])olitical oi)])onents. 
 
 The reforms in his department have been numerous and important, 
 saving large amounts to the government, and just of the character 
 that might have been omitted without })rovoking censure, but could 
 only have been suggested by a conscientious and scrupulous devotion 
 to the public interest. 
 
 It was the expectation of the Democratic party that the late Con- 
 
17 
 
 gress, acting on tlie principle that duties slioiild be levied for reve- 
 nue, and not for protection, would have reduced the tariff so as to 
 collect only so much money as was required for an economical admin- 
 istration of the government. 
 
 The revenue of the government derived from customs was, for the 
 year ending 30th June, 1853, ($58,072,390 2G) over fifty-eight 
 million dollars. 
 
 Mr. Guthrie proposed to Congress a plan for a tariff with hut two 
 rates of duty ; the first of 1 00 per cent. , and the second of 25 per cent. ; 
 which he estimated would have yielded ($47,709,320 51) something 
 more than forty-seven million dollars, being a reduction on the 
 present tariff of over ten million dollars, ($10,363,069 61.) The com- 
 mittee of the House of Representatives having the subject in charge, 
 proposed a bill with five schedules; the first 100 per cent., the 
 second 20 per cent., the third 15 per cent., the fourth 10 per 
 cent., and the fifth 5 per cent., to yield ($43,757,081 16) over forty- 
 three million dollars, being a reduction of ($14,315,309 18) over 
 fourteen million dollars. Both of these plans had advocates in Con- 
 gress. There were others who denounced them as not sufficiently 
 free-trade. The result was a postponement of the Avhole subject, in 
 the idea, with some, that the war in Europe would cause a sensible 
 diminution of our revenues; and with others, that all our collections 
 would be required to meet existing appropriations and pay off the 
 national debt. 
 
 If any one thing contributed more than another to the success of 
 the Democratic party in the election of General Pierce, it was the 
 odium attaching to the acknowledgment of claims like that of Galphin 
 and Gardiner, under the previous administration, and the reputed 
 perversion of the public funds by those in the employ of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 From his first entry into the department, Mr. Guthrie seems to 
 have exerted himself to render impossible similar abuses. In illus- 
 tration of this I may state a fact which I have on good authority. 
 
 Under the tariff, goods pay duties upon an appraisement based on 
 actual inspection and their invoiced price. To check fraud, if the in- 
 voice i^rice falls ten per cent, below this appraisement, an additional 
 duty of twenty per cent, is levied. 
 
 When the administration came into power these additional duties 
 amounted to a large sum, being as much as $70,000 at one port. 
 The outgoing administration decided one-half of the amount was to 
 go as penal duties to the officers and collectors of customs. Mr. 
 Guthrie came into office at 11 o'clock a. m. on the 9th of March, 
 1853, and I am assured that before 3 o'clock of the same day he had 
 examined and decided this question, reversing the previous decision 
 in favor of the government, and prepared and mailed a circular stop- 
 ping the distribution of the fund. 
 
 The matter was litigated, and this last winter the Supreme Court 
 sustained Mr. Guthrie's view, thereby saving to the treasury the 
 large sum accumulated, and fixing the rule for the future. 
 
 The unsettled balances against individuals on the books of the 
 Treasury when this administration came into power, reached the al- 
 2 
 
18 
 
 most incredible amount of $132,531,704. At the opening of the last 
 session of Congress these balances had been reduced to $27,000,000. 
 Heretofore the accounts of collectors of the customs have been ren- 
 dered only quarterly, and generally another quarter has elapsed be- 
 fore their adjustment. 
 
 Transactions connected with our revenue from customs, amounting 
 to $50,000,000 annually, have thus generally been behind in settle- 
 ment from nine to twelve months. 
 
 These accounts are now, under a new rule, rendered at the end of 
 one month, and adjusted the next month. 
 
 The whole business of the revenue is thus placed immediately under 
 the eye of the Secretary ; frequent settlements insure direct responsi- 
 bility ; and the consequence is, that there has not yet occurred a single 
 default. 
 
 In our large ports, where we have a naval officer as well as col- 
 lector, the former is a check upon the accounts of the latter. At 
 ports where we have only a collector, the custom has been for the 
 officer to justify his own account. By the examination of the books 
 and receipts of importers at different ports along the northern lakes, 
 unexpected frauds to a large amount were detected in the accounts of 
 some of these collectors, and means taken to prevent their recurrence. 
 During the previous administration, a Senate committee sat to ex- 
 amine the fact of large government contracts having been granted to 
 a favorite employe, and by him underlet at a profit. Under the pres- 
 ent administration of the Treasury Department, advertisements for 
 building proposals have been addressed exclusively to mechanics and 
 builders. 
 
 Heretofore there has existed a number of officers connected with the 
 department, appointed not publicly, called " secret inspectors." They 
 have all been dismissed, and no new ones appointed. 
 
 The late Congress added four vessels to the revenue service. New 
 regulations have been issued for its government, and many supernu- 
 merary officers dismissed from the service. 
 
 Not to enumerate other reforms of Mr. Guthrie in the different 
 branches of the public service under his control, there are two in the 
 management of the finances of the government which are of the 
 highest importance. When the sub-treasury act of 1846 went into 
 operation, penalties were attached to the use, by the collectors, of any 
 of the money of the government for private purposes, its loan to 
 others, or its deposite in any bank, and certain special depositories 
 were designated, where the public funds coming into their hands 
 were to be deposited. 
 
 The penalties imposed upon collectors applied equally to the dis- 
 bursing officers of the government ; but the law designated no sjiecial 
 depositories for their use. The consequence has been, that the money 
 of the government in the hands of its disbursing agents throughout 
 the country, amounting ordinarily to from three to five million dol- 
 lars at a time, has been generally deposited, at the discretion of those 
 officers, with private bankers and brokers, they receiving, if not in- 
 terest upon their deposites, a consideration in some other way. When 
 it is recollected that money in California has often commanded 3 per 
 
19 
 
 cent, a montli, it will he seen how great tlie temptation to realize 
 from government funds. In accordance with the spirit of the origi- 
 nal law, this has been changed by the present administration, and 
 disbursing officers required to use the government depositories. By 
 this means, the public money is prevented being used for banking 
 or speculating purj)oses — is exposed to no risk from individual fail- 
 ures — is not drawn for before it is actually required ; and, should the 
 government officers resign or die, it is safe, and does not go into the 
 hands of his heirs and executors, forcing the government to resort to 
 a suit to get it back into the treasury. 
 
 Another important reform is in the mode of transferring the public 
 funds from point to point. When a transfer was required from a 
 point where the government was in funds, to satisfy demands at a 
 point where it was without funds, the practice prevailed for the Sec- 
 retary to deposite the amount with a banker or broker, and take his 
 draft on time, from thirty days to six months, and sometimes even for 
 a longer period — equivalent, as alleged, to the cost of transfer. By 
 this means it is plain that the public funds, for the nominal purpose 
 of transfer^ might be placed in the hands of favorite bankers and 
 brokers, to an amount and for a length of time entirely in the dis- 
 cretion of the Secretary. In fact, it has been estimated that at one 
 time five millions, government funds, were in this way in the hands 
 of brokers, serving as the basis of discounts, and subject to all the 
 risks of commercial operations. Instead of this system of "transfer 
 jobs," the Treasury Department has required those persons heretofore 
 employed in transferring "on time" to pay up, and it now makes its 
 own transfers, with more facility and less expense. One broker had 
 $1,750,000 government funds in his hands when this administration 
 came into power, and the amount was not drawn from his hands a 
 month before he failed. 
 
 In keeping the public money in the treasury, and entirely discon- 
 nected from banks and private operations, Mr. Gruthrie has carried 
 out the true spirit of the original sub-treasury act, saved the govern- 
 ment from loss, and prevented the commercial disturbances that must 
 necessarily have resulted from the contractions and expansions of the 
 money-m<^rket following the alternate deposite and subtraction of 
 public funds. 
 
 Since the administration came into power, nearly thirty million 
 dollars of the public debt has been from time to time paid off by the 
 department itself, without the agency of brokers, interfering in no 
 way with the trade of the country, and leaving the national treasury 
 in a sound and healthy condition. 
 
 STATE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 With the results of our foreign policy during the last two years I 
 am the more familiar, from having been a member of the Committee 
 on Foreign Affairs in the House. 
 
 When General Pierce came into power, it was confidently predicted 
 that, in less than two years, the country would be involved in an 
 
20 
 
 unnecessary war, either with Mexico or Great Britain. With both 
 of these powers, along our northern and southern borders, we had 
 serious cause of annoyance. 
 
 The rights of our citizens to fish within the numerous bays and 
 near the coasts of the British provinces, (a subject of anxious nego- 
 tiation ever since the last war with Great Britain,) has been settled 
 advantageously to our interests. Our vessels that went out armed, 
 two years ago, to fish under the menance of an English fleet, now 
 catch and dry their fish in peace along the British shore. 
 
 The barriers of trade along our northern line have been broken 
 down, and the wealth of that extensive region to the northwest — now 
 in process of rapid development — allowed to flow, almost without 
 obstruction, into our Atlantic cities. The right to navigate freely 
 the St. Lawrence — heretofore claimed by us on principles of public 
 law, but always obstinately resisted by the English government — has 
 been secured, and American vessels loading in Wisconsin or Illi- 
 nois now pass out without obstruction the natural outlet of the lakes, 
 to the ocean, and unload in London, or Havre. 
 
 At the south, our boundary line has been removed still farther into 
 Mexico. The border difficulties that threatened war have been qui- 
 eted. Territory far more valuable than it has been represented, and 
 equal in extent to two States, has been secured. The Mesilla valley 
 is now ours beyond dispute. We are no longer under obligations to 
 protect the Mexicans along our line from the hostilities of Indians it 
 was their interest to excite. And finally, what it was of the utmost 
 importance that we should secure, we have within our own borders 
 the shortest and most jDracticable route to the Pacific. 
 
 While provision has thus been made for interests along our north- 
 ern and southern borders, the other great agricultural and commer- 
 cial interests of the country, that, from the interior and from our sea- 
 port cities, extend themselves to other and remote governments, have 
 not been neglected. 
 
 A treaty with Japan, projected under Mr. Fillmore's administra- 
 tion, has been perfected in an honorable manner; and that rich and 
 populous empire, closed for centuries to the greatest commercial na- 
 tions of Europe, has been opened to our ships and citizens. 
 
 A treaty negotiated several years since with Switzerland, by the 
 late Assistant Secretary of State, Colonel Mann, has been finally rati- 
 fied, and political and commercial relations, mutually advantageous, 
 established with the only republic in Europe. 
 
 Holland, owning numerous islands in the East with which our trade 
 is rapidly increasing, has, the past year, consented to receive United 
 States consuls in her colonies — a concession heretofore refused, ever 
 since our existence as a nation. 
 
 When this administration came into power, Brazil was exerting her 
 influence with the other governments of South America to jirevent the 
 free navigation of the Amazon, and confine to herself its commerce. 
 By negotiations had with the several republics bordering on the up2)er 
 waters of that river, we have, to a degree, neutralized her efibrts ; and, 
 should the matter be pressed, I have no doubt of the opening within 
 
21 
 
 another year, to our country, of the commerce of the whole interior 
 of the South American continent. 
 
 The Baltic has heen heretofore, to some extent, a closed sea — ves- 
 sels of all nations, on entering it, paying tribute to Denmark. One 
 hundred American vessels, on an average, in the last twenty years, 
 have, with their cargoes, "been subjected to this toll ; the aggregate 
 annual amount collected from them being about $100,000. As our 
 principal staples — cotton, rice, and tobacco — pay the highest duties 
 in the Sound, the exaction of this toll has been for years the subject of 
 loud but vain remonstrance from our government. 
 
 As the tax itself is defended merely on grounds of prescription and 
 treaty stipulations with some of the governments of Europe — is di- 
 rectly opposed to the principle of freedom of the seas, for which we, 
 as a nation, have always contended ; and, though heretofore paid by 
 our vessels, has never been acknowledged by our government to be 
 due — the Danish government has been informed that, after this year, 
 its payment will be resisted. 
 
 This decided step on our part has induced the Prussian government 
 to assume, through its Chamber, a somewhat similar position — pro- 
 testing against the idea of any sovereignty in Denmark over the Sound, 
 and that the tax is an "intolerable tribute, contrary to the law of na- 
 tions, and oppressive to all commerce," and should be abolished. As 
 to this country belongs the credit of having effectually put a stop to 
 the Algerine piracies in the Mediterranean, it will be an additional 
 honor if she add to it the suppression of a like robber-tax upon com- 
 merce in the Baltic. 
 
 By the late Congress an act was passed securing the rights of citi- 
 zenship to children born abroad of American parents temporarily 
 absent from the country. 
 
 Thirty years ago Chancellor Kent in vain called attention to this 
 subject, and at different times within the same period at least four 
 bills upon the subject were introduced into Congress by Mr. Webster 
 and others, but in every case failed to pass. Our citizens have in 
 the mean time penetrated into every country on the face of the 
 globe, and yet, except in the case of diplomatic agents, and the few 
 provided for by an early law, no protection has been extended by our 
 government to their children. 
 
 Those who have been born heretofore, or may be born hereafter, 
 abroad, of American citizens, are now by the late act secured in all the 
 rights of citizens, while there is a careful guard against the same rights 
 descending to those whose fathers never resided in the United States. 
 
 When this administration came into power, it found in the State 
 Department a large number of unsettled claims on the part of our 
 citizens against the British government. The treaty of Ghent had 
 provided for all prior to that date, but numerous cases had arisen 
 since, and were waiting the slow course of diplomacy. A joint com- 
 mission for their immediate adjustment was proposed by our govern- 
 ment and accepted by the British government, and the consequence 
 is that they have in the past two years all been examined and 
 decided. 
 
 The great doctrine that free ships make free goods has always been 
 
22 
 
 advocated loj our government. We went to war with Great Britain 
 in its defence in 1812, and finally concluded a peace without the 
 principle being determined. The present administration, taking 
 advantage of a favorable occasion, has obtained from Eussia, and some 
 of the other European and American powers, the acknowledgment of 
 this rule. Even England has agreed to abide by it for the present. 
 This great concession to the rights of neutrals is emphatically a 
 victory of peace over the war policy of Europe, and will result in 
 much more solid advantage to this country than any mere victory of 
 arms to those nations now engaged in strife. Should we be involved 
 in another war, our cotton, sugar, and tobacco conveyed in neutral 
 vessels will be burdened with no unusual insurance against capture. 
 American vessels, in the peaceful errands of commerce, already pass 
 unscathed through seas lighted up by the cannon of contending 
 nations. 
 
 In this connection I may state that our whole system of foreign 
 intercourse, both consular and diplomatic, has been within the past 
 year entirely remodelled, and gross abuses corrected. Our agents 
 abroad are now surrounded, as far as it is in the power of Congress 
 to do so, by legislative enactments. Positive duties are prescribed, 
 and their discharge enforced and regulated by law, instead of being 
 left, as heretofore, to the discretion of the individual and the Secre- 
 tary of State. 
 
 Should this reform be energetically and zealously carried out by the 
 Executive and State Department, in the spirit in which Congress 
 entered upon it, with an honest endeavor to guard against the exercise 
 of unrestrained power, to curtail Executive patronage, to correct gross 
 and secret abuses of long standing, and to secure in the foreign de- 
 partment of the government at home and abroad the same direct 
 responsibility to public opinion which surrounds and is the best 
 check upon those in other branches of the public service, it will have a 
 most happy effect, not only upon the character of our representatives 
 abroad, but in removing the prejudice which now almost invariably 
 attaches the idea of rewarded partizan to any one entering the foreign 
 service. 
 
 I have said nothing yet of the course of the administration with 
 reference to Cuba. On this point I have not much to say that is 
 agreeable. 
 
 There are great commercial and political as well as social reasons 
 why that island should not be allowed to remain, as it has been, a 
 nuisance and a danger upon our border. I am now, and have always 
 been, in favor of abating the nuisance. Constantly protesting that 
 we would never suffer its transfer by Spain to any other European 
 power, we have, in fact, submitted to its being used by France and 
 England to our injury, in a way and to a degree that we never would 
 have tolerated had it been under the flag of either of those powers. 
 I have never heard anything from Mr. Marcy that led me to believe 
 he did not wish to obtain Cuba ; but, speaking to you in frankness, I 
 have never felt that his heart was in the matter. It was this con- 
 viction that caused many originally to regret his selection as Secretary 
 of State. Like an engineer who begins to obtain the height of an 
 
23 
 
 object by taking first a base line, it was feared Mr. Marcy would look 
 down too much into New York politics before he attempted any great 
 object. His great ability^ I believe, no one has questioned. If 
 there has been disappointment at his course in this and other mat- 
 ters, it should be recollected that the peace of the country is a 
 matter of great moment, and that he occupies a position which does 
 not admit at all times of an explanation of the causes influencing his 
 action. 
 
 President Pierce, I believe, has sincerely desired to acquire Cuba. 
 There were embarrassments, however, about the whole subject the 
 past year at Washington, that it is difficult to appreciate. The ac- 
 quisition of the island, instead of being advocated on great commercial 
 and political grounds, was unfortunately connected with the question 
 of slavery. On this subject the whole country was excited, and the 
 mere idea that Cuba was sought by the South to strengthen slavery drove 
 off from its support many members of Congress from the north who 
 were the advocates of its acquisition on other grounds. The friends 
 of Cuba, therefore, in Congress could do nothing. The President, if he 
 had assumed the responsibility and ordered our navy to take immediate 
 redress on the happening of the Black Warrior outrage, (as at Cape 
 Town,) might have provoked a collision, probably ending in our ob- 
 taining the island. But it required a G-eneral Jackson to take this 
 responsibility, although I believe any one would have been sustained 
 in doing so by the country. It is to be remembered, however, that 
 our naval vessels, at the President's command, were fewer in number 
 than those guarding the island ; that the President and his cabinet 
 have no power to declare war, nor to make appropriations of money; 
 that this power is vested in Congress, and Congress was in session, 
 and it was but respectful it should be consulted. What I regret 
 chiefly was the failure of the Secretary of State to make the Black 
 Warrior difficulty the occasion of demand for the complete and im- 
 mediate redress of all our difficulties with Spain. The failure to take 
 promptly this position, and the delay in sending into Congress the 
 papers connected with all our Spanish difficulties, tended greatly to 
 throw suspicion upon the real feelings of the administration. To 
 those earnest friends of Cuba, however, Avho are disposed to quarrel 
 with the administration on this subject, I will merely say, that if it 
 has failed to do that in the last two years which other administrations 
 have tried for the last twenty years to do, and failed ; if an opportunity 
 in the past has been lost, and Cuba is not yet ours. General Pierce 
 and his cabinet, at least, have not denounced as piratical the efforts of 
 those who would assist her to her freedom ; nor have they bound 
 themselves by oath to resist, in the future, the addition of the foreign 
 and Catholic influence which would necessarily come into the Union 
 with Cuba. 
 
 OTHER BILLS PASSED — NOT UNDER THE DEPARTMENTS. 
 
 I have now gone through enumerating results under the different 
 departments ; and yet I have not mentioned the passage of the Texas 
 
24 
 
 bill for the payment of the creditors of Texas, holding bonds or other 
 evidences of debt; the ship passenger bill, preventing the crowded 
 importation of emigrants, restricting the number to a vessel, and pro- 
 viding securities for health and comfort on ship-board ; the ship rescue 
 bill; the bill increasing the salaries of the United States judges; and 
 the long catalogue of private bills, exceeding in number those ever 
 before acted upon by a single Congress. 
 
 Nor have I mentioned the bill conferring on General Scott the 
 complimentary title of Lieutenant General ; an instance of magna- 
 nimity in a great and victorious political party, rare in history, and 
 never before exhibited in this country ; innovating upon settled pre- 
 judices, and a long established military system, to crown with honor 
 the chief of the opposite and defeated party. 
 
 I leave to your reflection, gentlemen, without further comment, the 
 measures I have mentioned as the results of two years' democratic rule 
 in the country. Their simj^le enumeration has extended my remarks 
 further than I designed. It deeply concerns the South to know at 
 this time her true friends, and not to be led away from their support 
 by public clamor. 
 
 No southern man can at the present crisis discharge his duty, and 
 be an inattentive observer of the action and policy of the government. 
 
 It is for this reason, and in order that I might remove impressions 
 of its neglect of the public interest, industriously created by those 
 opposed to the present administration because it is not opposed to the 
 South, that I have entered into these details of thejjublic business. 
 
 I do not wish, however, to be regarded as the eulogist of the present 
 administration. What I have said is in the interest of truth, and the 
 democratic party. Men I regard, politically, only as they illlustrate 
 princijile ; and when forced to speak of them, I desire to do so, w^iere 
 I can, with respect. 
 
 It remains that I reply to two questions often asked : 
 
 1st. Has this been an economical or an extravaga7it administration f 
 
 2d. Has it given cause, by the number of foreigners appointed to office^ 
 for the clamor about Americans riding America f 
 
 On both of these points I will speak briefly. 
 
 The expenditures of the United States^ exclusive of the public debt, 
 for the fiscal years ending 30th June, 1850, 1851, 1852, 1853, and 
 1854, deducting the extraordinary from the ordinary expenses of the 
 government, were: 
 
 Ordinary expenses. Extraordinary expenses. 
 
 For the year ending June 30, 1850 $29,966,029 38 $r),578,772 90 
 
 For the year etidinfi; June 3'J, 1851 35,008,539 06 8,779,353 .52 
 
 For the year eridiMR June 30, 1852 31,688,148 06 8,043,932 61 
 
 For the year ending .lune 30, 1853 37,024,137 21 6,.520,125 61 
 
 For the year ending June 30, 1854 35,871,599 48 15,146,650 12 
 
 The extraordinary expenses of the government for the year ending 
 ■June 30, 1854, include the sum of $7,000,000 paid to Mexico under 
 the late treaty. 
 
25 
 
 EXPENSES OF GOVERNMENT. ^ 
 
 These amounts show the expense of the last portion of Mr. Fill- 
 more's administration, and the first years of the present administra- 
 tion. Judged by Mr. Calhoun's standard of an economical adminis- 
 tration, they are undoubtedly high. I do not defend them. The 
 present administration has not exceeded, however, the expenses of the 
 last sufficiently to justify the charge of greater extravagance. The 
 appropriations made by the late Congress are large. I voted against 
 the majority of them ; and yet, take up the list, and it is difficult to 
 say which could be struck off with advantage to the ])ublic interest. 
 
 The ten millions to Mexico, securing us additional territory, the 
 railroad route to the Pacific, and relief from the onerous obligations 
 of the former treaty, no one here will object to. Mr. Fillmore offered 
 the same amount, simply to be relieved of our obligations under the 
 former treaty. 
 
 The seven millions to Texas creditors was a sacred obligation not 
 to be avoided. 
 
 The appropriation in settlement of private claims of long standing 
 against the government will not be questioned. 
 
 The five millions for the increase of the navy has been approved 
 by the whole country. 
 
 It must be remembered, too, that the expenses of the government 
 have necessarily increased with its growth. 
 
 The extension of our land, and postal, and judiciary, and military, 
 and revenue systems over our Pacific possessions ; the necessary 
 increase of our army and navy ; the collection of customs along the 
 shores of two oceans ; the salaries of additional officers under 
 government, and the support of scA^en instead of two territorial govern- 
 ments, have all involved additional expenditure, and tended greatly 
 to increase their aggregate amount. 
 
 APPOINTMENT OF FOREIGNERS TO OFFICE. 
 
 Whether the administration has appointed an undue number of 
 foreigners to office, can be tested by reference to facts. 
 
 When this administration came into power, there were more than 
 three hundred and sixty-five (365) unnaturalized foreigners— citizens 
 of other powers — in the employment of our government abroad as 
 consuls and vice-consuls. 
 
 One of the first acts of the Secretary of State was an order, that in 
 future only American citizens should hold such positions. The con- 
 sular and diplomatic reform bill, which subsequently passed Congress, 
 confirmed this order of the department, and made it permanent law. 
 
 Now as to naturalized foreigners in the employment of the govern- 
 ment. 
 
 The United States government has in its employment as ministers, 
 commissioners, and secretaries of legation abroad, forty-one (41) 
 persons. Of these, all are native-born except three. 
 
 We have abroad 220 consuls and commercial agents. Of these, 
 all are native-born except 49. 
 
26 
 
 The difficulty of getting citizens, either native or naturalized, to 
 fill certain of our petty consulates abroad, has compelled the govern- 
 ment to employ such as it could command. 
 
 So much for our foreign service. 
 
 How is it at home? There are in the State Department proper 
 forty persons employed, and under it in the States and Territories, as 
 Governors or Secretaries, (16) sixteen — in all, 56 persons. Of these, 
 there are (5) five foreign-horn. That is less than one-eleventh. 
 
 There are in employment under the Treasury Department, inclu- 
 ding those in the mint, revenue cutter service, coast survey, light- 
 house keepers, and customs, (3,104) three thousand one hundred and 
 four. Of these, only (285) two hundred and eighty-five are ascertained 
 to be foreigners. That is less than one-eleventh. 
 
 Under the Interior Department there are (798) seven hundred and 
 ninety-eight persons employed. Of these, (88) eighty-eight are for- 
 eigners. That is less than one-ninth. 
 
 There were employed in connexion with the lower house of the last 
 Congress (54) fifty-four persons. Of these, only one was not a native- 
 born citizen. 
 
 I have not the facts as to the other departments, but I am assured 
 that they give no ground for the charge I am refuting. 
 
 As much has been said of our country being the receptacle of pau- 
 pers and criminals from the Old World, and of the administration's 
 neglect in not exerting its powers properly in the matter, I will merely 
 say, that, so far from omitting its duty in this particular, the State 
 Department, soon after the adjournment of the first session of the late 
 Congress, instructed, by circular, our consuls abroad not only to re- 
 monstrate specially against all such intended shipments, but to give 
 timely notice of any such to the department, and to the collectors of 
 the different ports to which they should be shipped. 
 
 In the case of the Sardinian vessel arriving at New York last year 
 with some emigrants supposed to be of this class, I am personally 
 cognizant of the fact that the Sardinian minister at Washington was 
 remonstrated with on the subject, and he went in person to New York 
 to prevent their being landed. 
 
 There has been much censure of the present administration, in con- 
 nexion with its appointments, on other grounds. Some of these com- 
 plaints, in individual cases, I have no doubt, are just. I know myself 
 jjersons in the employ of the government in whose honesty I have no 
 confidence, and whom I would not trust in a matter of private busi- 
 ness. I have thouirht, also, that the President endeavored too much 
 to reconcile, by a division of office, the different so-called segments of 
 the Democratic party. I hold the Executive to be above the claims 
 of any one for office, and that, when elected to manage the affairs of 
 the country, he should be released from the management of the afifiirs 
 of the party. I have never appreciated, therefore, the embarrassment 
 of what is called dividing out the public patronage. 
 
 Mr. Jefferson's standard of api)ointment when President was ''hon- 
 esty and capacity;" and yet I remember hearing Judge Story once 
 say that Mr. Jefferson told him — speaking of his difficulty in apply- 
 
27 
 
 ing this test— that, as a general rule, the applicant with the most 
 recommendations for office was the least worthy. 
 
 William Pitt, for near a generation at the head of the British gov- 
 ernment, said, on leaving public life, that he had never more than 
 once or twice in his whole career been able to appoint "just the man 
 to just the office" he desired. 
 
 in the management of our private affairs we are constantly deceived 
 in our agents ; and there is not a parish in the State which does not, 
 in its selection of men for office, make mistakes it is obliged to correct 
 at the next election. 
 
 Under these circumstances, much should be pardoned to the Presi- 
 dent in the matter of his appointments. In the majority of cases he 
 must necessarily rely entirely on the representation of others ; and 
 those who urge upon him particular persons for office are not always 
 influenced solely by a regard for the public good. 
 
 NEBRASKA BILL. 
 
 You will observe, gentlemen, that I have, as yet, said nothing of 
 the bill passed by the late Congress providing for the organization of 
 two new Territories. By many the establishment of the principles of 
 the Kansas and Nebraska bill, and its passage into a law, is regarded 
 the proudest achievement of the late Congress. 1 voted for the pass- 
 age of that bill, and I was glad when it became a law. 
 
 I believe, too, that we have had few Congresses and fewer Presidents, 
 of late, bold and just enough to have done the South this much justice. 
 It is a measure the credit of which belongs properly to the Democratic 
 party. It was introduced by a Democrat, passed by a Democratic 
 Congress, and signed by a Democratic President. 
 
 Not a Whig paper at the north advocated it— not a northern Whig 
 in Congress voted for it. More than this: in the Senate it received 
 the votes of sixteen northern Democratic Senators. There were eighty- 
 seven northern Democrats in the House, and forty-four of them voted 
 for it. So that, if the passage of this great act of justice to the South 
 had rested with the northern Democrats alone, they would have passed 
 it. 
 
 There has been such misrepresentation of this bill, that, without en- 
 tering into details, or discussing all the positions assumed on either 
 side in debate, I will state in few words the history of its introduc- 
 tion into Congress. When the original thirteen colonies, in 1776, 
 declared their independence of Great Britain, slavery existed in all of 
 them. When our Constitution was adopted in 1789, every State, ex- 
 cept Massachusetts, was a slave State. As all the States were free 
 and independent before the adoption of the Constitution, and came 
 into the Union on a perfect equality, the citizens of each had equal 
 rights in the Territories, and other property of the common govern- 
 ment. As property in slaves was acknowledged by the federal Consti- 
 tution, and existed in all the States but one, there was no question of 
 the right of the citizens of each State to take slave property, just as 
 any other property, into the Territories, and to be protected in its 
 possession. 
 
28 
 
 When, subsequently, Ehode Island and other northern States abol- 
 ished slavery, there was no pretence that their legislative action in 
 doing so extended in any way to the Territories, or had the slightest 
 effect beyond their own State limits. The condition of the Territories, 
 and the rights in them of the citizens of the other States retaining 
 slavery, remained unaltered. Thus it was until 1820, wlien the con- 
 test arose about the admission of Missouri as a slave State into the 
 Union. 
 
 Not to go into the history of this contest, it is enough to state its 
 result was a surrender, on the part of the South, of the right of her 
 citizens to take slaves into one half the common territory — that por- 
 tion north of 36 degrees — being secured in the right to take them into 
 all territory south of 36 degrees. 
 
 Thus matters remained until the question again came up on the ac- 
 quisition of Mexican territory, and California's application, in 1850, 
 for admission as a free State into the Union. Thirteen Northern 
 States, through their legislatures, then declared in favor of what was 
 called '' Wilmot's proviso," forbidding, by Congress, the existence of 
 slavery in any of the Territories of the Union. A bill to this effect 
 passed one House, but was defeated in the other branch of Congress. 
 Southern members contended for their equality of right under the 
 Constitution, but in a spirit of conciliation offered to abide by the Mis- 
 souri Compromise of 1820, extending the line of 36 degrees to the 
 Pacific. The North refused this proposition. The excitement be- 
 came general throughout the country. Southern States, through their 
 legislatures, took decided positions. The Union was considered in 
 danger ; and the result was, the proffer by the North of a new compro- 
 mise, embracing, among other things, the doctrine of what is called 
 "Squatter Sovereignty," by which the people of the Territory were 
 to decide for themselves whether or not slavery should exist within 
 their limits. This proposition was resisted by southern members as 
 a virtual surrender of their rights under the Constitution without the 
 consideration even of any temporary advantage. It was said that 
 property, from its nature, was timid, and slaveholders would not go 
 with their slaves into a Territory where their right to hold them as 
 property was not previously recognised ; that citizens of the North, 
 laboring under no such embarrassment as to their property, would 
 emigrate more rapidly, and in much greater numbers ; and as tlie cha- 
 racter of the Territorial government was to be determined by the 
 majority of the persons present at its original organization, slavery 
 would be as certainly excluded as by the Wilmot proviso. The South 
 further urged that the guarantees under the Constitution for the pro- 
 tection of property in slaves were the same as those for the protection 
 of any other species of property, and that the federal government 
 could not delegate away the power, nor relieve itself of the oldigation 
 under the Constitution, to give tliis protection, so long as a Territory 
 retained its Territorial existence, and had not been invested with the 
 power to erect itself into a sovereign State. The result was another 
 surrender of right upon the part of the South, and the doctrine of 
 "Squatter Sovereignty" was established. 
 
 This was the position of matters when the late Congress met, Soon 
 
29 
 
 after its meeting, petitions began to come in for tlie organization of a 
 government fo-r our Northwestern Territory. Emigration was fast 
 filling up the country ; difficulties were constantly occurring between 
 settlers and the Indians, and there was no law for their government. 
 The petitions received were referred in the usual way to the Committees 
 on Territories, of which in the House Col. Richardson had been for 
 four years chairman, and of which in the Senate Judge Douglas had 
 been for even a longer period chairman. As, at the previous session, 
 similar petitions had been received, but definite action on them post- 
 poned, it was now absolutely necessary to organize some kind of 
 Territorial government. 
 
 Thus you see the matter came up naturally of itself — not sought for 
 by Congress ; not brought forward unnecessarily by Judge Douglas 
 for political purposes, but forced upon attention by the people them- 
 selves legitimately through petition expressing a want, to which it 
 was the dutj^f Congress to respond. 
 
 What kind of a bill should the Committees on Territories, to which 
 these petitions were referred, and of which these gentlemen were 
 chairmen, introduce? 
 
 The North had, in 1<S20, driven the South from its original right 
 of protection to slave property in all portions of the Territories, and 
 would not accept a bill simply under the Constitution, and saying 
 nothing in any way on the subject of slavery. 
 
 New York and Vermont had originally, just after the adoption in 
 1820 of the Missouri line, passed resolutions by their legislatures de- 
 claring they did not consider themselves bound by it. Other Northern 
 States had refused compliance with the requirements of the Constitu- 
 tion for the surrender of fugitive slaves, which was in express terms 
 a portion of that compromise. It had been virtually and in spirit 
 declared not binding as to all the territory of the Union, by the action 
 of thirteen of the Northern States, insisting, through their legisla- 
 tures, upon the adoption of the ''Wilmot Proviso." The re-adoption 
 and extension of the line of thirty-six degrees to the Pacific, when 
 offered as a new compromise by the South, in 1850, had been refused 
 by the North ; and, as if to make it plain that the " Wilmot Proviso" 
 was not to be applied only to Mexican territory, it was expressly 
 attached to the bill organizing the Territory of Oregon. 
 
 Senators from Ohio, Massachusetts, Vermont, Connecticut, and 
 New York, and other Northern States, were present in the Senate, 
 declaring that they would not be content with anything less than 
 the total exclusion of slavery from all the Territories, and that they 
 never had been, and never would be, bound by the Missouri line, 
 when a slave State south of it asked admission into the Union. 
 
 Under these circumstances, what was the duty of the committees 
 having it in charge to bring in a bill for the organization of the new 
 Territories? There was but one course to pursue, and that was to 
 bring in a bill founded on the principle, so far as it could be ascer- 
 tained, of the last compromise — that of 1850. 
 
 This is what Judge Douglas did; and this, gentlemen, is the 
 whole force and extent of the Kansas and Nebraska bill. 
 
ao 
 
 It leaves to the people of the Territories to decide for themselves 
 whetlier or not there shall he slavery in their midst. 
 
 This was no triumph, prepared hy an amhitious politician for the 
 South, over the North. I said of it in the House, just after its pass- 
 age : ^^ As a matter of grace from the North to the South, I would 
 have refused it. As the measure of southern rights, I would have 
 protested against it. As the interpretation of what was intended hy 
 the legislation of 1850, I was willing that it should he entered upon 
 the records of the country." So far, gentlemen, from its heing a 
 concession of principle on the part of the North, it was not even a 
 concession of prejudice against our peculiar institutions. It does not 
 impose another fetter upon a slave ; it docs not make another man a 
 slave who was not a slave before ; it does not restore the South to its 
 original riglit of having its property protected, under the Constitu- 
 tion, in the Territories until they become States ; it d^s not place 
 the slave interest in as good a position as it would havenbeen had the 
 Missouri Compromise been recognised and declared binding across 
 to the Pacific ocean. What does it do? It has the rare merit of he- 
 ing an adjustment that makes no new exaction upon the constitutional 
 rights of the South, and it honestly seeks to carry out the last settle- 
 ment on the subject of slavery, made in 1850 b:tween the two sec- 
 tions of the Union. It does not impose the Wilmot Proviso on the 
 one hand, nor does it, on the other hand, recognise any arbitrary line 
 dividing the country into two great sectional parties. 
 
 It relieves the slave from the misery of a crowded and dense popu- 
 lation at the south, and it invites the slaveholder to come out from 
 the securities of his State, where federal legislation cannot reach him, 
 into the Territories, where, under their idea of the doctrine of popular 
 sovereignty, northern citizens, if they have the majority, may emanci- 
 pate his slaves. Why, then, this great excitement on the subject at 
 the north? 
 
 Opposition to slavery there, gentlemen, has become a po]nilar, and 
 up to this time a successful species of demagogueism, and the intro- 
 duction of this bill was simply made the occasion for its display. 
 
 Those senators who were loudest in their misrepresentation and de- 
 nunciation of the terms of the bill, charging the South with a violation 
 of good faith in disregarding the Missouri line, have never acknowl- 
 edged any binding force in that line, and when called upt)n, in debate, 
 by Senator Douglas, on the evening of the passage of the Nebraska 
 bill, were obliged to confess that they would not vote for a bill, if in- 
 troduced, founded upon its recognition. 
 
 I have now given you my impressions of the acts of the administra- 
 tion and the last Congress. I have done so frankly, without dealing 
 in declamation, and without any appeal to your prejudices. 
 
 The late Congress was composed of nearly two-thirds new members, 
 many of them never before connected with any legislative body. 
 During its first session there was not, therefore, that facility in the 
 transaction of the public business that characterized its second session. 
 
 Of the President and his cabinet I have spoken incidentally, and 
 only as connected with the administration of the government. For 
 President Pierce I entertain sincere respect. I believe him to be hon- 
 
31 
 
 est in his intentions, and possessing more ability than has been repre- 
 sented. He came into office under circumstances that excited great 
 expectations. He has stood firmly by the principles of his party, and 
 been true to the Constitution at a time when it required courage to be 
 so. I have not referred to his vetoes, because I wished to speak only 
 of those measures that became law. As I voted in advance against 
 every measure that he vetoed, I, of course, approve his vetoes. A 
 calm review of the legislation I have enumerated, I think, will show 
 that the Democratic party has reason for pride in what has been 
 achieved, and that neither Congress nor the administration have been 
 neglectful of the public interests. 
 
 THE SOUTH, AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. 
 
 In conclusion, I would urge all Democrats to stand by the organi- 
 zation and principles of their party. (Here Mr. P. went into a 
 discussion, condemning the principles and organization of the Know 
 Nothing party. He gave an account of its first appearance in Con- 
 gress, and after speaking of its abolition results at the north, and 
 deprecating the fact that many good men at the south had been led 
 off by its specious appeals, he continued:) 
 
 Of all questions, that of slavery, and its protection under the Con- 
 stitution, is the last one which, as a southern man, I would be willing 
 to ignore. It is identified with our very existence at the south, and 
 as against it almost the whole action of the North is now directed, to 
 its defence should be given all our energies. Mr. Calhoun was right 
 when he said, opposing the admission of California into the Union, 
 that when the free States came to exceed in number the slave States 
 in the Union, and the South lost thereby its numerical equality of 
 representation in the Senate, its rights would exist only hy sufferance. 
 The power of numbers has now left us — the strength of principle 
 alone remains. Will the written words of the Constitution, and the 
 moral force of right, long prove a sufficient barrier against the fanat- 
 icism of the North? It is impossible to disguise the fear that the 
 free States, having obtained by numerical representation the control 
 of the Federal Government, will exert its powers in every way, not 
 only to keep slavery out of the Territories, but to abolish it in the 
 States. Against the accomplishment of this purpose our best defence 
 is the Democratic j)arty and its principles. 
 
 The Whig party is dead. Its leaders at the south will no longer 
 affiliate with their abolitionized brethren of the north ; and I use 
 their words when I say that, as a national organization^ it no longer 
 exists. 
 
 The Know Nothing party must he but temporary in its existence. Its 
 action at the north is already repudiated by its southern members. 
 
 In the Democratic organization cd the north are embraced the truest 
 and most reliable friends of the South. It, I confess, has not en- 
 tirely escaped the taint of abolitionism, but the great majority of 
 its members have ever contended, as they are now contending, man- 
 fully against open and secret foes, for our constitutional rights. 
 With a Democratic President we feel secure. With a Democratic 
 
32 
 
 Senate we know that our rights Avill not suffer. Is it not the fact of 
 their being an op])osition House of Representatives that now awakens 
 apprehension ? Without an utter desertion of principles in the Demo- 
 cratic party, it coukl not be otherwise. For the two principles which 
 now constitute the best security of the South, and upon which any 
 party organized purely for the defence of southern rights under the 
 Constitution would have to plant itself, are precisely those principles 
 for which the Democratic party have always struggled. 
 
 1st. A strict construction of the words of the Constitution, not 
 theoretically, but practically, denying to the Federal Government 
 every power not expressly granted, and thus narrowing down as much 
 as possible the fiekl of federal legislation. 
 
 2d. The maintenance, in all their original force, of the reserved 
 powers and rights of the States, suffering none of them to become 
 extinguished by non-usage ; and checking every encroachment upon 
 them by the Federal Government, either in the guise of friendship or 
 open aggression. 
 
 To these I would add, the keeping, as much as possible, distinct the 
 different branches of the government ; the judiciary cherished above 
 the clamors of popular demagogues, and free from political influence ; 
 the President confirmed in his veto power, and the right to exercise 
 it on his own judgment, without being influenced by the other branches 
 of the government ; and last, the two houses of Congress to be re- 
 garded as distinct in their responsibilities, and as actual checks upon 
 each other's legislation. 
 
 As the South asks nothing from Congress, but simply desires to be 
 let alone, her security is increased in proportion as the restraints 
 imposed upon legislation by the Constitution are preserved. 
 
 The South has suffered from two classes of politicians — those_ who 
 have apologetically confessed slavery to be a great social and political 
 evil, of which, in time^ they expected the South to rid herself, and 
 those who have threatened and talked much of resistance to aggres- 
 sion, and yet made none. 
 
 The North has thus been unfortunately confirmed both in its 
 desire for the abolition of slavery, as being a great evil, and in its 
 conviction that the South cannot be driven to resistance by any degree 
 of aggression upon its constitutional rights. The consequence is, 
 that the majority of the Northern States are now seeking to do by 
 their legislatures, and through their public men, under a constitution 
 of sacred compacts adopted for the general welfare and domestic 
 tranquillity of all of the States, that against the prosperity and do- 
 mestic peace of the Southern States, which they would not be justified 
 in doing by the law of nations, and Avould not dare do, in fear of 
 war, were we separate and indeitendent States. On this subject I will 
 not say more. Whatever be the future action of the South, she should 
 at least take no position from which she will ultimately recede. Every 
 concession yet made by her has been claimed by the North as a vic- 
 tory, and every compromise yet entered into by her has proved in the 
 end a surrender of right without any real equivalent. 
 
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