~IA
%iI 
-<-~
~ ~~~
~~~i~~~~;~~~<
~~<~~;~~~;~~;<;
ijj~~~;~;;~~;~;
~~;;<~~;~~~~~?;:j/;:
(,~j? ~<~~~~~ ~~
(<~,
i,gj 
A
R EVI EW
OF
PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION;
ITS ONLY POPULAR MEASURES TO IIAYVE ORIGINATED WITH TIIHE
EXECUTIVE OF MILLARD FILLMORE.
BY
ANNA ELLA CARROLL,
0OF MARYLAND,
AUTHORESS OF THE " GREAT AMERICAN BATTLE,"  " STAR OF THE WEST," ETO.
BOSTON:
JAMES FRENCH & COMPANY
NEW YORK:
MILLER, ORTON & MULLIGAN.
1856. 
SHOWING
4 
E
A t>i
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1856, by
JAMES8 FRENCH & CO.,
hI Cle rk's Offi  of the District Coaut of t  District of M&chusett.
Stereotyped by
-  HOBART & ROBBINS,
New En,d Tp  ald Steeotyp Founde'y,
OTOXeN. 
P R E F A C E.
THE administration of Franklin Pierce is the subject
of the chapters in this work. Hiad it been marked
only by ordinary events, the writer would never have
undertaken the task of reviewing it. But, as it has
been one of the most extraordinary in its acts and policy
which has characterized the annals of our country, and
as "history is philosophy teaching by experience,"' a
true analysis and exposition of the principal acts of the
administration have been deemed of paramount import
ance, not only for the instruction and benefit of the
present generation, but for statesmen and the rising
generation who may come after us.
The political friends of the administration will do
injustice if they ascribe the motives of the writer to
personal interest, or prejudice, or to any feelings of
partisan zeal.  The acts of the administration speak
for themselves; they are written in capitals broad as
the republic, and conspicuous as the sun in the firmament;- they tell their own tale!
Some may think that it is not the province of a
woman to enter on the rough path of a political critic,
or to presume to discuss subjects which belong to the
other sex. The writer's answer to all remarks of this
nature is, that she knows of no rule to exclude females
from society, or the discussion of any subject which has
an immediate bearing on the social, moral, and political
destiny of this nation; -that the interests and destiny
9, ci   t,Ad 
PREFACE.
of mothers and daughters are common with those of
their fathers and brothers; -that an American female
is not an idle statue of a pagoda, or of a Turkish se raglio;-that if the apothegm of our orators is true, that
it is the "mothers who make the men in a nation," then
daughters and mothers should not be ignorant on sub jects which relate to the manly development of the
mind, and the moulding of the rising generation; that, while every well-cultivated female knows when
she is within the province or without the bounds of
feminine delicacy, there need be no fear that she will
trespass either on the rights of the male sex, or wantonly expose herself to the charge of temerity. Truth
is what concerns mankind; and from whatever lips or
pen it may proceed, it should be welcomed by the receiver, and especially when its aim is for the welfare and
highest good of individuals, of society, and of the nation.
The chapters on the administration in this book are
not written for a temporary purpose, to serve the grat
ification or interest of the reader for a passing hour.
They are subjects for all periods, having a permanent
bearing, being of the highest interest to this nation,
and to every man, woman, and child, within the limits
of this republic.
If the author knows her own heart, she feels an
anxious desire to benefit her country. And, with a love
for it which is irrepressible, her earnest desire is to
awaken the attention of the reader to the vast importance of the various subjects upon which this volume treats. With her fervent prayers that this may
be the result, she commends it and them to the blessing of Heaven.
NEW YORK, 1856.
IV 
R EVI EW.
LAMARTINE, in his history of the "Girondists,"
gives the thrilling incident of the tombs of the
French kings, despoiled by the populace at St.
Denis, who scattered their ashes and monuments
to the winds. And the winds gave signs of a virtuous national feeling, as they moaned and sighed
over the desecration of the dead.
We are not now going to invade the mausoleum
of our illustrious dead, to look at their vast fame,
their sublime self-denial, or their firm patriotism;
but rapidly, as preliminary, to recur to the several
administrations of the American government, from
the days of Washington to those of Fillmore, before we introduce that of the present executive, of
Franklin Pierce!
General Washington was inaugurated President
of this Union the 30th of April, 1789. The great
1* 
REVIEW.
and powerful opposition to the Constitution in
several of the States then caused Congress to
adopt sixteen amendments; and ten of these
were approved by the Legislatures of the several
States, in September of that year, and became
part of the Constitution in 1791. Two other articles, adopted by the States, were made by subsequent Congresses, in 1794 and 1803, and also
became part of the Constitution.
The subjects of commerce and finance early engrossed the attention of the first Congress, under
Washington's administration; and six months
were required to frame the laws by which the
government was to be administered.
The power of appointment to and removal from
office was strongly debated; and, the Constitution
being silent on removals, it was decided to be in
the power of the President. The Cabinet of Washington was not selected until September, 1789,
four months after he was inaugurated. The office
of Secretary of the Navy was established subsequently, under Mr. Adams, in 1798.
An opposition to the administration of Washington was organized soon after he came to the
presidency. Ilis opponents were chiefly those who
6 
REVIEW.
had opposed the Constitution, and called themselves Republicans; while  the  friends of  the
administration retained the name of Federalists.
Hamilton and Knox sympathized with Washington. Jefferson and Randolph opposed his administration. These four gentlemen composed his
Cabinet.
The last years of the first term of Washington's
government were intensely exciting. Hie and his
adherents were in favor of preserving friendly relations with Great Britain; while Mr. Jefferson
and the opposition declared sympathy for France.
In this condition of affairs, weak and feeble,
yet divided and distracted, nothing but the almost
superhuman strength and wisdom of Washington
saved the Union from destruction.
At this crisis of public distrust, the leaders of
both parties acted as patriots, and, rising above
the excitement of party, insisted upon the reelection of Washington; while the people unanimously affirmed the wisdom of this decision, through
the ballot-box.
It was only on the Vice-President, then, that
party feeling was exhibited; and Mr. Adams,
the federal constitutional candidate, was elected
7 
REVIEW.
by twenty-seven majority over Governor Clinton,
who carried New York for the republicans, and
received fifty electoral votes.   Aaron Burr, the
third candidate, received four votes.
Mr. Adams then had the support of all the
Northern States, except New York; and South
Carolina was the only state south of Maryland
that voted for him.
In 1793,' the second term of Washington's ad ministration, Congress met in Philadelphia. The
House elected a Speaker from the opposition. Jefferson resigned, as Secretary of State, the beginning of that term;  and Washington, having by
experiment seen the effect of a mixed Cabinet,
now selected one which agreed with him in the
policy of administering the government.
It is a singular fact, that all the representatives
in Congress from Virginia opposed Washington's
administration, except one or two members early
in his first term.
Washington and his Cabinet agreed, in his second term, that this country had no right to take
part with France in her war against England;
and in April, 1793, issued the celebrated proclamation of neutrality, which has ever since
8 
REVIEW.
been the policy of this government with foreign
powers.
To give motion and effect to the Union was the
great mission of Washington.  He had never studied a profession, - had not even begun the study
of the classics. But for fifteen years before the
Revolution he had been in the Legislature of
Virginia, where he exercised his influence by
soundness of judgment and readiness to act. He
was never known to speak longer than ten minutes in any deliberative body; and in the convention which formed the Constitution he spoke
but twice - once on taking the presidency, and
again near the close, when he asked consent to
change the ratio of representation in Congress.
HIe communicated to Congress verbally, and not
by written messages, as all the Presidents have
done from the time of Mr. Madison. In the discretionary power of the executive, Washington
was wise and just. He never displaced any man
for opinion, not even under the great party excitement about sympathy for France.   Yet he
preferred to give office to revolutionary patriots,
because he knew them to be true Americans, and
had tried them.
9 
REVIEW.
While in the presidential office, public and
private credit was restored to the country; all
disputes between us and foreign nations were
adjusted, except those with France; and the prosperity of the Union had arisen to remarkable eminence, notwithstanding all hostile opposition.
He adhered tenaciously to his foreign policy,
and finally overcame the popular clamor for France
against England.  His example stands replete with
wisdom  and devotion to the whole  Union, and
challenges the admiration of all parties to-day.
His magnanimity, forbearance, his personal dignity, his construction of the Constitution,' his sacred regard for it, his communications to Congress,
and recommendations in regard to the Judiciary,
Indian tribes, finance, the mint, as well as his
demeanor to all the ministers and officers of the
government, make him a model for all to imitate,
who shall occupy his official position, or subscribe
to the constitutional American principles which
he inculcated and enforced.
The policy of Mr. Adams' administration was,
at first, regarded as identical with that of Washington's.   But the political acts of Mr. Adams
rendered him very soon unpopular with the feder
10 
REVIEW.
alists, though they were stronger in Cotgress
than under Washington.
Mr. Adams quarrelled with his cabinet, and
dismissed Mr. Pickering, Secretary of State, and
Mr. McHenry, Secretary of War, from office. In
May, 1800, he appointed John Marshall, of Virginia, Secretary of State, and Samuel Dexter, of
Massachusetts, Secretary of War. Benjamin Stoddard, of Maryland, in 1798, went into his cabinet,
as first Secretary of the Navy.   Mr.  Adams's
administration was renowned for party strife; for
the dispute between France and the United States,
which he settled against the federal policy; for the
organization of the navy; for the passage of the
alien and sedition laws, and for causing the downfall of his party at the end of four years.
In 1800, the seat of government was removed
to Washington, and Mr. Adams made his last
annual speech in the new capitol.
Mr. Jefferson's administration, from  1801 to
1809, was distinguished by the acquisition of
Louisiana, the surveys of the coast, the exploring
expedition of Lewis and Clark across the continent,
advantageous Indian treaties, the embargo and
other restrictions on commerce, the trial of the
11 
REVIEW.
gun-boat system, the reduction of the navy, and
successful hostilities with the Barbary powers in
the Mediterranean.
Mr. Jefferson was sustained, throughout his
administration, by Congress. Hle removed and
appointed at pleasure; displacing always federalists for republicans.
The leading measure of Mr. Madison's administration was war with England, which made our
present nationality, established a system of finance,
including a National Bank, revised the tariff on
imports, and provided for paying the national
debt. Hle made wise recommendations to Congress
for the true interests of the country, and was
uniformly sustained by the republican majority in
both houses. Mr. Madison revived the custom
of stated public levees at the White House, which
had been abolished by Mr. Jefferson.
Mr. Monroe's administration was styled the
"era of good feeling." Party acerbity had died
out, and the people were absorbed in public prosperity. Florida was acquired by treaty with Spain
under his administration; the independence of the
South American States recognized; the national
debt was reduced, and the revenues increased.
12 
REVIEW.
When John Quincy Adams came into power, in
1825, party spirit again arose more fiercely than
ever before, and the opposition concentrated upon
General  Jackson.   Mr. Adams  was  sustained
eighteen months in Congress by a majority; after
that, the opposition were in the ascendant, in both
branches. The peace of the country, however,
was not interrupted; commerce flourished, and
foreign and domestic matters were well conducted.
The attempt to get free trade with the British
West Indies failed; but the resources of the country were developed by his policy, internal improvements advanced, and the tariff was revived. Thirty
millions of the public debt were paid; five millions
were appropriated to pension officers of the Revolution. Fourteen millions were expended beside, to
benefit the country. Mr. Adams made but few
removals from office, which, however beneficial to
the public interest, contributed to his defeat.
General Jackson's administration followed, and
will ever be one of deep interest to the people, and
of mark upon the age.
Under his administration, the national debt was
extinguished, the people returned to specie cur rency.
2
13 
REVIEW.
HIe refused to sanction a re-charter of the United
States Bank, and removed the public deposits from
its vaults, which effected its destruction.   He
vetoed Mr. Clay's Land Bill, and other internal
improvement  bills.   General  Jackson's friends
claim that he arrested extravagant speculations,
but they have failed to furnish the proof.
Mr. Van Buren's administration carried out
General Jackson's views of the Sub-Treasury,
and continued his cabinet in office.
He made but few changes and appointments.
H Iis administration was supported by a majority in
the Senate, but was sometimes in a minority in
the lower House of Congress. Under his adminis  tration, in 1837, one thousand financiers, mer  chants, manufacturers, ship-owners, broke down in
New York, in less than three weeks, and forty
thousand more throughout the country. Failures
were thus caused to the amount of five hundred
millions! and involved the banks and the States
themselves for several following years.
In this great reversion of trade and finance, the
social calamity of the country was unparalleled.
The wealthy fell to penury. Widows and orphans,
left with a competency, were driven to want.
14 
REVIEW.
Honest working men, who supported their wives
and children upon their daily wages, were thrown
out of employment. The savings of years were
swept off at a blow, and the prospects of many
were ruined forever.
Americans, you will reasonably inquire, What
caused this financial, commercial and social revolution?
It was the mercenary spirit of Van Buren's
administration, which had, for years before, infused
its poison over the entire country. It was Van
Buren's administration which made the first overtures to the political Roman Catholic Church. It
was the shameful recklessness of his partisans to
procure votes which caused the public plunder
under his administration, and became paramount
to commerce, finance, manufactures, justice and
honor. William L. Marcy was the leader then,
whose cardinal creed has been to plunder the
public treasure, when in power.
John Tyler's administration was noted for vetoes
of National Bank bills, and other measures on
which General Harrison had been elected President. Through the energy and ability of Mr.
Webster the North-Eastern Boundary question
15 
REVIEW.
was amicably adjusted with England. Texas was
annexed by Congress, and its final admission into
the Union as a State was the last act of his ad ministration. A revision of the tariff occurred at
that period; and the Whig majority in Congress,
with which he went into office, was superseded by
large Democratic majorities, the last two years of
his administration.
James K. Polk's epoch was marked by the war
with Mexico, and the consequent annexation of
California and New Mexico, the settlement of the
Oregon question with the English government, the
establishment of a Sub-Treasury, a revision of the
tariff on imports, with ad valorem duties, a warehouse policy, and also the Department of the Interior was created. Mr. Polk's Democratic majority
in the first Congress under his administration,
yielded to a small Whig majority in the last two
years of his administration.
Millard Fillmore came into office upon the death
of President Taylor, in the summer of 1850. The
Compromise measures were then passed, and the
slavery agitation checked. California was admitted as a State. The Texas boundary was settled.
Public confidence was restored. Commerce pros
16 
REVIEW.
pered;  peace prevailed;  and his administration
spread universal contentment among all classes of
the people.  No internal dissensions agitated Aino
public mind. A large surplus was idle in the tr~asury, and his administration shed untarnished lustre
over the whole country.   Under  these brilliant
national advantages, Mr. Fillmore left the presidential office, followed by the respect, confidence, and
gratitude of the American people, who had reason
to bless the providence of God, which interposed for
their deliverance, in making him President.
Mr. Fillmore came into power with both houses
of Congress in the opposition, and calmly and
steadily held the helm of the government, unaided
by that prestige.
And now, Americans, in taking this hasty but
authentic survey of the several administrations of
the general government, you cannot but remark
how much the character of the man has to do with
that of his administration.
Take the social, moral, intellectual, and political character of Washington, as he entered upon
the government;  dwell upoa the actions of his
administration; compare its results and bearings,
while he looked abroad, to the protection of all the
2*
17 
REVIEW.
interests and rights of the people.   Follow on
successively to Fillmore, and judge who possesses
mne suitable qualifications, more personal integrity, higher sense of national honor and patriotism,
to fil the elevated office, after Washington, of the
chief magistrate of the nation. The name of Fillmore will adorn the page of our American history,
and be transmitted to posterity as one of the most
successful and illustrious successors of Washington.
On the 4th of March, 1853, when Franklin
Pierce assumed the government of these United
States, the whole world was at peace. England,
France, Austria, and Prussia, were quiet.  IHungary had been split in pieces, and was prostrate.
Italy was lying unresistingly at the feet of the
papal throne.   Nicholas was studying the expansiveness of Anglo-American liberty; and nothing
remained to remind Europe of the convulsions of
'48 and'9 but some pending negotiations between
the Sultan of Turkey and the Czar. In Asia there
was the same still monotony.   In Africa, Liberia
was flourishing under practical Christian benevolence;  though  England had demonstrated  her
hypocrisy by assaulting Algiers, silencing Egypt
and Morocco, and leaving the Cape of Good Hope
18 
REVIEW.
to an intestine war. In 1852, Franklin Pierce
received the nomination of the Democratic Balti more Convention, and stood erect upon the middle
plank of that platform as its Union candidate!
Hie had zealously labored to obtain the nomination, and, in a contest for the selection among so
many leaders of that party, his friends had long
cherished the idea that there was hope of the obscure New Hampshire candidate, upon the principle of compromise and the Union. Twenty delegates.in all had, by stratagem, been secured for
Pierce in that Convention, as a reserved corps;
and for days before it convened in Baltimore, outside influences were zealously engaged in the attempt to swell that number.
In the mean while Mr. Pierce was at home, preparing to "surprise" himself by writing a letter,
declaring, in the face of the fact, as his friends
knew, that he was not before the Convention.
Believing he was honest in his love for the Union,
twenty-seven states voted for him. And the people
rendered a verdict in favor of Democracy unparalleled since the days of Mr. Monroe; giving Franklin Pierce 254 electoral votes out of the 296 which
were then cast for the Presidency!
19 
REVIEW.
Never, since the Declaration of Independence,
had the Union numbered so many adherents; and
even the opponents of Mr. Pierce acquiesced, on
the ground that it was a glorious decision of the
American people, not for Franklin Pierce, but for
the Union and the compromise upon which he had
been elected.   They had nailed our flag to the
mast of liberty, and it floated gracefully in the
national breeze. On the 4th of March, 1853, Mr.
Pierce assumed the official duties of Chief Magistrate of the United States.   The people honestly
believed that it was their sovereign voice that had
called him to that post.   But Mr. Pierce, who
knew more of the particulars of his own nomination and election, and the fraud which had secured
both, attributed his success mainly to the foreign
vote of the Roman Catholic Church, for which he
had most unscrupulously sold himself to secure his
election. For this purpose, he received the aid of
his adroit friend, Hon. James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, who made the bargain with the foreign
hierarchy, and is now the so-called Democratic
candidate for the succession.
When Mr. Pierce was called upon by the Chief
Justice to swear "to preserve, protect, and defend
20 
REVIEW.
the Constitution," it is said he discarded the time honored fashion of all our former Presidents, and
said, "I solemnly affirm; " and instead of rever ently kissing the Blessed Word, as all his predecessors had done, he merely raised his right hand
and held it aloft, in the presence of the spectators,
until the pledge was given. Thus his first act was
an obsequiousness to the Romish hierarchy, to
propitiate which he insulted the feelings of
Protestants, who regard as sacred God's eternal
Book.
But the nation was jubilant with joy.   His
inaugural was filled to overflowing with love for
the Union.   He  announced  that every citizen
should be protected, from one end of it to the other;
that on every sea and on every soil where our
enterprise might rightfully carry the American
flag, there American citizenship should be an inviolable pledge for the security of American rights.
He pledged himself to the doctrine that while
national expansion was inherent to our existence
as a nation, it was only to be accomplished in
accordance with good faith and national honor;
and was, therefore, opposed'to any unlawful attempt
to seize Cuba by force, however desirable its acqui
21 
REVIEW.
sition. He declared, as a fundamental principle,
that American rights rejected all foreign colonization on this side of the Atlantic. He spoke of the
army and navy, and of the great reserve of the
national militia, as sacredly to be cherished.   He
declared that integrity and rigid economy should
be the watchwords in all the departments of the
government; that the offices of the country should
be considered solely in reference to the duty to be
performed; that good citizens who filled them
might expect, and should claim, the benefit of his
government; that he had no implied engagements
to ratify, no resentments to remember, no personal
wishes to consult, in his selections for office; and
therefore the people must not recognize any claim
to office for having voted for him! lie announced
two great principles of constitutional doctrine, on
the rights of the states separately, and their common rights under the Constitution.   He  declared
it the duty of each one of the states to respect the
rights of every one of the states, and citizens
thereof, and the obligations of the general government to protect these. lie affirmed it as his solemn
creed, and with an air of assumed energy and boldness, that involuntary servitude, as it existed in
22 
REVIEW.
different sections of the Union, was an admitted
constitutional right;  and that the Compromise
laws were to be kept inviolate in the spirit of
national fraternity between the North and the
South. He declared this to be the test of loyalty
to the American Union. In a word, Pierce entered
the presidency pledged to principles on which the
Union was founded; pledged to the compromises
of the constitution; pledged to protect American
citizens in all their rights and privileges; pledged
to go for an extension of our republic only when
it could be done in an honorable way, and at a
proper time; pledged to retrenchment and reform
in all the departments of the government; pledged
to protect all the governmental officials who were
faithful to the duties of their office, without regard
to party considerations. But, in spite of all these
promises of the inaugural, our republic, the great
safeguard of democratic freedom, soon felt the
pressure of faithless fratricidal hands. The Union
again became the common  battle-ground.   The
altar fires were kindled by agitation and civil discord.   The canker at the root of our domestic
peace became the curse to array man against man,
state against state, the North against the South!
23 
REVIEW.
And the people soon saw that Gesler, or one of
the Tarquins, would have been as well suited to
head the American army in the place of Washington, as was Franklin Pierce to administer this
government in the spirit of his supposed love of
the Union, and on which alone, regardless of his
want of natural or adventitious greatness, he had
been elected to office.
Hils Cabinet, instead of judicious advisers, became his abettors in evil. The people tried to forget the antecedents of the members of his Cabinet,
which seemed at once to portend disaster, and they
silently acquiesced, without a murmur from their
devoted lips. The press, which had been the great
instrument of bringing the administration into
power, still insisted, after it had been chosen, that
Pierce was not the man "to keep the promise to
the ear; and break it to the hope." At the North
and the South, collectors, mail-agen-ts, and the postofficers, disunion men were invariably selected;
and the anti-American principle was soon apparent
in government patronage at home and abroad. ile
sent Gadsden, of South Carolina,    who had advocated the dissolution of the Union,- as Minister
to Mexico.  HIe removed Grayson, of Carolina,
24 
REVIEW.
who went for it, and put Colcock in his place, who
had counselled taking arms against the general
government. He gave the consulship of Havana
to Clayton, of Mississippi, who was defeated before
the people because he went for disunion. ile sent
Trousdale, of Tennessee, to Brazil, who had been
defeated before the people on the same issue.  lie
gave Borland, who opposed the compromise, the
mission to Central America.   He  sent Soule, a
French Jacobin, aand a disunionist, to Spain; and
sent men to Denmark and Sardinia holding the
same sentiments.
When Americans remember that it was from the
rejection of Mr. Slidell, as Minister to Mexico,
pending the Texas annexation, that the Mexican
war arose, they can judge with what expectations
Mr. Soule' went to Spain. A fillibustero, with fifteen millions, and war for Cuba!
MIr. Belmont, another foreigner, an agent for
the Rothschilds, was sent to represent our government at the Hague. He was a successful financier
in Wall-street, New York. And it has never been
denied that he gave a large amount of money to
elect Pierce, with the stipulation that he should
have his present place to give the Rothschilds
3
25 
REVIEW.
certain political influence in American affairs.
Belmont was ex-consul for Austria; and when
Mr. Webster drove off Ilulseman, that inveterate
foe to our institutions, this foreign minister left
Belmont in charge of his official duties, to act for
him. It is a well-established fact that Austria
takes the lead in Europe in conspiring against
American liberty, in connection with the Romish
hierarchy.  Thus, without a single sympathy with
democratic republican freedom, we are nominally
represented by a foreign aristocrat. MIr. Robert
Dale Owen, at Naples, a socialist from Indiana,
who conducted a paper in connection with that
infidel virago, Fanny Wright, was  sent to the
court of Naples.
The talent of the country was largely at the
command of Mr. Pierce. He needed men, American patriots, to protect the republican principle
abroad, more than ever before; men, to protect
our citizens, and to see that their interests and
their rights were duly regarded, and our commercial and political advantages secured.
Louis Napoleon was known to be watching and
plotting against us. He had practised iniquitous
exactions on American vessels, put enormous duties
26 
REVIEW.
on American produce, and excluded Americans from
the shores of France, while we were encouraging
Frenchmen to come to our own. Under these circumstances we needed a chief magistrate who had
energy and spirit to look into these matters, - one
who would insist on the reduction of tonnage, custom-house duties, and produce rates which correspond with those put upon their subjects by us;
and in all our foreign embassies we required representatives of the first respectability for talent, moral
character, and intelligence, who would transmit
correct information on all subjects which concerned
the nation, that it might understand whether the
difference was for or against Americans, - in short,
that it might understand how America, in every
aspect, stands ahead, by the facts and statistics.
It was not until late in July following the
advent of Mr. Pierce, that a single appointed diplomat ldft our shores; the government all the
while paying two sets of representatives. Kossuth,
even, assails the administration for this, and calls
it "a degradation of national dignity, bordering
upon the ridicule, if not thecontempt, of the civilized world."   For six months the "spoils" engrossed the entire attention of the administration.
27 
REVIEW.
Mr. Pierce was determined to eject from office
every opponent of his policy- to allow no liberty
of political opinion contrary to  his own.  iHe
gleaned the states of every vestige of opposition in
those dependent on him, in order to gratify his
selfish mind. Not a fifty-dollar office under the
government escaped his vigilant eye.
Mr. Campbell, the Postmaster General; had
been a candidate for judgeship, under the first
election for that office, by the people in Pennsylvania. The bar of Philadelphia, city and county,
knew him well, and they came out, over their
own signatures, and declared his unfitness. But
Mr. Buchanan had bargained with the Romish
hierarchy to make this man a member of the
Cabinet, on which condition the Jesuits had promised to make him successor to Pierce; and hence
all the true and good men of Pennsylvania were
set aside to make way for this Jesuit to fill tke high
and responsible office of Postmaster General. When
the Democrats of Pennsylvania heard it, they
addressed a letter to Pierce, and earnestly remonstrated; but he had been guided by Buchanan's
dictation; the Pope had signified acceptance of
his appointment; and not the united voice of the
28 
REVIEW.
Democracy in all the States, or Mr. Pierce's wish
to the contrary, could then have prevented it. In
spite of his incompetency, Campbell was appointed
by Mr. Pierce to satisfy the Roman Catholic
Church. The political value of every post-office in
this country was then sought out, and laid before
Campbell, by his agents, who were sent into the
states when the office was too obscure to bring
the applicant to Washington. To be opposed to
the American creed, and to act out Popish bigotry, have been the cardinal principles on which
he started into office; thus establishing a system
of espionage upon all the mailable matter of the
American people, in exact conformity with the
established usage of the Roman Catholic countries
of Europe.
In the custom-houses, weighers, gaugers, tidewaiters, messengers, and watchmen, were required
to be true to Mr. Pierce, and were removed for
loyalty to the Union and the American policy.
The New York collector was addressed by official
letter, from the Secretary of the Treasury, interfering with the politics of that state, and requiring
him to provide for the especial friends of the
administration. This called forth popular indig                3* 
REVIEW.
nation over the land. And Mr. Bronson, acting
out the independence of an American, was displaced from office. This same financier, at the
}read of the Treasury, declared that "no man
stood, at that day, so high before the American
people as Mr. Pierce, save and except one, the
immortal Washington!" This sycophancy was a
subject of perfect ridicule to the American people.
The energy and enterprise of our merchants
have built up foreign commerce. They have
augmented our imports and exports, and opened
new channels of communication for our benefit.
They are best fitted for the revenue and postal
service of the country, but they have been always
overlooked, under this administration, for politicians without standing or eminence. The diplomatists abroad have been, and are, under this
administration, men generally of this class, both
ministers and consulates. The latter, except at
Liverpool and Havana and a few other places, are
so inadequately paid by fees, that their time is
given to private enterprise and speculation for
personal advantage, while the commerce of the
country is almost totally neglected. Italians,
Irish, Germans, Frenchmen, have been largely
30 
REVIEW.
benefited by this class of appointments, under Mr.
Pierce, to the detriment of the country.  Small
men, everywhere, were put into office; men who
"spat upon the platform," like the President, and
yet called it the gospel of their political faith.
In less than twenty days after Mr. Pierce went
into Office, he was declared the vacillating tool of
his Cabinet, who governed instead of advised,
directed instead of consulted him. On the 30th
of November, nine months after he swore, before
God and his country, to sustain the compromise
measures of 1850, which gave immortality to Clay,
Calhoun, and Webster, he publicly ignored them,
through the columns of the " Union," his organ at
Washington; and declared that the course of this
government would not be in accordance with the
"laws of adjustment" of 1850! That compact
which had been, in the judgment of the country,
above party, above intrigue, above political bargaining, and solemnly held sacred, had been ridi culed, despised, and set aside, and the flood-gates
of turmoil and political contention opened. again
all over the land'! What contrition, what confes sion, what penance, can cover this iniquity and
wvipe out this foul stigma of Franklin Pierce?  Ite
31 
REVIEW.
gave our secrets to our enemies, and then parted
with our national honor! This is a deep and burn ing shame! Contemning the moral sentiments of
the country by which he was elevated, he thus
counteracted all the fruits of Mr. Clay's patriotism,
and that of his associates in 1850. And all
moral obligation of the government being now
repudiated, it had no other acknowledged principle
than that of public plunder.
Before the next meeting of Congress an article
appeared in Mr. Pierce's organ, which threatened
the action of the Senate on his appointments; and
declared to the senators that except a vote for
rejection was given on valid, sound, and tenable
grounds, "they should have reason for personal
and political regret forever." For the first time in
our national history were senators of Congress
ever menaced by a President! Louis Napoleon
of France, nor Victoria of England, could dare to
do so much! It was not enough to interfere with
the local politics of the free states through his
cabinet, nor to remove every postmaster who
loved the Union;  but by a complicity between
the President and his Union organ, he defies and
threatens the very men whom the constitution
32 
REVIEW.
empowers to pass sentence on his acts, and without
whose concurrence the most of these acts would be
nullities. It had a degree of absolutism which belonged only to the Bey of Tunis, or the Roman
hierarchy; for nothing like it ever before emanated from an American President, or an independent press.
Congress met in December, 1853, with very
large democratic majorities in both houses, reaching one hundred in the HIouse of Representatives.
The Clerk was, therefore, selected to suit the President's choice.   The outside influence was unusually great, and the contingent fees of several hundred thousand dollars at the discretion of the Clerk
was at least a circumstance, at that period.
The Doge of Venice, by custom, marries that
city to the sea; but the sea rolls as free as before.
So the people who had cast their votes for Pierce
were not to be bound by the ceremony of the act
of his election, and they no longer felt it an obligation to support his administration.   They saw
he had got in on a false issue; that he was an embodied falsehood, and nothing more.   Proof was
now adduced which fixed another item of fact in
Mr. Pierce's history, viz., that he had sympathized
33
I,,,,, 
REVIEW.
with the election of Martin Van Buren, in 1848,
instead of General Cass, the nominee of the party
to which Ire professed attachment.- That he did
write a letter in reply to an invitation to attend a
convention of Van Buren's friends, in New York,
favorable to his election, which was in the hands
of an office-holder, and was known to the public
as the scarlet letter, on account of its treachery.That the parties, being in office under Mr. Pierce,
were delicately situated, and, while they confessed
to the fact, did not expose it. -And that, not one
only, but various letters were acknowledged to
exist of the same import;  while the "Patriot,"
Mr. Pierce's organ in New Hampshire, and known
to reflect his sentiments, had steadily opposed the
Compromise, until it was about to be made the law
of the land.
The whole course of Mr. Pierce was an open
and full confession that he had not the moral
honesty or the physical courage to stand to the
principles on which he was elected.
At a time when, to prevent the absorption of
Turkey by Russia, we needed a man of power to
speak the sentiments of the United States, and to
establish a new Christian power at Constantinople,
34 
REVIEW.
a third-rate Baltimore lawyer was sent to represent
our government.   At China, too, we wanted men
familiar with the detail of trade, and possessing
an intimate knowledge of the condition of things
on the Pacific. But, while we needed a representative man, one of similar grade was sent there.
Circulars regulating the dress of our foreign
ambassadors seemed more to engross the administration than matters affecting the great interests of
the country. Buchanan and Sandford alone followed
the orders of the Secretary of State; and, it being
a novel circular, it attracted some attention.
The Senate committee on foreign relations desired to know what directions were given to
diplomatists about getting admission in the costume
of Franklin. In answer to Mr. Mason, the chairman of the Senate committee, Marcy proposed a
repeal of the costume order, and counselled a
"masterly inactivity."
In the face of all the gold from California and
Australia, the credit of the country was soon forced
by the administration beyond its natural bounds;
and the same havoc as that which occurred under
Van Buren, in 1837, when the government was
plundered by officers of millions, in the name of
35 
REVIEW.
the States, was seen to be approaching.   The
Secretary of the Treasury bought up securities
with bonds of the governmnent, which had fifteen
years to run, and shipped the specie to Europe in
payment of evidences of debt in that quarter,
when there was not the slightest necessity, thus
fixing an enormous amount as the price by which
government bonds should be redeemed.   Paper
circulation increased beyond that under Van Buren, in 1837. All sorts of credit expanded. Imports were swelled from thirty to fifty millions.
And by the mismanagement of the surplus revenues of the government, in connection with the
abstraction of specie to send to Europe, came the
terrible crash to credit, commerce, and manufactures, in 1854 and 1855, when so many honest
operatives, men and women, were starving in the
streets, and compelled to accept public charity.
In the mean while, sectional agitations were
within, and foreign relations threatened without.
The administration, instead of advocating the
use of money from the treasury, recommended land
grants, and this has caused such plunder and spoil,
such plucking and snapping up of the public lands.
The Gadsden Treaty with Mexico caused the
36 
REVIEW.
outlay of twenty millions, which excluded us from
the rich silver mines of Chihuahua, and served no
better purpose than to set up Santa Anna in Mexican style.
The distribution of the spoils, the appointments
of partisans, and the interference in the local
politics of the States to defeat the free will of the
people, had rendered Pierce's administration odious, and surprised even its worst enemies by its
enormities, when the Koszta letter of Marcy was
written to make a show of its adherence to American nationality. This act of vindication was done
after Koszta had been released by Capt. Ingraham,
aided and supported by Mr. Brown. But the best
evidence of sincerity in this declaration was furnished four weeks subsequent to that letter, when
three American citizens, Wm. Freelum, Wm. Atkins, and Harvey C. Parks, sailors, were confined
in prison at Havana. These three men sailed from
New York, in the bark Jasper, on a trading
voyage to Sierra Leone.   The ship was diverted
from its proper channel of trade without the agency of these poor sailors; and, to escape Brttish
cruisers, she was finally burnt to the wvater's edge.
These three men, in landing for supplies, were put
4
37 
REVIEW.
on a Spanish war schooner, Hlabanero, and taken to
Havana and lodged in Punta prison. The case
was laid before the government at Washington in
July, 1853.   One was an Irishman, another a
Scotchman, the other an American, but all citizens
of the United States. But they were only sailors,
and could exert no influence for Mr. Pierce's
government; and, so far from acting on their case,
the administration did not even inquire into the
matter! And this is Mr. Pierce's inaugural protection!
Capt. Gibson was also treated shamefully at
Sumatra by the Dutch.  Hie asked redress of the
national government in vain.   "Is he worth protecting?" is and has been  the rule of action.
When the press made this apparent in Gibson's
case, and not before, he received some consideration in his behalf.   Again, there was Frederick
Wiechee, a Saxon, who came to the United States
in 1851, remained some time, and returned temporarily to Leipsic, in Germany, where he suffered
imprisonment, but finally escaped.   The case was
exactly parallel with that of Koszta; yet the
administration, who professed a will to protect the
one, refused to interfere with the other. Williams
38 
REVIEW.
and Miller, American citizens, were defrauded and
injured by the government of Granada, and Miller
was imprisoned for claiming his just rights under
that government. The matter was laid before the
administration without eliciting any attention.
All the above cases illustrate the value of the
promise of protection in the Inaugural Address.
In the summer of 1853,  Bishop  Hughes,  a
political Jesuit and demagogue, had the steamer
Michigan placed at his disposal at Mackinaw,
which actually conveyed this foreign Roman'prelate from place to place on business of the Romish
hierarchy; thus using a government vessel, at
the government's expense, to gratify the arrogant
vanity of this liege subject of the Pope of Rome!
It presented to the citizens and true patriots of
America a most degrading example of the abject
sycophancy to which a President of the United
States would stoop to get the patronage of this
intermeddling Jesuit, and, through him, the votes
of the body of the Irish papists. A question arises
here. Has the President a right to employ United
States vessels, and the treasure of the country, for
such personal and sinister purposes?  No -it is
an outrage on the rights of the people, and a gross
39 
REVIEW.
insult to the nation. The same steamer, afterwards,
was placed at the disposal of the Pope's Nuncio,
Bedini, who travelled with Bishop Hughes. Ile
came with congratulatory letters to Pierce from the
Pope.
The Pope sent Bedini, not to represent his
government here, but to see to the church, and
further its papal interests in the United States.
To fasten on this nation of freemen its corrupt
dogmas and despotism was the sole object of the
Nuncio. Pierce did all in his power to facilitate
that mission, and caused Captain Bigelow to dishonor the American flag, by publicly escorting the
Jesuit butcher who had condemned that noble
patriot, Ugo Bassi, to be flayed alive and then
shot, for no other crime than a sympathy for
republican liberty in Italy.
Early in January following the advent of Mr.
Pierce, the " Nebraska Bill," intended to repeal
the great compromise effected chiefly by the efforts
of the illustrious statesman, Henry Clay, in 1850,
was concocted by Senator Stephen A. Douglas
and Pierce, and reported to the Senate by the
former. The whole country, which by the previous adjustment of 1850 had settled down in peace,
40 
REVIEW.
was suddenly taken by surprise. No one dreamed
of the compromise being disturbed, and that the
triumph of Mr. Clay, and the tranquillity happily
secured by him over the country, were soon to come
to an end. This measure, so suddenly sprung upon
the country, aroused a feeling of the highest indignation. It opened anew the slavery discussion
and agitation from one end of the country to the
other. It sundered political affiliations, and broke
the old established parties of Whig and Democrat
into fragments.
There were no Franklins, as at the adoption of
the constitution, no Websters, Clays, or Calhouns,
as in 1850, to calm the troubled waters. Pierce
said, in his first message, in relation to the compromise, that "the repose secured to the country
by acquiescence of distinguished citizens should
receive no shock during his presidential term."
Yet, the moment an undue sectional influence was
exerted, and an opportunity presented to his personal ambition, he trampled on the high and sacred
pledge of his official station, and thus disappointed
the just expectation of the people, by disturbing
their tranquillity on a subject so absorbing and
agitating as the repeal of the Missouri compromise.
4*
4
41 
REVIEW.
What added to the indignation of the country was
the fact that Mr. Pierce changed his position
from a national President to a narrow politician,
and abused the patronage of his office by creating
discord both in and out of Congress; in encouraging his intemperate partisans, and bringing forward men, North and South, who labored to promote dissension.
The magnitude of our national growth, our
territorial expansion, our shipping, our foreign
intercourse, had been checked and lowered by
thrusting men into power who had discredited
us abroad, and injured our social position, and our
country, in the eyes of enlightened foreigners.
Men, devoid of political honesty, who could do
mean work for the party in their own State, were
sure to succeed. Office-holders have been made
to do slaves' labor under this dynasty. Taxed to
support the party and carry the elections of the
States, they were sent adrift, as soon as any party
defection was discovered, although without business or calling, and unfitted to compete with private enterprise. It has been proved, by statistics,
that more suffering and want have been experienced
by those" crushed out " of official employment, by
0 -
42 
REVIEW.
Pierce, than under all the previous administrations
of the government since it was adopted.
When Mr. Webster was Secretary of State, he
insisted that all contracts in a foreign land should
be enforced by the United States Consuls, whether
money, marriage, or business; and required
marriage to conform to the legal mode of the
country in which it was celebrated.
The certificate of our Consul at Bremen ini relation to marriage was made in conformity with the
Senate of that country, and was the only expedient the emigrant could adopt to meet the requisitions of the New York authorities. Without any
investigation, the administration declared it good
cause for removing the consul who had granted
such certificates.  This regulation was a judicious
act of Mr. Fillmore's administration, to enforce virtue among the immigrant population who were
thronging to our shores.
In one year we find Mr. Pierce and his administration condemned by the American people, with
the exception of his particular adherents.  lIe
had refused to protect American citizens abroad;
he had interfered with'Cuba, by sending a foreign red republican to the court of Madrid, who
43 
REVIEW.
got into a duel about a coat, as of'paramount
importance to war! lie had appointed an Austrian aristocrat to represent us at the Hague;
and various other foreigners to personify our
nationality before foreign powers, and declare this
nation's mission; besides scores of domestic politicians, without character, learning, or manners.
He had deliberately abjured the compromise laws,
and declared that his government would not abide
the work which Clay, Webster, Calhoun, and that
host of worthies, in 1850, had wisely framed to
give peace and permanence to the Union.  He had
threatened the Senate of the United States with
his official vengeance if they dared to reject his
appointments to office. lIe had been proved to
have been, five years before his election, an enemy
to the political party which elected him, by supporting Van Buren in the place of General Cass,
the nominee of the Democratic party. And he
selected for office the three men who had constituted
the committee, held in the city of New York, in
1848, to aid the election of Martin Van Buren.
Hle had made Van Buren's administration, called
the "Spoils Cabinet," the model for imitation;
having Van Buren's old leader as Secretary of
44 
REVIEW.
State, to provide for his particular friends and
dispute about the plunder.  Hie imitated  that
"Spoils Cabinet" in extravagant expenditures of
the government, and in appointing an inexperienced financier as Secretary of the Treasury; the
effect of which was, the terrible crush to credit,
commerce, and labor of the country, in'54 and'55.
At a time when these and the social condition
of the country were in peril, Mr. Guthrie inflicted
a blow upon the nation by buying up, to an unexampled amount, the securities of the government,
and sending the specie to Europe. The issuing of
millions upon millions of bonds, without a basis of
payment, was what caused England's terrible
revulsion in 1825, and which should have been a
warning to our government.   Our relations with
Mexico, our relations with Spain, the fishery question, were all set aside by the administration to
practise its political sagacity in the local politics of
the several States.   The versatile genius of Mr.
Cushing, the Attorney General, who had shifted
from the Whigs to John Tyler, from Tyler to the
Coalitionists, and from them to Pierce, was employed to interfere with the politics of Mississippi
as well as those of Massachusetts; and this polit
45 
REVIEW.
ical interference he called an "administration measure," to defeat the Union candidate.   A  similar
action occurred to secure disunion leaders in Georgia and Alabama. In New York, it had removed
an honorable and high-minded collector for having
selected men to fill offices under him who were
true to the Union. This brought down the denunciation of her Dickinson, her Maurice, her Cooley,
and other distinguished patriots.
In the forty or fifty thousand offices of the country Mr. Pierce has made loyalty to the administration the sole test of merit. The spoils of millions
have been used to corrupt the country and foster
agitation; and the nomination and election of
Franklin Pierce, by the preceding course of his
political managers, evidently proved a fraud upon
the country, which had been grossly deceived.
Worthless Mexican treaties, absorbing millions
of money, were wantonly made by the administration. It created the most extraordinary plunder
among the public lands, by recommending land
grants.   A  clerk in the lower house of Congress
was appointed through the especial dictation of
Mr. Pierce.   In fine, those who entertained the
46 
REVIEW.
views of the foreign-hearted executive, or ac knowledged the supreme power of the Pope of
Rome, and would secure the votes of his Irish
subjects, were the sure favorites of Mr. Pierce
and his administration. The press of the country soon deserted the man who had deserted his
principles.
Pliny, while looking at the agitation of Vesuvius, and disregarding the danger, was overwhelmed
alive, with the cities of Ilerculaneum and Pompeii.
So when, at the close of the first year of the Pierce
administration, the lava of political misrule and ruin
having begun to overspread the land, Pierce looked
upon the eruption unconscious of the danger to
himself, or the magnitude of the mischief and evils
he had brought upon his indignant and deceived
countrymen. As if a blasting sirocco had swept
over the land, or an earthquake had shaken it,
noise and civil discord were rampant, and agitation
and confusion shook the very foundations of the
White House. But, amid this murky atmosphere,
the roaring thunder of a people outraged, the
lightning flash which might terrify any but a neophyte or political automaton, there stood one man
47 
REVIEW.
listless and unmoved, reproved, rebuked, with the
kindling curses of a nation around and upon him,
and a responsibility so awful that it might overwhelm an angel,- and that man was Pierce.
48 
CHAPTER II.
THE SECOND YEAR OF PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION.
ON the 20th of August, 1847, Gen. Scott defeated the Mexicans before the gates of the capital, in a bloody battle, and expelled them. Santa
Anna asked for an armistice, and it was granted for
seven days by Scott. The perfidious dictator, Santa
Anna, deserved no such magnanimity from Americans; and the battles of Chapultepec, Molino del
Rey, and the Garitas, were the bloody price of
such concessions. So, now, while recurring to the
train of evils which Franklin Pierce has brought
upon the country, we cannot wipe out the dark
stain which he has put upon our national honor;
nor can we refrain from holding him and his advisers to strict and awful responsibility for those
deeds of maladministration which have filled with
indignation every lover of his country.   And, recurring to Santa Anna, it is our solemn duty
to warn the people against the example of his
C 
REVIEW.
treachery, and urging them not to cease hostilities
against the heinous acts and dangerous policy of
this administration. Let our countrymen improve
the bitter experience, through which they have
passed and are passing, to save the Union and the
land from all the horrors of an intestine war.
Less than one year had fully demonstrated the
irreparable error of the American people in electing a man as their chief magistrate, without character or antecedents.   No high sense of honor, no
principle of action, controlled the policy of his
administration. Aliens and leaders of treacherous
factions, who compose the influential corps around
the executive, have given power to agitation, and,
in the room of a patriotic love of country, have
substituted the degrading affinities of grovelling
peculators.
After the scarlet letter was found out, and it had
passed into history that the President had written
two sets of letters, - one for the North and another
for the South, -he announced through his organ
at Washington, that all office-holders must support
the "Nebraska Bill," which would be made the
test of Democracy! Ile did this to appease the
South, when, in fact, the South never demanded
s0 
REVIEW.
nor desired the repeal of the Missouri Compromise.
When the New Hampshire elections were about to
take place, the policy shifted; but his friends and
neighbors were no longer deceived in the matter.
His native state, which had given him a majority
of six thousand votes eighteen months before,
utterly condemned his administration in the election of a new Legislature! But such was his
deficiency in political sagacity, he enlisted more
ardently in the success of the Nebraska iniquity
than ever before.
About this time the Black Warrior, bound for
New York, from Mobile, with a cargo of cotton,
touched at hIavana on the voyage, where she was
seized, on the plea that the cotton did not appear
on the manifest, and forcibly retained. The customhouse officers had prescribed a convenient form of
manifest, which had been used by the Black Warrior for eighteen months previous without molestation.   The Crescent City, too, commanded  by
Capt. Baxter, on her trip to New Orleans, had
been similarly treated, the passengers forced to
remain, and the ship prevented from entering the
port, on another equally flimsy pretext. A special
messenger was sent to Spain to Soule' in reference
51 
REVIEW.
to the Black Warrior; but the people had not faith
to believe that the policy adopted by the administration would ever be carried out. Then, instead
of employing the surplus revenue to fit out a suitable navy, the administration were pressing Congress to give twenty millions of the people's money
for a comparatively worthless strip of Mexican territory!
This single scheme, had it been consummated, as
the administration wished, would have diverted all
the surplus from its proper channel, and plundered
the nation, to support the anti-republican principles
of an ignominious Mexican despotism.
Among other singular coincidences which likened
Pierce's administration to that of Martin Van
Buren, was the fact that a surplus of twenty-eight
millions was found in the treasury at the incoming
of both these men to the chief magistracy of the
government.
In three years, under Van Buren, that whole
amount was filched from the treasury, and squandered among the States.  Six millions were actually stolen. And the revolution of politics in
1840 exhibited the just indignation of an outraged
people.
52 
REVIEW.
The aggregate amount of spoils in the first Con gress  under  Pierce's administration was  three
hundred millions by the figures! This, Americans,
was the reason, in connection with the scarlet letter and other misdemeanors, why the repeal of the
Missouri  Compromise was  cast into Congress;
which atrocious act has lighted a flame that all the
water from Massachusetts Bay to the Gulf of
Mexico cannot quench.
The loss of 180,000 votes in an administration
elected by twenty-seven of the thirty-one states
soon told its rapid declension. The Senate administered its rebuke by rejecting the Gadsden treaty,
the offspring of the executive, and reducing the
amount to ten millions. It was evident Pierce
wanted to take twenty millions of the hard money
o f t      he people to supply swindlers and speculators
in railroad companies in a foreign country; and, at
the same time, such was his inconsistency, that he
vetoed a very humane bill for distributing ten millions of acres of land among all the states of the
Union for the unhappy lunatics of the country,
without taking a dollar from the treasury. This
philanthropic enterprise for providing for the maintenance and welfare of 31,474 people, either luna                 5*                    *
53 
REVIEW.
tics or idiots, in our country, found the constitution
in its way, and was cast aside by the presidential
veto; but no scruple existed for imposing burdens
on the people to pay for the aggrandizement of a
Mexican Santa Anna! To appropriate money for
internal improvements was considered by Mr.
Pierce unconstitutional; while, at the same time,
it was quite right, in his view, to appropriate lands
for western railroads!
Pending the difficulty with the Black Warrior,
Americans, travelling in Cuba with their wives and
daughters, were insulted; and a party of these,
riding on the Cero, were compelled to alight and
kneel in the dust to a small waxen image held by
a mulatto priest.   But  our  American minister
Soule', being a foreign Roman Catholic, possessed
no spirit to exempt from such degrading humiliation
American men and women!
Soule' was instructed to lay before the Spanish
government the demand for reparation in the Black
Warrior case; but the demand was made in vain.
Why? Because Calderon, who knew Pierce and
the composition of his cabinet, had divested Spain
from all fear or terror in the delay.
The people paid the first year of Pierce's admin
54
't 
REVIEW.
istration sixty-eight millions on custom dues, and
twenty-three nmillions more in taxes than were required to support the government. Yet not one
thing was done to reduce the duties the people had
to pay. In spite of the fact that importers curtailed their imports, and banks their credit for nine
months, there were twenty-seven millions more
brought into the country than the previous year.
The administration would not allow fewer free articles, and thus curtail their power in the treasury.
Never were the people less able than at that time to
pay taxes on sugar, coal, and foreign clothing;  but
the committee in the lower house of Congress
declined to remove the duties on these, to please
the President. His financial policy was to admit
articles of foreign manufacture free, which could
afford to pay, and causing the absolute necessaries
to pay, which ought to be free!
At the very time twenty millions were used in
buying up goyernment securities at a heavy premium in the fiscal year of 1854, the deficiency
bill, for the needful expenses of the government,
had to be cut down one million!  And this, too,
when a treaty with a foreign Mexican potentate
was made to please him, by paying millions of
55 
REVIEW.
money for a worthless strip of land, and the privilege of fighting the Apaches Indians on our own
soil! — for by this treaty the Mexicans got a discharge from protecting their own frontiers, and left
Americans to pay ten millions for the humbug!
No government on earth ever before purchased
its own bonds years before maturity, when they
cost a fifth more than their par value!
A project to revise the tariff and reduce the
revenues, was an ingenious scheme to cheat the
people. Pierce would not allow fewer dutiable
articles when two hundred and thirty-three millions
were bringing a revenue to the government of
forty-five and a half millions,- enough for all its
expenses! The first quarter of 1854 brought the
sum of nineteen millions. Still the battle-ships of
the naval line were all idle at the navy-yards, and
no appropriation asked for fitting them for duty.
Solon Borland's treaty, about this time, with
Central America, recognizing Nicaragua, and repudiating the Mosquito country, was not even read
in cabinet. And, the administration leaving Mr.
Buchanan to his semi-official tour in Europe, to
enlighten them on foreign affairs, turned its attention nearer home, and set about the election of
56 
REVIEW.
Mayor for the city of Washington. The administration candidate had the prestige of the Roman
Catholic influence; and the American party
indignantly rebuked the President's interference
with the municipal elections of that city, by electing the candidate who represented American principles, and eschewed the foreign hierarchy.
Not one single press in New York sustained
Pierce's dynasty in less than fourteen months after
its advent! The Postmaster General, Campbell,
true to the doctrine of the Romish church, was
busy in restricting knowledge by trying to increase
the tax on letter postage. To meet a deficiency of
two millions in that department, the policy was
attempted of increasing this tax, and reducing salaries of clerks,- a revenue accruing all the while
nearly double the necessary expenditures of the
government.
In July, 1854, the Cyane, a sloop-of-war, com manded by Capt. HIollins, who was enjoying pay
and waiting orders, was directed to proceed in
haste to San Juan de Nicaragua, called Greytown
in honor of the British colonial secretary. Bor land had communicated to Washington that he had
been insulted at Greytown, and that passengers
57 
REVIEW.
en route to California had also been detained, and
their property put in peril.   IIollins, on reaching
the town, immediately demanded an apology for
the insult to Borland, and twenty-four thousand
dollars to indemnify the damage done to the steam ship's company.
The Nicaraguan authorities refused flatly to
comply with either of these demands.   Hollins
then gave them one day to reconsider the matter,
and they still refused.  Hle then, after providing
means of transit for those who wished to leave,
opened the batteries of the Cyane on the town.
Finding, however, the bombardment would not
avail, as the houses were constructed of mud and
palm-leaves, and altogether too flimsy, Hollins detailed a corps of marines, under Lieut. Pickering,
who burned the town to the ground! An English
man-of-war in the harbor remonstrated against
this brutal act in vain. And the 12th' of July,
1854, became the day of a glorious achievement, -
the burning of Greytown, - in the annals of Pierce's
regime. Greytown was, in all respects, an American town. It had been built up by American enterprise. It had, in 1852, elected an American mayor
and common council, and proceeded to change the
68 
REVIEW.
constitution to accord with republican views.   It
had only a nominal dependence, therefore, on the
Mosquito king, whom it was ready at any moment
to discard.   The opening of the transit through
the country which Americans had obtained against
British 4pretensions had caused the early emigration from the United States; and, while Americans waived none of their own rights, as such, all
the property in Greytown which was not in their
possession belonged to people with whom they were
friendly.   The United  States government  had
recognized the authorities of Greytown as late as
July, 1853.   It became enlisted with peculiar
interest in its welfare, as being the only spot in
Central America where civil and religious liberty
had taken root in the soil, and where the laws were
as faithfully administered as in the United States.
The whole conduct in this matter, whether as
regards Borland, the authorities at Washington, or
JIollins at the scene of action, is an outrage so devoid of all palliation as to demand the condemnation of the civilized world.   follins had no more
right to perpetrate that outrage than he had to
destroy any town on the Hudson or Mississippi rivers.   It was not only atrociously barbarous, but
59 
REVIEW.'
the administration committed an unlawful act
against that defenceless village, by making war
upon it, which the constitution makes a sufficient
ground for impeachment.   Congress, only, not
President Pierce, is invested with power to declare
war.  Borland divested himself, by his comluct, of
all official prestige, and ought to have been punished on the spot. He had interfered with the
authorities of Greytown in protecting a murderer
against their efforts to obtain him; and when he
pointed a loaded rifle at the officer of San Juan,
he forgot his own dignity, and contemned the very
authorities his own government recognized.   The
people very naturally disregarded his official character. It was proven, however, that no attempt was
made upon the person of Borland, even when an
indignant people surrounded the house to arrest
the murderer Borland had harbored. Why did the
administration select this defenceless town to make
an exhibition of its belligerent propensities? For
the very reason that it was independent, and cut
off from the protection of England and Nicaragua. And, while the whole civilized world were
sneering at the game of "hide and seek" which
Pierce had played so long with Cuba, he caught
60 
, REVIEW.
with eagerness the opportunity offered by Borland's
misdemeanors, to redeem his own folly by the
destruction of a defenceless village, "without the
loss of a single man on either side."
Pierce's administration inflicted an outrage upon
Americans in demanding an apology for Borland,
and in asking an indemnity of twenty-five thousand dollars for a company owing all its rights and
privileges to Nicaragua.   And for the protection
of the interests of this steamship company the
houses and property, as well as ships of Americans,
were sacrificed by this administration. And, after
all, no indemnity was given- no apology made!
The especial glory of this act is due to President
Pierce, Marcy, Dobbin, and their loyal employe',
Itollins, who thus became the hero of the Greytown bombardment.   With our fishing interests
unadjusted, and at the mercy of British cruisers;
Central America on the verge of ruin; France taxing our ships without law; Spain firing into our
steamers, Mr. Marcy was busily engaged in giving
his directions about coats!   Finally, the fishing
business was discovered to be too complicated for
Washington diplomacy. So a part of it was handed
over to London, retaining only that which con
6
61 
REVIEW.
cerned the British Provinces. And the government made so good a bargain in this, that we admit their exports free, and let them tax our
own!
News now arrived from Spain that the despatches
from Washington, in the Black Warrior case, had
been treated with contempt, and Soule' was near
receiving his passports.   All he had done worthy
of record, in the mean while, was to fight one duel
himself, and have another fought in his family!
Upon the receipt of this intelligence from Spain
of the Black Warrior case, the President asked
Congress for ten millions to redress the wrong
When this got to the Senate, from the House, senators very properly wanted to know more about it.
They bore in mind, probably, the Gadsden treaty,
when Mr. Pierce desired twenty millions, which
they thought fit to reduce to ten!  This inquiry,
then, drew forth a paper from the President, which
showed no war at all, but seemed to want the
appropriation as a discretionary fund, which the
Senate, with a democratic majority of fifteen at
the time, refused to place at the disposal of Mr.
Pierce!  The Mexican treaty, negotiated by Mr.
Gadsden, was the only one which passed the Con
62 
REVIEW.
gress of 1854, that of right belonged to the
administration of Franklin Pierce.
The Japanese treaty originated with the administration of Millard Fillmore, to which only its
accomplishment properly belongs. Pierce did all
he possibly could to prevent that achievement,
which has opened up this new channel to commercial enterprise. Mr. Dobbin wrote to Commodore
Perry, in the winter of 1854, that the administration did not approve the purpose for which he had
been sent to the Pacific, and directed him to return
home immediately, and to send the ships at once
to New York and Boston.
iHe spoke contemptuously of the effort to make
a treaty with Japan, and said it would only
result in our humiliation.   This was evidently
designed to reflect upon Fillmore and Webster, by
whom it had been projected. Fortunately the
despatch of Mr. Dobbin did not reach Commodore
Perry in time, or the ports of Japan, sealed to all
but the Chinese and Dutch, would not now have
been opened by American men.
This order from Pierce's Secretary of the Navy
to stop Perry from going to Japan, and thus to
prevent the treaty, was published to the world in
63 
REVIEW.
the columns of the President's organ, the Washington  Union.   And,  would  you  believe  it,
Americans, that after the policy of our American
statesmen, Fillmore and Webster, had proved successful over that of English diplomatists, with whom
they coped triumphantly, and Commodore Perry
had made the treaty, the administration organ
came out and claimed the victory
The colonial reciprocity treaty was also, forced
on Pierce's administration. It began with that of
Millard Fillmore, and in connection with the settlement of the fishery question, and was the closing
official labor of our lamented Webster. The neutrality treaty with Russia was Russia's proposal
through Mr. Stockel, the minister from that court.
Mr. Pierce only did not refuse to accord with that
view, in his communication to the Senate.
The footing of appropriation bills shows that millions more were granted by the Congress of 1854
than ever before in time of peace. In every department of the government increased expenditures
were demanded, and the people's money from
the treasury lavished to subsidize their free press.
The Congress of 1854 was essentially a Pierce
Congress; and, but for the firmness of senators,
64 
REVIEW.
would have cost the country over one hundred
millions! As it was, it escaped with seventy or
eighty millions, rejecting the item of ten millions,
which the administration asked without being able
to tell the people how it was to be applied.
We find, then, from the records, that the treaty
with Mexico, speculation in land grants, and the
burning of Greytown, by Hollins, which the
administration endorsed and passed to their own
account, constituted its signal achievements in the
Congress of 1854.
The English, French, and Americans, from Greytown, soon knocked at the door of Congress for
indemnity; and the American people saw at what
dear cost to themselves they had put a man in the
chair at Washington, to meddle with business which
did not belong to him, and then leave them to pay
for the whistle.
It is well known that Millard Fillmore was the
man who instituted an investigation into the Gardiner case, and pressed it to a conclusion under his
district attorney.  That officer only received for
his fidelity and efficiency a removal by Mr. Pierce.
In the face of this fact, the organ of this present
6'
65 
REVIEW.
administration claimed this as a measure of his
executive.
After the New Hlampshire antecedents were ex posed, the Atwood speeches seen, the scarlet letter
read, Mr. Pierce was announced as the father of
the Nebraska bill, and the repeal of the Missouri
Compromise was called a national measure! At
another time, the coming elections required him to
be less courageous; and his organ says then, he,
Mr. Pierce, "only did not oppose it "!
Clerks in all the departments were proscribed,
and required to sink all individuality as Christians
and citizens. They were forbidden to hold or
express a sentiment in opposition to the Roman
Catholic hierarchy, which meant to repudiate
American principles.  Pierce  proscribed  Ameri
cans to give place to foreigners, and ejected them
from office for voting for American men. Examples of this course of his political oppression are
as thick as autumn leaves. God defend our country from ever having another man as its chief
magistrate bound to propitiate the papal supremacy
of a foreign despot! Pierce has crushed out Protestants for foreign Roman Catholics, until the land
groans under the curse.
66 
REVIEW.
Grant Thorburn states that he saw Americans,
who bore honorable scars in our battles, turned out
of the federal offices in New Yorkl to make way for
fresh Irish voters, who had been driven from their
country by the Irish Rebellion. But, of all our
Presidents from the days of Washington, it was
reserved for Franklin Pierce alone to bargain with
the Pope of Rome, who, in pledging papal votes
through his Jesuit emissaries here, could seize
the opportunity to spread his malign influence over
our beautiful land, and augment the means by which
he aims to destroy our liberties.
Mr. Kennedy was removed from the census office
to prevent the actual number of Romanists from
being known to the American people. To accomplish this purpose, De Bow, a Catholic, was put in
his place. The advantage of that post being in
the power of the foreign hierarchy, Americans can
very well judge how it has. been used.
On the 30th of August, 1854, Soule' demanded
his passports, and fled from Spain. Hle had acted
with so much indiscretion, that in less than twelve
months he was compelled to leave to avoid the disgrace of a dismissal, which he apprehended, from
the Spanish government.
67 
REVIEW.
The royal family had retreated from his familiar
approaches; he then turned to the Jacobin democ racy; and, that failing him, he rapidly escaped
to Bayonne.
Mr. Sickles had been sent, in the mean while,
to Soul6, with a proposal from the administration
to loan Spain a large sum of money, and take Cuba
for security.   But Soule' had left, and better for
this country if he had never returned.
Consider for a moment what a spectacle our
nation presented to the civilized world.   Borland
shielding a murderer from justice, and causing the
destruction of a useful seaport town, and a loss of
several hundred thousand dollars to the treasury;
Soule' intermeddling with the private interests of
Spain, and escaping from the country to save an
expulsion; Belmont,  another foreigner, at the
Hague, dealing in exchanges, and negotiating a loan
for the Czar to carry forward his war with the allies.
This arrangement was only saved from consummation by being discovered, through the French minister of foreign affairs, at Paris.
Others of our foreign ambassadors were engaged
either  in  rendering  themselves  ridiculous  by
discoursing on universal democratic liberty, or
68 
A:
REVIEW.
seeking subserviently to conciliate crowned despots.
While American nationality was thus figuring
abroad, a meeting, principally of office-holders and
office-seekers, came off at Washington city, "to
express unbounded confidence in the wisdom, patriotism, and integrity, of President Pierce's administration."   Prominent among those who officiated
on that occasion appear the city postmaster, the
navy agent, the district attorney, naval storekeeper, timber agent, organ editor, &c. &c., who,
like faithful employes, wanted to add fame to the
President's notoriety, which it certainly very much
needed just at that time.
Soon after Pierce came into office, the term of
Brigham Young, the Mormon Governor of Utah,
expired, and Colonel Steptoe was appointed his
successor. Young, with his fifty wives, declared
he held office by a "higher law" than the constitution, and "defied Pierce to put him out." The
"saints" all believed Young superior in power to
the President of the United States; and they have
not been mistaken.   Hle set the government and
the laws at defiance, and is there still!  Instead
of the administration forcibly going into Utah and
69 
REVIEW.
demanding the surrender of its government into
Col. Steptoe's hands, it attempted a ruse upon the
Mormons, which signally failed. A battalion of
soldiers, commanded by Steptoe, under the pretence
of going to California, were directed to stop at the
Mormon kingdom, and seize an unsuspecting moment, after obtaining the good-will of these people, to secure the government. But this did
not answer, and Steptoe was obliged to retreat,
carrying off forty or fifty women! No more
military have been sent there since, and no further
attempt has been made to send a governor.
Young, in the mean while, threatens the United
States authorities against further invasion of
his premises.
What a source of mortifying reflection springs
up in every intelligent American's mind at this
foul and degrading submission of the government
of this great and Christian nation, in allowing all
the civil and religious power of a territory, under
the protection and care of the Union, to be concentrated in the guilty and licentious Brigham Young!
By the criminal neglect of its duty, the government has for three years allowed the abominable
system of polygamy, so abhorrent to the American
70 
REVIEW.
people, and at war with American institutions, to
be encouraged and fostered on American soil.
The population of Utah has increased with
extraordinary rapidity in the past three years, by
the influx of foreign immigrants, who have been
wheedled into this most stupid imposture, and most
shamefully and egregiously deceived by "elders"
commissioned abroad by Young.   This detestable
Mormon authority exists at present as the only
authority there.   The power of the government
should be immediately exerted to check and subdue
the further progress of this odious usurpation, and
the dissolute practices which violate all laws of
decency and morality, both of heaven and of man.
The longer this anomalous power is suffered to defy
the lawful authority of our rulers, the more formidablelit will become.   Our citizens-that is, public opinion - should force the government to end
the career, and drive out of power this heartless
despot of a Mormon, and save the poor, deceived
immigrants from being ensnared into the trap of
so designing a knave, and the country from the
humiliation and disgrace of this bold and flagrant
iniquity.   An  act of  this character,  by  this
administration, would have been far better than
71
0 
REVIEW.
to have been engaged in the destruction of an
American seaport.
During this administration, outrages of every
nature have been constantly perpetrated upon
American citizens abroad; and their complaints
have been wafted to this government in vain.
Spain, almost the weakest of European states, insulted us by every indignity. Mexico, the weakest on this continent, shamefully cheated us. Why
did the administration adhere to free fish and tax
coal by the Reciprocity Treaty? The duty taken
from coal would have reduced it to six dollars a
ton, and largely benefited all the people.
As the revenue of the country expanded, so
were politicians now ready to absorb it.  Forty
millions once supported the government; and can
it be believed that seventy millions under Pierce
did not do it? Bribes of all kinds came into vogue
to procure stations under the government, or seats
in Congress.  Spartan firmness on the part of the
people Would not keep politicians out of the gold
mines at Washington.   Authenticated facts prove
that as high as twenty-five thousand dollars were
given for a seat in Congress, for a main chance at
the treasury.
*
72 
REVIEW.
While matters were thus progressing at home,
they still looked squally abroad.   A minister had
been sent to Spain for redress on account of the
Black Warrior; and ships under Commodore
Macauley sent to Cuba to enforce it, after it had
received no response for so long a time that the
public had become wearied out with expectation
and anxiety for the denouement.
Do Americans know who really prevented the
case from being settled? It was Mr. Soule', whom
the President sent to represent us at the Spanish
court. Hle kept the despatch, and declined to
show it to the Spanish government, as the admin istration directed.
About four months after Soule had been in
Madrid, he visited Ostend, and left his secretary in
charge of his official duties. In his absence the
Secretary of Legation produced the despatch to
the Spanish ministers, which stated the terms
which would be satisfactory to this government.
They were immediately accepted, and the Black
Warrior difficulty was settled. This prevented
war then with Cuba.
Soule, thus foiled by the honesty of his secretary, caused him at once to be dismissed from the
7
73 
REVIEW.
service, by order of President Pierce; while
Pierce continued to reward Soul4, who had not
only omitted to present the plan proposed by him
for settling the matter with Spain, but had also
put indignity upon himself and the lawful authorities of the land. Brigham Young had not set the
authorities at Washington more at defiance than
Soule had done in Spain.
The next effort to embroil us in war with Cuba
was not less abortive. The report was that France
and England had conspired to Africanize Cuba.
The administration were again for war with
France, England, and Spain; and we were to
join Russia in alliance against them. Presently
the English government heard of this ridiculous
nonsense, and Lord Clarendon came out and stated
that the negotiations between England and France
were about their own business, and had nothing
on earth to do with Cuba, Spain, or the United
States.
In October, 1854, the French papers announced
that a Congress of American diplomats, Buchanan, Mason, Soule', Vroom, Belmont,,
and Owen, were to meet for some secret purpose,
either at Paris or Baden Spa. This rumor finally
74 
REVIEW.
resulted in the Ostend Conference; and, after a
season of the most profound secrecy on the part
of the administration, the manifesto appeared as
the production of the concurrent wisdom of the
authorities at Washington on the one part, and that
of Buchanan, Soule', and Mason, on the other.
Pending the difficulty in the Black Warrior
case, caused entirely by Soul4's refusal to present
to the Spanish ministers the proposition of the
administration for adjustment, Pierce, instead of
acting as became the president of the nation, and
instantly removing SoulS, proposed to send on two
commissioners to assist him.
Americans, mark the absurdity, nay, the pusillanimity of that act! The treasury was to be
filched to pay two more men to go to Spain to prevail upon a refractory minister to do his duty! In
other words, the administration wanted to employ
three men, at the government expense, to deliver
one letter, which one respectable clerk, from any
department, could have done just as well, irrespective of official distinction.   Messrs.  Dallas and
Cobb, of Georgia, had been selected for this new
mission, when Soule' again interposed, and prevented its consummation. Then it was that Soule'
75
0 
REVIEW.
called to his aid Buchanan and Mason; and hence
the origin of the Ostend Congress.
Ostend is in Belgium, and the countries that
surround it are so utterly opposed to democratic
liberty, that the merest suspicion would consign a
man to the keeping of the police; and any meeting favorable to republican views would have
called the troops of the government to arms.
Kossuth, not succeeding in causing our interference with Austria, after eloquently defending the
heroic struggle of HIungary, took passage for England. Cuba now was the bait held out by SoulS,
Sanders, & Co.; and Kossuth and all the other
republican refugees at London united in bringing
about the Ostend Conference. The whole world
was excited at the announcement. Mr. Sickles was
sent to Washington before its sitting; and Mr.
Dudley Mann, and Mr. McRea, our Consul to
Paris, followed on, upon its close. All the light
the people got at these strange sights was that we
were to have Cuba in six months.
The Conference met ostensibly to adjust all our
differences with Spain. Buchanan, Mason, and
Soule', recommended that the UJnited States should
buy Cuba at once, or take it some other way, if
76
0 
REVIEW.
Spain refused to sell. They said England and
France were favorable to the purchase.
We here give the exact words of the manifesto
to which James Buchanan, as ambassador to the
English government, was first to append his name.
"After," says the document,; "we shall have
offered Spain a price for Cuba far beyond its pres ent value, - that is, one hundred and twenty
millions of dollars,- and this shall have been
refused, it will then be time to consider the question, Does Cuba in the possession of Spain
seriously endanger our internal peace, and the
existence of our cherished Union? Should this
question be answered in the affirmative, then by
every law, human and DIVINE, we shall be justified
in wresting it from Spain, if we possess the power.
Under such circumstances, we ought neither to count
the cost nor regard the odds which Spain might
enlist against us. We should be RECREANT TO OUR
DUTY and commit base treason against our posterity,
should we permit Cuba to be Africanized," etc.
Mark it, Americans!  Buchanan first,  then
Mason and Soule', declare that " EVERY DIVINE LAW
justifies this government in WRESTING CUBA FROM
SPAIN." Spain must either sell Cuba for one
7*
77 
REVIEW.
hundred and fifty millions, or the DIVINE LAW
requires Americans to take it, and not stop to
"count the loss " to themselves in treasure or
blood! This is the civil code and the religion of
the Ostend Conference!
This was not all that Conference met to do. It
was an inside caucus of Soule', Sickles, Belmont,
and Sanders, to put Buchanan on the presidential
track to carry out the Ostend principles in 1857,
which he is pledged to do if the people elect him.
In this unwarrantable proceeding, see our minister at the Court of St. James neglecting his
proper official duties, omitting to settle the Central
American difficulties, delaying the Reciprocity
Treaty, and becoming a passive tool in the hands
of a political cabal, composed of renegadoes and
aliens; - this is enough to make the very stones
cry out shame! shame! The administration, who
cooperated in this movement, never meant that a
political rival should reap the benefit; and, perceiving its own folly in the matter, Mr. Pierce
retreated from that engagement as best he could.
The next ridiculous attitude in which we were
placed abroad was caused by the refusal of Louis
Napoleon to allow our Spanish minister, Soul,
78 
REVIEW.
to enter France. Then there was another flutter
about war, and the quarrel of Napoleon and Soule'
for the alleged interference of the latter in some
private matters, with which the public had neither
interest nor concern, was going to involve us in a
continental revolution, beginning at Paris.
MIr. Mason, our minister there, felt it necessary
to interpose for our national honor, and refused to
hold his mission unless Napoleon withdrew his
order. Napoleon backed out. And after Soule'
was feted at London, he was actually invited to
come to Paris!
This was quite a triumph to the authorities at
Washington,- almost equal to another Greytown
victory!
Our national standing now became so much impaired abroad, that intelligent foreigners were
inquiring what had become of all the respectability
on the other side of the Atlantic. Even the little
State of HIolland presumed to treat us with contempt. The ease of Gibson was invested with a
national interest, as in its decision every American citizen, and every ship-owner of the country,
was concerned. Gibson, it is remembered, had
been imprisoned in Sumatra, and escaped to New
.
79 
REVIEW.
York. Hie claimed the indemnity of one hundred
thousand dollars from that government. And the
administration directed Belmont to get it. Belmont caused letters to be written which so alarmed
the Dutch government, that they gave up not only
all the papers belonging to Gibson, but their own!
Still, Belmont being engaged in the Rothschild loan
for Russia, had not time to attend to the business
of American citizens. And when Gibson remonstrated at the injustice of the delay, the administration, through Mr. Marcy, tells Belmont to
"persevere in your demand, resolutely, but temperately."
Why not have spoken out like men, and
demanded the payment, or warned them to expect
reprisals? 0, no! What was the consequence,
Americans? Why, Belmont sets it aside altogether
-surrenders it - on the ground that the outrage
was perpetrated under Dutch laws, which, however
barbarous, we were bound to respect.   And the
administration, after all its proposed energy in the
business, bows to the supremacy of foreign laws
which had trampled down an American citizen,
and left Gibson without even an appeal for clemency
in his behalf to Congress, which was unable to re
80 
REVIEW.
ject his claim. This policy of non-interference in
behalf of American citizens whose lives and property were endangered every day abroad, and at the
mercy of savages, was enough to bleed the nation
to the heart. This gross delinquency, too, of his
promises, after an inaugural which confidently
swaggered about the protection of American rights,
and a IKoszta letter, written to divert the people,
and make them believe Pierce had kept the faith
upon which they elected him!
Thus from ignorance or personal malice our
people have been made to drink the bitter cup they
unwittingly prepared for themselves.
Two years had not passed before all the effulgence Fillmore put upon the country had been
darkened, and nothing high or convex could be
seen. A large party who had favored Pierce's
election were deeply chagrined and disappointed.
In the European war we had been made to assume
whatever attitude pleased our ambassadors.   Mr.
Spence put us on the side of Turkey, at Constantinople.   Mr. Seymour, at St. Petersburg, on that
of Russia.   Abandoning  the Monroe'octrine;
repudiating the king of Musquito, and then recognizing this same king; sustaining the Dutch
81 
REVIEW.
against our own countrymen; making demands on
Spain, then backing out; - these were among the
doings abroad. Then look at home, Americans!
Our gold was steadily going out to England,
thence to the continent, to aid the war.   There
was surplus money enough in the treasury to have
saved the country from the terrible crash in 1854.
Pierce was told that the condition of the country
would not allow putting the sum of twenty-eight
millions in the sub-treasury; and schemes were
proposed to place it in the commercial world to
avert the crisis. But the administration would not
consent to part with the money for purposes higher
than its own sinister plans. Such, too, was its skilful
financiering, that the Secretary of the Treasury
was buying up United States acceptances years be fore maturity, and giving one dollar and twenty  one cents for every dollar advanced to the nation.
Twenty-four millions were being spent in pur* chasing twenty millions of the public debt, when
the credit of the country did not need it.  No
debtor pressed for it, and it would not sell but at the
enormous increase of twenty-one per cent. Four mil lions of money were then a useless item, paid when
the people needed it at home, and at their expense.
82 
REVIEW.
The inflation of bank paper; the excessive employment of bonds without a specie basis; the
European war, and the consequent drain upon
European gold, caused foreign creditors to demand
payment, and cease to loan to our citizens; and
so, in 1854, the blow came, which reduced so many
to want and ruin.   They who possessed capital in
railroad bonds and banks found the dividends
suddenly cut off, and themselves reduced to want,
or compelled to sacrifice their investments. Thousands were thus made beggars, while widows and
orphans who had been provided, by deceased protectors, with home and comfort, lost frequently
their all. House-building, ship-building, railroadbuilding, all stopped.
Now, we inquire, who could have prevented that
revulsion, and saved the misery of the suffering
masses in 1854? Franklin Pierce and his administration. In contrast to this suicidal policy, to have
seen smiling plenty and peace and progress in all
the industrial and mechanic arts; to have given
a fresh impetus to our commercial world; to have
afforded the facility for pushing on our internal
improvements, our railroads and canals, would have
been far more glorious than to have been engaged
83 
REVIEW.
in making Ostend piracy a principle of human
and divine law.
Merchants declared that all they wanted was
time -a few weeks more -and they could withstand the storm. At this very crisis of January,
1854, when government refused its timely sympathy, there were idle in the treasury upwards
of twelve millions!  And thus the gold lost to
the merchants and banks by the government
exportation was the great cause of reducing their
business twenty-eight per cent.
While the administration was busy in finding
out constitutional objections to the noble attributes
of benevolence in affording national aid to the unhappy class of lunatics, it was engaged also in the
objectionable business of recommending land grants
to Mormons! Had Congress refused to grant these,
as it had a right to do, Mormon progress would
have been checked, and Utah could not now be
preparing to approach the door of Congress to apply for admittance into the confederacy of States.
Far better had it been for the President, had his
constitutional adviser, Mr. Cushing, attempted to
show him the fallacy of his reasoning upon land
grants and the lunatic bill, than to have been hunt
84 
REVIEW.
ing up precedents in France and England to justify
the President before the country for an attack on
Spain in her colonies. What must the world think
of an American administration going to monarchies
to find an apology for a republican President,
elected under a free democratic constitution! *
But Mr. Cushing, who has been "everything by
turns, and nothing long," has shown a greater
consistency in his ambition for war than in anything else he has professed. Possibly, his miraculous escape from the Matamoras ditch has had
something to do in fostering this propensity. Every
man who lives beyond his means breaks down.
So every government administered on a fraudulent
basis will reap the fate of its just desert.  The
prosperity and progress the country sustained under
* The original draft of the Ostend Manifesto is now in this country, and appears chiefly in the hand-writing of James Buchanan.
The amendments,  which exhibit the "highwayman's plea," the
piratical filibustering portions, are written by Buchanan himself.
Soule deserves notice, however, for the conception of that conference, and was the first to indite the celebrated document, to make it
clear to Buchanan and Mason what was to be done. But Soule,
well versed in tactics, saw that capital was to be made by giving
Buchanan prominence in the business; and the old disciple accordingly re-wrote the manifesto, and in the spirit worthy of his accomplished master.
8
86 
REVIEW.
Fillmore was now strongly contrasted with the
ruin and calamity which followed Pierce's administration. The year 1837, under Van Buren, was
not more hopelessly disastrous than that of 1854,
under Pierce.   The  agitation  arising from  the
Kansas-Nebraska bill was deep, intense, and
universal; and discredit and distrust, by the
absorption of gold from the healthful channels of
trade and commerce, in connection with a partial
failure of the crops that year, made it one of
serious calamity to the people. Was it strange,
then, Americans, that the fall elections at that
period should unmistakably declare your feelings for
this administration?  They did; and what then
gave the people encouragement and hope, was the
promise of probity and prosperity which the American party was able to make them.
About January, 1855, another case occurred of
imprisonment of American citizens at Cuba. Mr.
John S. Thrasher, of New Orleans, addressed the
authorities at Washington in behalf of these prisoners. From personal knowledge he was able to
give a picture of the brutality exercised towards
Americans in Havana which should have fired the
spirit of every patriot man and woman in the land.
86 
REVIEW.
He stated that their custom was to put Americans
in solitary confinement for days or weeks, until
they were mentally and physically enfeebled. An
attorney of the court then enters, and propounds
all manner of questions, which have no sort of
bearing on the case, extorting such concessions as
to secure the punishment of the prisoner. But,
yet, with the Koszta letter and the inaugural
before them, these Americans, like many others,
were left to the savage ferocity of tyrants, by the
government of Franklin Pierce.
Thank Heaven, we Americans love our country
and countrymen still more for the spasmodic
throes through which we have passed under this
administration. It cannot take from us our energy
and industry. It cannot destroy our magnificent
cities. It cannot tear up our vast railways, nor
make a desolate waste of our cultivated plains.
And when the storm has swept it away, we will
hold on to our principles, and prosper by our
works.
The active propagandism and manifest destiny
of Mr. Pierce's foreign policy, which began with
court costume and ended with the Ostend Conference, was about this period discovered to have
87 
REVIEW.
originated with Mr. Dudley Mann, the late
assistant Secretary of State. This fact was brought
to light by the publication of the two remarkable
letters of Mr. Mann;  one on "Instructions for
War with France," the other on " Court Costume." These were written from Paris, the 7th
of January, 1853, to this country, for Mr. Pierce's
benefit. After arguing the great importance of
a treaty of alliance with Switzerland, which the
Senate unanimously ratified, Mr. Mann gives
an account of the states of Europe, their ability
and power for war, as though he had the secrets
of every crowned head in his hat.  " Go," said
he, "speedily to Gen. Cass, Mr. Soule', and all
others you may think advisable, and implore them
to make a demonstration that will cause a consternation at the Tuilleries, by placing ten millions of'
dollars at the disposal of the President, for protecting our interests against foreign aggression,
and to authorize the construction of ten or fifteen
war  steamers.   If the  Arabia  makes  a good
run, this will reach you four days before Congress
adjourns."
Now, Americans, you learn for the first time for
what Mr. Pierce wanted that ten millions. The
88 
REVIEW.
Senate refused him because he could give no
account of the purpose ~to which it was to be
applied. It was not to fight Cuba, as we all supposed, but to carry forward Mr. Mann's diplomacy,
by causing Louis Napoleon to become alarmed, and
making an excitement at the Tuilleries!
A beautiful commentary upon American integrity and honor,- for a President to connive at so
low a trick to declare our greatness before the states
of Europe!
Americans have no reason whatever to be in love
with the government of Louis Napoleon; but has
that anything to do with the good faith with which
we are bound to deal with him? Does not one
sixth of our cotton go to France? Does she not
purchase annually of us more than five millions of
dollars' worth of flour? Have not more than four
hundred of our vessels cleared for French ports
in a year? Except England, British North
America, and Cuba, our shipping is more extensive in France than any other part of the world.
French ships come here in the same proportion.
We take ten millions of dollars' worth of their
silks annually, and five millions' worth of their
wines.
8*
89 
REVIEW.
More Americans reside in France than in any
other place in Europe except England. But there
is one remarkable fact, that, while the fac tors of France are equal to those of any part of
the world, and the population is also ten millions
greater than England, she only takes from the
United States fifteen millions of our raw mate rial, while England takes sixty! Why is this?
Because our goods are taxed in France, and go
free to England. We, too, admit French goods
free, which makes the tonnage American ships pay
in France nine times greater than we exact of them.
How much better, then, had Mr. Pierce done his
duty, and had this inequality and injustice towards
American interests righted, than to have been following Mr. Mann's directions to frighten France by
a ruse for war! I-Iow much better to have tried
to get the duty off of our raw cotton, beef, and
pork, and thus aided the interests of the American people, who could then afford in return to
take greater quantities of their silks and wines!
How much better thus to have served the substantial wants of the people, than, by asking ten
millions of their money, to make them look in the
eyes of mankind like a nation of fools! It was
90 
REVIEW.
no fault of Mr. Pierce that we have not been involved in actual war with France, more than Spain.
We find, in the same way, that the instructions
to foreign diplomats, by Mr. Marcy, to have coats
"with an American eagle on their buttons, and
wear citizen's hats," was also the direction contained in Mr. Dudley Mann's letter.
Mr. Soule' now, finding the Ostend Manifesto rejected at Washington, by the efforts of Mr. Marcy,
it is said, and against the wishes of the President
and Mr. Cushing, resigned! He was naturally
indignant at being censured for doing just what he
was sent to do, viz., to try and get Cuba, somehow.
His speech in New York, before he left our shores,
plainly told the people the course he meant to pursue, and filled them with apprehensions and dismay.
Soule' returned, leaving most of the difficulties
with Spain unadjusted. The Ostend proceedings
had been kept secret, and the friends of the
administration in Congress got it referred to the
Committee on Foreign Relations in the House, to
elude  investigation.   The Senate, also, though
possessing the power, did not, up to the close of
the session, exercise it in this matter.
Mr. Dodge was sent, with an interpreter, to the
91 
REVIEW.
court of Isabella II., to succeed Mr. Soule'; and
you can make your calculations, Americans, and
see how much the Spanish mission alone will cost
the government by March, 1857, in outfits and
infits!
The homogeneity of this people and the peace of
the Union have been hazarded more by this adminis tration than by all the former executives since the
government was founded. It is a solemn fact, that
at the end of two years after Pierce came into
office, there had not been one single object of advan tage to the American people accomplished through
his administration. Not one solitary promise made
to them was fulfilled.  If anything good was begun, it never was completed. Did he ever reduce
the Koszta letter to practice when Americans were
groaning in dungeons in foreign countries, and crying for mercy in vain    Did not the foreign embassy refuse to adopt the costume after he had
instructed them to wear it? Did he not recall his
agent for trying to make war on Cuba, after he
sent him for the purpose?   Did he not encourage
the violation of the neutrality laws, and then
threaten punishment on the offenders? Did he not
refuse Capt. Gibson justice after he had informed
92 
REVIEW.
the Dutch he should have it?  Did he not negotiate for guano in the Gallipagos Islands, and then
find there was none there? Did he not make a
treaty with Santa Dominica, and then keep the
same treaty from the Senate?   Did he not buy a
desert of Mexico, through which to run a railroad,
and pay ten millions of the people's money, and
then find no route for a road upon it?  The Sandwich Islands and the Netherlands present the same
vacillation.
Now look at home, and what has been the sole
mission but to weaken the integrity of the Union,
to upset the Missouri compromise and create agitation and strife, and to destroy the American party
because it rebuked his administration, and exposed
his want of capacity and power to manage American affairs as became their high name, and because
it rejected the Romish hierarchy, which, de facto,
was the governing power of the country!
It was to put down the American party, therefore, that Mr. Pierce enlisted for Mr. Wise's election in Virginia, and compelled the patronage of
the government and the executive force at Washington to aid in its consummation.
In February, 1854, the Sardinian government
93 
REVIEW.
sent a ship-load of criminals, fresh from dungeons
in Genoa, to New York city. The mayor of that
city very properly applied for instructions at
Washington, as to the mode of disposing of them.
And how was it done, do you think, Americans?
By directing the district attorney to receive them
as exiles! The spoils of the New York customhouse had far greater interest for Mr. Pierce's
government than the receiving of foreign criminals
on our shores.
Unscrupulous, reckless spoilsmen at home, with
disciples of Lopez, English socialists, German
money-changing Jews, and French and American
buccaneers, made up the host which was to tear from
us our well-earned reputation, and rob us before
mankind of our national renown.
94 
CHAPTER III.
THIRD YEAR OF PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION.
AT a certain crisis in England's history, the
French, under the idea that they had become weak
in gold, were chary about terms of peace. Mr.
Pitt determined upon a loan to remove the fallacy,
and in less than fifteen hours and twenty minutes,
the subscription to a sum of eighteen millions was
completed.   This was called the loyalty loan, because it vindicated the people's integrity to their
government.   So, the American people were no
sooner convinced that their integrity and honor had
been compromised by Franklin Pierce's administration in the eyes of all mankind, than they rose in
the fall elections, and signally rebuked him.
The judicial murders of Manuel Pinto and Francisco Estrampes, by the order of the Consul General of Cuba, in April, 1855, excited the indignation of this people.   Estrampes was a naturalized
citizen, and these men had every reason to believe 
REVIEW.
Mr. Pierce cordially sympathized with their conspiracy for liberty in Cuba. And there is the most
indubitable proof that he did. The understanding
was that those champions for Cuban liberty were
first to strike the blow, then Mr. Pierce was to
bring the government of the United States to their
aid. It was all arranged, with Pierce's full knowledge, that Gen. Quitman was to take the command,
and funds were contributed for that purpose. And
therefore it was that he sent a secret spy to Cuba
in 1855, to look into matters there, and ascertain
from their resources, &c., the ability of these conspirators to sustain themselves.   This spy became
on intimate terms with Gen. Pinto, a wealthy Spaniard, and by their joint agency they formed a plan
by which they searched into the archives of the
Consul General's department, and there found a
secret treaty.   This treaty contained a guarantee
of Cuba to Spain by England and France; and at
once proved the folly and danger of any warlike
attempt on the part of the conspirators there, or
the government of the United States.
A large sum of money had been audited by the
agent of Mr. Pierce, for this Cuban expedition;
but when he returned and reported to the Presi
96 
REVIEW.
dent that the democrats of Cuba never could make
the first effort for liberty, Mr. Pierce desisted from
the design.  The subsequent letters which passed
between the American spy and Pinto were found
upon his person, and, upon this evidence alone,
Pinto and Estrampes were garroted!
Commodore  Macauley, on this account, was
subsequently received by Gen. Concha with marked
consideration. The want of administrative ability
had now become the subject of universal complaint.
The post office department was conspicuously so,
by making the sale of letters and papers an item
of revenue; and it is a notorious fact that bankbills, checks, and insurance policies, were sold in
piles of letters to paper-mills at the North.   A
Connectic.ut mill bought two thousand of these letters, by which all these facts were brought to light.
In other places there were systematic thefts committed on mail matter, while political heresy was
always good cause for stopping channels of information which might affect the welfare of the party in
power.
Think of this, Americans, that private letters,
misguided by bad management of the department
at Washington, instead of being returned to the
9
97 
REVIEW.
general post-office and advertised according to law,
were sold, in indiscriminate lumber heaps, to paper
makers!
There has been a singular incongruity in Mr.
Pierce's proclivities for war; for we all remember,
when an opportunity was offered him in Mexico to
manifest an active love for it, he backed out.
Nevertheless, the hallucination still existed that it
was his military renown that made him President,
as it had done Jackson, Hlarrison, and Taylor; and,
to insure his continuance another four years, he
must get the American people into a general fight,
as Greytown was altogether too bloodless a victory
for the emergency.   So, anything for noise and
confusion, to divert the minds of the people from
the true state of their case.
The sound dues from Denmark was the next
belligerent demonstration. i-e could not stand fire
for Cuba, because France and England were both
in his way there. So he bullied Denmark, at a time
when the king was alienated from his government,
and their internal affairs were all distracted. And
for what? Why, only for a few hundred dollars!
For this he was ready to involve the country in war,
in comparison with the cost of which, all the dues
98 
REVIEW.
in the next fifty years would have been but a
trifle.
All Europe was paying these dues long before
we existed as a nation. Denmark raised the lighthouses and set up the beacons, and why was it so
suddenly inconsistent with our national honor to
pay the paltry tax? We have scarcely commerce
enough in the Baltic to talk about, much less quarrel about. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, and
Jackson, regarded these dues as lawful, and guaranteed them to Denmark by treaty.
Now, Americans, mark the result of this newfledged warlike difficulty.   The treaty was about
to expire, and, instead of a proclamation of war,
Mr. Pierce sends forth a circular letter to the
American merchantmen to pay the dues, but to pay
them under protest! Thus there has been in every
act an indication of savage delight at the prospect
of war, but always, fortunately, with some balk to
the gross atrocity.
The next serious foreign question was that arising from the enlistment of Americans for the British service in the Crimea.   In November, 1855,
the Albion of New York, the British organ,
said this proceeding I had the sanction of Mr.
99 
REVIEW.
Marcy, Secretary of State."   The administration
organ, in commenting on this, did not deny the fact,
which was then regarded tantamount to an acknowledgment. A week after the British proclamation
of 15th of March, 1855, was received here, the
district attorney of New York was applied to by
Mr. McDonald, the British consul, for permission
to establish an office in Pearl-street, in that city,
to enlist men to send to Halifax to join the foreign
legion at Nova Scotia.   The office was already
open, when the application was made to Mr.
McKeon, district attorney, but, being rejected by
him, it was  closed.   The German  papers  also
advertised for recruits. The instructions given in
the cases of Spain, Nicaragua, and Venezuela,
regarding American citizens, were now announced
to British agents, by the district attorney. But,
in defiance of this, another house was opened in
Chatham-street, New York, and the enlistment
went on with as much activity as if all the authorities at Washington were dead.
In Philadelphia, too, Hertz was in the same
business; and advertisements, near Boston, Massachusetts, called for mechanics and machinists for
the same object.  These facts were made known by
100 
REVIEW.
families whose husbands and fathers had been enticed away. With the entire knowledge of the
fact that enlistments were being made in New
York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, and Boston, every
day, under British employes, who paid these men
to violate the laws of the country, the administration purposely blinded itself to the sight.
Mr. Buchanan was about to leave for home,
having failed in the Ostend business and in the
settlement of the Central American difficulties,
when this new perplexity was added to his business negotiations. Lord Palmerston, upon being
notified, stated that he had ordered the recruiting
to be stopped, both in the United States and the
British  Provinces,  and  that  the infraction of
our laws had been innocently made. When this
explanation reached us, what was the administration about, do you think? It was hard at work,
Americans, to get up a ground of dispute with
England, by raking together in a heap all her
sins of omission and commission.  Ilad Mr. Pierce
done his duty, there would have been no occasion
for any trouble whatever.
But this would not have suited the President's
purpose, nor subserved his political aspirations.
9*
101 
REVIEW.
When England received this despatch in due
form, she was naturally startled. Seeing, as she
had, so many flagrant acts upon the honor of the
country passed by, she considered her concession
most amicable and just.
To bring up Central America, the Dominica.
quarrel, consuls' conduct, and general matters,
all at once, was enough to try her temper; and
she directed her fleet to take position in the
West India seas. But, as for that, what cared
Americans? With our free covenant of progress,
she might as well have attempted to draw Niagara's waters into her rural districts, as to have terrified us.
No power, success, or triumph, no badly-administered government here, can make us forget that
the American Union is the only fortress in which
popular liberty can be defended; and that here,
where the land is baptized in the blood of martyred kinsmen, it was born.
Mr. Crampton, the British minister at Washington, made a mistake in studying American
politics through Mr. Pierce's policy, and so far
forgot himself as to persist in violating our laws
in the question of enlistment, as was clearly
102 
REVIEW.
proved, in the trial of Hertz and others, at Philadelphia. He lost sight of the fact that ambassadors " are bound to respect the laws and customs of the country they are in," and if they
refuse can be dismissed. And he so far departed
from his sphere of duty as to become personally
disrespectful and obnoxious to the national executive.
Had Pierce's government then acted independently, and instantly dismissed Crampton, after
the English government (with a full knowledge
of the facts) failed to recall him, the whole American people would have justified him.  Instead of
which, it vacillated and threatened in order to
make an excitement for the Cincinnati Convention, and only dismissed him a few days before.
It is more than probable that, but for that Cincinnati Convention, Mr. Crampton, with all his personal indignities, might still have been in Washington.
In the autumn of 1855 American citizens
were murdered at Nicaragua, en route to California. It was a most violent case. A mother and
child were killed in the cabin of an American
steamer, from New York, while on the lake.  Ap
103 
REVIEW.
plication was made at Washington for power to
bring tile offenders to punishment, and obtain in demnity for the loss of property then sustained.
Did the administration promptly demand this re dress? No. Mr. Marcy's letter of the eighth of
November, 1855, said "Nicaragua had no respons ible government," and was in a "miserable con dition." That, therefore, was the excuse for
withholding that protection to American citizens
pledged in the inaugural and Koszta letter. But,
when Nicaragua was in a better condition, was the
case laid before her government for satisfaction to
Americans? It was not, because the original
refusal was devoid of heartiness, and, as everybody knew, a mere quibble. With just as much
reason, and no more, Mr. Parker  -I. French, an
American citizen, was refused at Washington,
when he presented himself as the accredited ambassador from Nicaragua, in the present year,
while Padre Vijil, a foreign Romish priest, was
accepted, a few weeks later, from the same government.
Now, Americans, the same objections which
forbade the rejection of the first ambassador (had
they been tenable)  would  have  prevented  the
104 
REVIEW.
acknowledgment of the last. The government of
Nicaragua underwent no change between the
periods of sending Mr. French and Padre Vijil.
If it merited a representative at Washington at
all, it did so when French was sent there. But
there was a motive underlying that matter, which
the American people now understand. The Cincinnati Convention was at hand, the independence
of Nicaragua became popular, the people sympathized with the noble Walker and the gallant
American legion who had assisted that government to democratic liberty, and the Romish priesthood in the United States, moreover, must still
be propitiated, and hence the recognition of Nicaragua's independence. Take away the effort for
renomination which Mr. Pierce was then making;
take away the fact that the Romish hierarchy
favored the reception of one of the Pope's agents,
and who believes that act of Mr. Pierce would
ever have been consummated?
For that nomination, too, he wanted a difficulty
with Spain; for that, he cannonaded Greytown;
for that, he made a little fuss with Holland, and
would have embroiled us in war with England, on
a point of honor. In this self-aggrandizement, he
105 
REVIEW.
purchased the votes of Congress to extend the
area of bondage, broke down the Missouri comn promise, and embittered the North against the
South by attempting to introduce slavery into
Kansas by fraud and bloodshed.
0, Americans, the nation is perishing for want
of a ruler!  We  have no one to whom  we can
now look to arrest oppression and crime, by inter posing the law. The whole policy of Franklin
Pierce has been to dodge the responsibility of the
Kansas difficulty, after he got the people into civil
war. It was his infidelity to his high and holy
trusts that has disturbed the peace and tranquillity
in which Millard Fillmore left the executive of the
country. Had Pierce been true to the principles
which elected him, that peace would still prevail. Think, Americans, of your fellow-citizens
murdered, your women driven to frenzy, their
husbands and fathers chained, their houses burned
to ashes, because Franklin Pierce, the President
of the United States, did not choose to stop the
invasion when it first began! iHe knew it all, but
could not spare the sacrifice of life and property
in sight of the Cincinnati Convention! Nothing
but this pusillanimous conduct on the part of your
106 
REVIEW.
President, Americans, has perilled the safety of
the Union for the fourth time, under the great
covenant which makes us one people.
Forty years ago, the American people were indignant that Mr. Madison should let the capital
be burned; later still, they condemned the disaster
Van Buren brought upon the country, the treachery of Tyler, and the savage ferocity of Polk, in
putting the gallant Taylor, with his little band of
heroes, before twenty thousand Mexicans, to be cut
to pieces. But what were all those acts, in comparison with these of Franklin Pierce?
Let the desolation of homes and hearths, of
forfeited life and hopes, in Kansas, answer!  It is
the administration of Mr. Pierce that has caused
"moral treason,"  " martial law,"  and " civil
war," in Kansas, since the first fraudulent Kansas
election. Franklin Pierce, as President of the
United States, was the supreme law-officer over
that territory; and it was his imperious duty to have
provided a new legislature, which would have expressed the free will of the real settlers of Kansas,which would have satisfied the North and the South,
and prevented the subsequent effusion of blood.
Instead of which, he attempted to sustain the
107 
REVIEW.
fraudulent legislature, and appointed territorial
judges who cooperated with the military against the
manifest wishes of the majority of the people.
This was all done to obtain votes in the Cincinnati
Convention, recklessly disregardful of public indignation in all sections, so long as he got the sanction
of a faction of designing men and unscrupulous
demagogues.
Governor Reeder's testimony, under oath, tells
a tale which sickens every true American heart.
Mr. Pierce appointed Reeder to please one set of
political friends, and dismissed him to please another. He said to Reeder that he cordially approved of his whole course in Kansas, but that
Atchison, of Missouri, was inexorable in requiring
that he, Reeder, should be removed. Reeder was
then supplicated by Pierce to resign; and when
this failed, he sought to bribe -him by offering him
the mission to China, or in some other way advancing the private interests of Reeder. Unable by
any dishonorable proposition to induce Reeder to
resign, Mr. Pierce then said he should remove him,
not on account of dereliction from duty, but for
land speculations! This was the contemptible subterfuge, Americans, of the President of the United
108 
REVIEW.
States towards a subordinate with whom he expressed himself entirely satisfied, but who, by his
own acknowledgments, he was obliged to remove,
to please Atchison, of Missouri!  And mark the
fact, in the sworn testimony of Reeder, that the
resort to land speculations as the reason for his
removal was done after the avowal of Pierce, in a
previous interview, that he saw nothing reprehensible in that act, whatever.!
For the first time in our history, has the military of the country been used to justify the barbarity of its citizens; and, for the honor of humanity, we pray to Heaven it may be the last.
Governor Shannon, of Ohio, was next sent to
Kansas, who, in a short time, was also found not
to answer the policy of the administration, which
is to force slavery on Kansas, against the wishes
of the majority of the people.
Why did not Mr. Pierce ask Congress for means
to put down these violators of law in Kansas? He
countenanced the brutality for seven or eight
months, purposely to obtain votes at Cincinnati in
the June convention.
And now, Americans, note this solemn fact, that
Mr. Pierce has not only perilled the Union, but he
10
109 
REVIEW.
has inflicted a wound upon the honor of the South,
in the repeal of the Missouri compromise. They
never elected Pierce to do any such thing. They
never asked or desired that the pledges and comnpromises for the peace of this Union should be
touched.   And, had the South supposed it possible, Franklin Pierce could no more have received
its electoral vote, than Benedict Arnold could have
been called to Washington's place after his treason.
Let Americans remember that this act was
begun and consummated by a Northern President.
Forbid it, Heaven, that a man shall come after
Franklin Pierce who adopts and retains his views
and policy towards Kansas!
Some may inquire, Can there be such a man?
We tell you yes, and he is James Buchanan, of
Pennsylvania. There is therefore a deep, earnest,
general call, from the independent masses of this
people, for change- moral reform, political reform,
official honesty, in lieu of official availability!
We have now but one man before us, as a candidate for the Presidency, who clings to the great,
fundamental principle of the Union, and is honestly before the people upon the dignity of the constitution; a man of opinion, of. enlarged views,
110 
REVIEW.
able to protect the rights of all, because he respects the will of the majority, and has an undying love for the Union of these States, and the
imperishable glory of the American name. This
man is Millard Fillmore, of New York.
Do you ask, Americans, where is the demonstration that the people, North and South, reject the
policy of this administration?  We point you to
the ballot-box, which, in the language of Erastus
Brooks, of New York, is "worth fighting for, and
worth dying for." The popular majority which
elected Pierce was more than sixty-three thousand,
and every state but four in the entire Union cast
its vote for him. Of these, two were Northern
and two were Southern States. In the first year
of his administration, he was in a popular minority
of sixty-seven thousand. In the second year, it
had increased to two hundred and twenty-six
thousand.  In the third year, it had reached three
hundred and three thousand, nine hundred and
twenty-seven votes! With this terrible reaction
and condemnation by the American people, Pierce,
therefore, was deficient. for re-nomination three
hundred and sixty-seven thousand, and in a minority of three hundred thousand!
111 
REVIEW.
In this condition of things, Mr. James Buchanan
was put upon Pierce's platform, after endorsing the
entire policy of Pierce's administration, and pledging himself, if elected, to keep it in full force the
next  four years.   The  American people,  who
have already repudiated it, by the unmistakable
verdict of three hundred thousand votes, will
have another opportunity, in the November elections, to administer a last rebuke, by refusing to
accept Mr. Pierce's succession in the selection of
Mr. James Buchanan. Thank Heaven, the American people can inflict a blow, through their free
constitution, in a single day, which the monarchies
of all Europe could not do in a century!
The official conduct of President Pierce in reference to the "Naval Retiring Board" is discussed, at length, in another chapter of this work.
It is well to remind the people, however, that, of
all the acts which merit condemnation, and outrage the feelings of American men, that, which
has wounded the honor of and inflicted disgrace and
poverty upon the gallant men of the navy, and
their suffering families, is one of the most atrocious. More than five hundred American families
have been most seriouslyinjured by this unparalleled
112 
REVIEW.
tyranny of Franklin Pierce and Secretary Dobbin.
Not only have they deprived the country of the
services of men when they were eminently needed,
to exalt our stars and stripes; not only have
they aspersed the fair fame of these men, by condemning them, in violation of law, and without
any form of trial -a right guaranteed by the
constitution to the most blood-stained criminal in
the land;  but by  that act the administration
have deprived these men of the advantages of
any other honorable calling.   Do you ask how?
We answer, has it not attached opprobrium to
these officers as citizens, by disrating or dismissing them? Does not the fact itself imply moral,
physical, or mental incompetency, in the public
judgment? If these officers apply for employment
in the merchant service, for example, what is the
result? The insurance companies refuse to grant
a policy to a ship in their command, because of
this unjust sentence by the government.  The education of these men compelled them to look to the
profession as a life service, and hence the difficulty
of attempting to compete with the civil employments of our enterprising business men.   Athens
starved her best men, and Rome neglected hers;
10o*
113 
REVIEW.
and this led to the ruin of those republics. But
England votes lands, and the Queen bestows fine
salaries, upon her military men. And in France,
Russia, Prussia, and Austria, despotisms as they
are, there is marked liberality towards this arm of
the public service.
It shocks the common sense of the people to see
these freemen, who have defended our fortress of
liberty on every sea and in every clime, ruthlessly
thrust aside by an incompetent President, instigated by unprincipled demagogues.
The veto power, only intended by the constitution to be used with extreme delicacy and caution,
and to prevent hasty or indiscreet legislation,
which might defeat the free will of the people,
has been used by Franklin Pierce with the same
arrogant self-conceit that is exercised by the Roman pontiff. Hle has abused this high prerogative
of the President, and trampled down the rights
and privileges of the people with the audacious
impudence of a Nero.
The French Spoliation bill, which passed Congress in 1855, shared the unhallowed fate of the
lunatic bill, made for that unfortunate class of our
fellow-beings. There never were claims upon earth
114 
REVIEW.
founded more in justice than those connected with
the French Spoliation bill; and when, after years
of toil on the part of the petitioners for redress, Congress at last vindicated the nation's honor, it was
crushed by the reckless action of Franklin Pierce.
The Collins line of steamers, too, the pride of
every honest American, shared the same fate;
and, though the appropriation was afterwards
made in spite of the executive veto, it remained
in its power still to give the notice for discontinuing the contract. That policy of Pierce's government, to crush out American enterprise, and give
foreigners the monopoly of the seas, as well as upon
the soil of our country, has been steadily pursued
towards the Collins steamers, until the blow has
finally been struck by Congress, and the notice to
stop the government assistance has been given.
As a nation we are daily becoming more
formidable to foreign powers, and the United
States of America is the only country whose maritime increase can compete successfully with that of
Great Britain. Now, more than ever before, every
instinct of national pride and patriotism demanded
that these American steamers should have been
retained and cherished, as the only line that can
115 
REVIEW.
offer successful competition to the Cunard line of
English steamers.
Did the revenues of the government compel the
withholding of this money from American industry
and enterprise? Did public sentiment oppose this
effort which has elevated our national capabilities
over the world? No; it was in defiance of the
will and wishes of the majority of the American
people, that narrow-minded, designing men have
been found to conspire with Franklin Pierce in the
attempted destruction of our beautiful steamers.
Had that Collins line existed in the war of 1812,
the waters of our lakes and ocean would have remained private waters; and the battles of Niagara,
Chippewa, and New Orleans, would never have
been fought upon American soil.
Thus, in war or peace, these steamers should be
made part and parcel of ourselves; - protected for
the national benefit in time of peace, and securing our country from the danger of land operations
in time of war.
0, Americans, we want a man to put down all
this;-a man with a whole American heart, who
loves his country everywhere; who loves the people and all their interests, and will protect, defend,
116 
REVIEW.
and cherish their commerce, their shipping, their
manufactures, their mechanics, and glory only in
their nationality. That man is Millard Fillmore!
We have all the materials and means for building
our own ships, and developing our own resources.
We can cast our own cannon, make our own rifles,
bayonets, and knives; and we have American men
to do the work, in lieu of foreign workmen, whom
Pierce has harbored, to take it out of American
hands, for the sake of keeping the foreign vote, and
favoring the Romish hierarchy.
While, too, Pierce's administration has been
stopping the commerce of the Mississippi and the
lakes of the north-west, by refusing to let the people
have their own money to remove the difficult and
dangerous impediments, the funds of the treasury
have been squandered in purchasing pictures to
adorn a committee-room connected with public
buildings at Washington, at a cost to the people's
pockets of three thousand six hundred dollars, and
a marble mantel at five hundred dollars for the same
sumptuous apartment.
Americans, you cannot afford this! You cannot
afford to tax yourselves and your children to please
the taste merely of a capricious executive.   You
117 
REVIEW.
foot these bills, remember; and you have a right
to know the advantage of these things. The cost
of the machinery in putting up the public buildings
at Washington, under Franklin Pierce's foreign
administration, has been ascertained, by the investigation of a committee of Congress, to have nearly
equalled the cost of all the buildings! Every
house-builder in America knows this is all wrong.
Money has been expended in transporting bricks
from New York and Philadelphia to Washington,
at thirteen dollars a thousand, and then being so
small as to take thirteen hundred to make a thousand!
Under Millard Fillmore's administration, all the
jobs upon public buildings were done under honest,
bona fide contracts.  But Pierce abandoned the old
contract system, and has employed mechanics and
laborers by the day, in the post-office and capitol
extensions. Now, what is the result of having men
dress marble and brick by the day?   Why, they
will contrive to dress it as long as a rough surface
remains, no matter whether it is ever intended
to be seen or not.   So the rear wall of the postoffice, which never can be seen by the public at all,
is finished in a more costly manner than any public
118 
REVIEW.
building in the United States, and only because
it has given encouragement to foreign over American mechanics.
In 1852, Walter, the architect of the capitol
under Mr. Fillmore, saw the slowneqs with which
men worked when their own interest was advanced
thereby, and made a contract with Mr. Emory, the
most experienced granite-cutter in Washington, to
furnish it all at one fifth less than it could be done
by the day's work. But, in the face of experience,
and a perfect knowledge of the fact that the dictates of enlightened public economy demanded this
policy to be retained, Capt. Meigs, the Pierce
employe', acting out the principle of extravagance
and folly pursued by the administration, returns to
the day-wages system, and thus has caused more
money to be expended on the back of the post-office,
never to be seen, than on the front of the capitol
of the United States!
Hon. Edward Ball, of Ohio, in the month of
May, 1856, inquired into the prodigal wastefulness of the people's money on the part of the employcs of the administration of Franklin Pierce.
By the introduction of a series of resolutions, the
enormous sums expended upon the enlargement of
119 
REVIEW.
the capitol were sought to be ascertained. The adherents of the President were greatly alarmed, and
endeavored to suppress all information on the subject. But frauds of the most villanous nature had
been discovered, and were exposed by the chairman
of the Committee on Public Buildings and Grounds.
In the single contract made with Beals and Dixon,
the treasury had been robbed of one hundred
thousand dollars. This was perpetrated wilfully,
because Mr. J. B. Emery, of Baltimore, with all
the securities and obligations required by the stipulations of the "proposals," offered to do the cornice-work at twenty-four dollars and seventy-five
cents per foot, while Beals and Dixon charged
thirty-nine dollars per foot. The former gentleman engaged to do the "architraves over antes"
at nine dollars per foot; but the work was givenno doubt for political purposes - to Messrs. Beals
and Dixon to do at the monstrous charge of nineteen dollars per foot! For capitals of columns
Beals and Dixon charged nine hundred dollars,
Mr. Emery offering to do the same work, according
to " advertisement" (sham advertisement), at four
hundred dollars each column! Another enormous
disparity was exhibited in the bid on capitals of
120 
I;
antes;.:eals and Dixon charging two hundred
anl fority dollars, Mr. Emery asking only fiftyeight diollars! And so on, through the catalogue
of iniquity.
The- corruption existing in the department having these matters in charge was also made manifest;.  By garbling the figures, and by palpable
miscalculations, it was ascertained that the "dep  rtment" made it appear as though Mr. Emery's
bjid had amounted to three hundred and forty-one
Jthousand  seven  hundred and  fourteen dollars,
whereas, in fact, it was only twenty-five thousand
eight hundred and ninety-five dollars.
By the proper mode of computation - that is to
say, according to the rules of the arithmetics used in
our American schools - Mr. Emery had offered to
do the work on two thousand five hundred feet of
rough stone, six hundred and thirteen feet each,
for the sum of one thousand three hundred and
seventy-five dollars; but the foreigners employed
in the Treasury Department, according to the rules
of their European method of computation, made
it appear that Mr. Emery's charge was seventyone thousand and seventy-five dollars, or nearly
forty dollars per foot. The American arithmeti               11
121
REVIEW.
I 
REVIEW.
cias make the sixteen thousand toft of'work fr
which Mr. Emery bid amqunt to eight t;housand
eight hundred dollars; but the foreign clerks of th,,Treasury Department of Franklin Pierce figure it
up to two hundred and forty-four thousan(t four
hundred and eighty dollars. This was done tho,ough
ignorance of the common rules of the Ameri,can
arithmetic, or for the purpose of keeltig Ar.
Emery out of the contract, and thus secu-ring it
to the government pets, Messrs. Beals and Dixon.
Thus  the people's money is used to retam i theX
reins of government, in order that a perpetual
handling of the treasury's funds may be indulg-;'.
The people's money is used to secure the power of
robbing the people, year after year. It was not sot
under the administration of Millard Fillmore.
But, in addition to the crime of robbery, that of
a violation of the United States law, in reference
to the plan of construction of the capitol extension,
is chargeable upon the Treasury Department of
the present administration.
HIere is the law.  "For the continuation of the
Treasury building, three hundred thousand dollars,
to be expended under the direction of the President of the United States, according to the plan
122
I 
REVIEW.
proposed by Thomas U. Walter,  architect, and
approved  of byt tche Committees of the Senate
anld HIouse of Riepresentatives on Buildings and
Grounds, at the last session of Congress."  Now,
what regard have the men at Washington paid to
this statute.?   Not the least.   What  are they,
the, but outlaws-a pack of outlaws  in the
Tr asury Department of the United States?  Mr.
Walter's plan has been changed by the superintendent and architect having the extension in
charge. They have allowed their fancies to run
riot, and all their dreams of " palace halls" are
being realized at the expense of the American
pos sile, who elevated Mr. Pierce to the Presidency,
and at the expense of some who had no hand in
thiat sad affair. The plain front originally designed,
and the economical plan proposed, under Mr. Fill more's administration (the idea of the extension
having originated in his term of office), have been
totally abandoned, and a front of Italian "ginger bread-work" substituted instead of Mr. Walter's
design. The elaborate and costly style substituted
is of no consequence to Mr. Pierce; but the people
will be greater dupes than we take them to be, if
they tacitly submit to the robbery of their treasury
-1s -
123 
.  REVIEW.,
BEVIES'"
for the purpose of pampering the pets of the executive. Fifty thousand dollars, or one hundred
thousand dollars, are mere bagatelles to the ulnscrupulous Pierce; and he does not he t to sanctiou
the expenditure of such paltry sums, for a single
moment, if the votes of the influential contractors
can be secured to perpetuate the so-c,lled d   -
cratic dynasty. American democrati, however,
will object to the perpetuity of the fore'tjl dem' cracy, on this principle of wasteful extravagancek
During the Fillmore administration the woirk of'.
the Capitol extension was commenced, uneve the
direction of the Department of the Irterior
(where it properly belongs), according to the plans
of Mr. Walter; but Mr. Pierce, to suit his own
personal purposes, took the control of the work
from the Secretary of the Interior, and placed
it in the hands of the Secretary of War; and this
last officer at once appointed a military officer,
the present superintendent, over Mr. Walter, with
power to change the plan. Now, Mr. Walter is
acknowledged to be the best civil architect in the
United States; but the Pierce managers, having in
view the pampering of their own partisans, have
seen fit to allow their man, Captain Meigs, to do
124
11 
REVIEW.
pretty much as he pleases in the way of nonsensical decorations and extravagant adornments. No
matter: the people, who placed Franklin Pierce in
power, foot the bills. American mechanics and
working-men will "pay the piper," while they
are rendered less able to do so by the admission
of the cheap pauper laborers of Europe, duty free,
into the American labor market. The difference
of a million of dollars, between the proposed cost
of the Capitol extension, originally designed under Mr. Fillmore's administration, and that substituted by Pierce, is an item of no moment. The
people will be "democrats; " and as they are willing to pay for the glorious privilege of mningling
with the Irish Catholics and the foreign democrats, instead of being American democrats, why,
let them go on until they are tired of the drain
upon their pockets.
But the cause of President Pierce's disregard
of cost is evidenced in his sanction of the employment of any number of German and Italian
sculptors, busily engaged in the manufacture of
statuary, designed for the pediment of the two
wings of the extension. These graven images are
represented to be the liknesses of nothing in the
11*
125 
REVIEW.
heavens above or the earth beneath, -excepting
one of them, which is a model of a German working-man's wife, and is passed off as the Goddess of
Liberty. This Italian and German toggery has
been procured at an immense cost; but American
working-men will pay for it, by taxation. Foreign
sculptors are the only ones employed under Mr.
Pierce's administration, but American mechanics
are taxed to pay for the work of these Germans
and Italians.
Is this country worthy to be called American?
Is there any sense or signification in the term
America or Americans? Why not call it Germany, or Ireland? HIow many miserable, deluded American mechanics there are, who voted for
Franklin Pierce, who would now be glad to be employed on the work of the Capitol extension! But
Germans and Italians must be propitiated, for the
sake of their votes, and Americans may starve!
Is it not true that the people should teach their
representatives that they are not sent to Congress
to vote appropriations of their money, from year
to year, to be used by Franklin Pierce, or any
other President, without limitation or discrimination?
126 
REVIEW.
Pierce's administration came into power pledged
to preserve peace, by keeping down all causes of
agitation among the people, -pledged to reform all
useless abuses, and expenditures of their money;
instead of which, he has run up the expenses of
the nation from fifty to eighty millions per annum, and kept down the internal commercial
interests of the country by refusing the improvements which the people demanded.  Ile has interfered with the domestic peace of the nation, and
forced us into all the horrors of civil war. iHe
has deceived, cheated, betrayed the people, at
home and abroad. And he has done more to
fasten the despotism of the Pope's political church
upon the American people than the monarchs of
Catholic France, Catholic Austria, and Catholic
Spain, ever did together.
Hie graciously received the Pope's Nuncio, sent
by him to enforce his claims to property of Amer ican citizens, and has cultivated the closest inti macy with this foreign despot, and with those
aliens among us whom he knew, in virtue of their
imperishable allegiance to the Pope, cannot,
whether gone through the forms of naturalization
or not, ever become American citizens. The day
127 
REVIEW.
a bishop or priest of Rome renounces allegiance
to the Pope of Rome, that day he forfeits his
right to be a priest or bishop, and cannot administer a sacrament, or exercise a single prerogative, in the Roman Catholic Church. Franklin
Pierce knows, but does not care for this. He knows
that Bishop H'ughes sold his party the foreign
Catholic vote, which elected him to the Presidency;
and the future annalist will do Pierce the. justice
to record the fact that, while his administration
is distinguished but for two original measures, the
burning of Greytown and the court costume order,
he has been singularly grateful for his elevation
to the papal despot, rather than to the free will of
the American people.
128
*I 
OHIAPTER IV.
FOURTH YEAR OF PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION.
WHEN George the Third, of England, undertook
to subdue the American colonies in 1769, and
make them bow to the supremacy of Parliament,
he sent regiments of troops to Boston, and had
fourteen war-vessels pointing their broadsides on
the town, to enable his commissioners to extort
its unjust taxation; and, the more effectually to
frighten the people into submission, the king's
sentries paraded the streets, and compelled the
people to have a permit from these red-coats to go
to their business places.
So, Franklin Pierce has sought, by a similar
policy, to terrify the American people now, by
dealing with them as a nation of serfs. The only
principle of action to which he has been constant
has been that which intermeddled with the federal
and state elections. For this he violated all the
compromises of the constitution.  For this he fra 
REVIEW.
ternized political apostates of all parties and
creeds. For this he increased offices and salaries
in the country, and squandered the money belonging to the people, to multiply agents for elections
in all the states.   For  this he perverted most
shamefully the intent of the law, and turned out
of the navy two hundred and one officers, without
regard to their service or character, to make place
for partisans and favorites. For this he has kept
the nation two years out of a great national road
to the Pacific, and comnpelled the people to pay
for useless surveys of routes, in order to dodge the
issue of committing himself to either route.
Americans, behold your country! Indian war
rages. California, New Mexico, and Oregon, are
the scenes of bloody action now, and the soil of
Kansas imbrued with fratricidal gore!
Mormons are coming into the nation by thirty
and forty thousand a year, and from Mr. Pierce's
conduct in Utah we shall soon have that state,
which has overturned all religious and civil authority, and outraged decency and morals, asking
admission into our Protestant Union as a Mormon
state! Nothing but the Kansas excitement will
deprive Franklin Pierce of the glory of consum
130 
REVIEW.
mating  that act.   Kansas excitement!   Yes,
Americans, it is more than civil strife. It is a
dangerous presentiment that this Union may be
dissolved.   0, my countrymen! pause and consider for one moment the awful responsibility
which now devolves upon you! Franklin Pierce
has outraged this people; and his policy, to which
his successor is committed, threatens to split the
Union into fragments. Had he been but a man
who respected the constitution of his country, he
would have honestly and faithfully executed the
laws, and preserved peace and unity to the settlers
of Kansas, no matter from what section they came.
But, thank God, there is given to this offended
people one way, and only one way, of escape at
this moment, and that is the election of MILLARD
FILLMORE. If this shall be done, the Union and the
constitution are vindicated, and the interests of this
nation will continue as one people.
Let no false ambition seduce you from the path
of duty; let no desire for political power or place
ever swerve you from tenaciously adhering to principle. Remember the lesson Franklin Pierce has
taught you, that to gain the Presidency by fraud,
is to divest it of all its honor; and that it is far
131 
REVIEW.
better to pursue the vocation in life to which you
are mentally adapted, than to aspire to that to
which you are incompetent. Had Mr. Pierce continued in New Hampshire, and contented himself
by an honest attention to his business profession,
instead of intriguing for the office nature never
fitted him to fill, he might have lived and died
respected  by his fellow-men.  He  would have
saved himself the trial which has proved his
moral as well as intellectual deficiency, and been
secured from temptations to self-aggrandizement
which he was unable to resist, and prevented the
shock to the peace and liberties of this people
which years cannot overcome.
My countrymen, if, on the fourth of March,
1857, the conduct and actings of Franklin Pierce's
executive were certainly to end forever, this
analysis of his administration would not now
be written. But such is not the fact. And, so
far as the party which nominated James Buchanan
are concerned, they have expressly avowed their
purpose to perpetuate through him the identical
policy which has now brought disaster and bloodshed upon our beloved country. And Pierce's
administration, therefore, are as anxiously labor
132 
REVIEW.
ing to secure the election of James Buchanan,
as if he, Mr. Pierce, was now before the people.
Let every American vote understandingly in the
next presidential election, and know that there is
a perfect union and communion between the friends
and supporters of these two men, Buchanan
and Pierce; and whoever votes for Buchanan
votes just as much to perpetuate the dynasty of
Franklin Pierce as though his name were on the
ticket.
Mr. Buchanan has endorsed the present-national
executive, and declares himself the platform which
broke down the Missouri compromise, which compromise he himself assisted to make, thirty-six
years ago, the repeal of which has opened the floodgates of internal discord and civil strife in the land.
The platform of the Cincinnati Convention,
which James Buchanan personates, if carried out,
would lead to the inevitable degradation and ruin
of the American people.  It says, "The time has
come for the people of the United States to de clare themselves in favor of free seas, and a pro gressive free trade throughout the world." This
doctrine is more baneful to the interests of the
American laboring man than even a foreign war.
12
133 
REVIEW.
Americans, what is free trade, but taking money
directly from your pockets to pay the expenses of
the government, instead of putting duties on
imported goods, which you do not feel? If
James Buchanan is elected, you are to have equal
taxation, which, allowing there are twenty-five
millions of people, will make each man, woman,
and child, have to pay three dollars apiece yearly.
Mr. Buchanan approves, too, of ten cents a day
as the wages of labor!  Think of this!  The
Cincinnati Convention did not consider the ills we
now endure were sufficient, while the government
is pampering foreign and domestic pets, and squandering eighty millions of the people's money; so it
goes to taxing the poor to increase their burdens.
Americans, it would be better now to expend
one hundred millions to elect MILLARD FILLMORE,
whom you know and have tried, than to elect
Buchanan. I-Ie may cost us our liberties. In the
other case, the money would soon be returned to
the people ten-fold, in the confidence and progress and peace it would bring upon the whole
Union.
With a war within our own borders upon a territory twice as large as England, Mr. Buchanan
134 
REVIEW.
is pledged also to carry out the Ostend manifesto,
if elected. Now what would ensue, Americans,
if that were acted out? We answer, war, immediately, with England, France, and Spain. And
all commerce between the United States and the
western coast of Europe would that moment
cease. This would stop all importations of cotton
and bread-stuffs in Europe, and precipitate those
countries also into anarchy and revolution.
The real meaning of that Ostend manifesto is
concealed upon its face. It is deep, dark, and
malignant; and, if ever enforced, it will be by
making the American people wade through seas
of blood! As we have already seen, it was the
work of European revolutionists and American
demagogical tricksters. They who called themselves Americans were mostly foreign born, with
foreign hearts, like Soule' & Co. To this degrading business Mr. Buchanan became the pliant
tool, because he wished to succeed Franklin
Pierce at Washington, and was made to believe,
therefore, this was the very best move.
It is the interest, aim, and wish of all true
Americans to remain at peace; and, least of all,
to go to war with our best customers abroad, from
135 
REVIEW.
whom we buy, and to whom we sell.  And it is
all idle to try to force conviction upon the minds
of the American people, that it is their duty to
inflict a blow upon any nation, without their
rights have been sacrificed or their principles invaded.
We are already possessed of an area of territory only one sixth less than the fifty-nine states
of Europe put together. We are ten times larger
than Great Britain and France, and one and a
half times larger than Russia in Europe. HIence
we have no occasion for getting into war to acquire
more territory, for many years to come. Better
far to be making treaties, to send our Protestant
Bible, our tracts and missionaries, to enlighten
Mexico's eight millions of benighted papists, and
other countries upon this continent, than to bring
a population of ignorant paupers and criminals,
who could never appreciate our Anglo-American
liberty, under the aegis of American laws.
Now, my countrymen, you see, precisely, what
you have to expect by perpetuating the democratic executive of Franklin Pierce. The same
home and a worse foreign policy, the same antiAmerican feeling, and contemptible subserviency
136 
REVIEW.
to.the foreign Roman Catholic hierarchy. You
ask, how do we know this? We answer, that it
is as well understood that James Buchanan traded
with the foreign Catholic vote in 1852, for Pierce,
which put an Irish Catholic in the cabinet, from
Pennsylvania, as that  he defeated Henry Clay,
for the presidency, in Pennsylvania, in 1844,
when he practised the gross fraud upon that people, and declared to them that James  K.  Polk
was a better tariff man than Henry Clay. But
for this, Mr. Clay would have filled the office of
President, to which he was most clearly elected,
by thevotes of his devoted countrymen.
It is time there was an end to this compact
sale of Irish and German votes. And the American party fears not to say, that. German and
Irish bodies, armed under their own flag, must
not, and shall not, as foreigners, interfere with
our just political rights, to elevate aspiring American demagogues, of any party.
12*
137 
LIST OF BOOKS
PUBLISHED BY
JAMES FRENCH & CO.,
78 Washington Street, Boston.
SCHOOL BOOKS.
FOSTER'S BOOK-KEEPING, BY DOUBLE AND SINGLE
ENTRY, both in single and copartnership business, exemplified in
three sets of books. Twelfth Edition. 8vo. Cloth, extra.. 1 00
FOSTER'S BOOK-KEEPING, BY SINGLE ENTRY, ex emplified in two sets of books.  Boards........38
FRENCII'S SYSTEM OF PRACTICAL PENMAN SHIP, founded on scientific movements; combining the principles
on which the method of teaching is based. -Illustrated by en graved copies, for the use of Teachers and Learners. Twenty seventh Edition..................... 25
This little treatise seems well fitted to teach everything which
can be taught of the theory of Penmanship.  The style proposed
is very simple.   The copperplate facsimiles of Mr.  French's
writing are as neat as anything of the kind we ever saw.Post.
Mr. French has illustrated his theory with some of the most
elegant specimens of execution, which prove him master of hlI
science.-  Cout.er.
I
O 
JAMES FRENCH AND CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
This work is of a useful character, evidently illustrating an excellent system. We have already spoken of it in terms of approbation. - Journal.
This little work of his is one of the best and most useful publications of the kind that we have seen. - Transcript.
BEAUTIES OF WRITING, containing twenty large
specimens of Ornamental Penmanship, Pen Drawing, and off-hand
Flourishing............................    75
BOSTON COPY-BOOK; comprising nearly two hundred
engraved copies, for the use of Schools and Academies...  42
LADIES'  COPY-BOOK,  containing many beautiful en  graved copies, which are a perfect imitation of the natural hand writing; also including German Text and Old English... 17
BOSTON ELEMENTARY COPY-BOOK, comprising
large and small Text Hand, for Schools.......12A
COOK'S MERCANTILE SYSTEM OF PENMAN-.
SHIP.  Fourth Revised Edition.............   37.
THIE ART of PEN-DRAWING, containing examples
of the usual styles, adorned with a variety of Figures and Flour ishes, executed by command of hand. Also a variety of Orna mental Penmanship.............  75
MISCELLANEOUS AND JUVENILE.
TURKEY AND THE TURKS, by Dr. J. V. C. Smith,
Mayor of Boston. 320 pages. 12mo. Cloth..... 75
It is a most excellent work. It will have a large sale, for it
emnbraces more real information about real Turks and their strange
peouliaritie than anything we have yet read -Post.
2
z. 
fo.., 
JAMES FRENCH & CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
RAMBLES IN EASTERN ASIA, including China
and Manilla, during several years' residence. With notes of the
voyage to China, excursions in Manilla, Hong Kong, Shanghai,
Ningpoo, Amoy, Fouchow and Macon, by Dr. Ball. One hand some vol., 12mo., cloth.................  $1,25
AMBITION: by Kate Willis, 12mo., cloth,.. 1,00
CARRIE EMERSON: OR, LIFE AT CLIFTONVILLE.
By C. A. Hayden. 1 handsome vol., 12mo., cloth,.. $1,00
KATE STANTON: a Page from Real Life. 12mo.,
cloth........................$1,00
DORA GRAFTON: OR, EVERY CLOUD HAS A SIL vm LINNG.  Embellished with a handsome engraving.  12mo.,
cloth, pp. 406.  Price...........    $
e SURE ANCHOR, By Rev. H. P. Andrews. 12mo.,
c...- cloth...................62i
FOR YOU KNOW WHOM: OR, OUR SCHOOL AT
PINEVILLE. Illustrated. By Caroline Ellen Hartshorn. S18mo.,
cloth..........................37i
EQUAL  RIGHTS  OF THE  RICH  AND  POOR.
By A. H. Hall. 18mo., cloth,..........    37i
EXILE'S  LAY,  and other Poems.    By  the  Border
Minstrel.  18mo., cloth, gilt..........38
STORIES FOR LITTLE FOLKS AT HOME.
By Aunt Martha. Beautifully Illustrated. Cloth, gilt,. 40
3
.I - 
JAMES FRENCH AND CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE RECORD, for the
years 1847, 1848, 1849, 1850 and 1851; one of the most valuable
American Statistical Works.  5 vols. 12mo.  Cloth..  5 00
THE NEW HAMPSHIRE FESTIVAL. A graphic
account of the Assemblage of the "Sons of New Hampshire" at
Boston, Hon. Daniel Webster presiding. Illustrated with portraits
of Webster, Woodbury and Wilder. 8vo. Cloth, gilt.. 2 00
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides.........3 00
SECOND FESTIVAL of the "Sons of New Hampshire."
Illustrated with portraits of Webster, Wilder, Appleton and Chick  ering.  8vo.  Cloth, gilt.............         2 00
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides.........3 00
FESTIVAL. 2 vols. in one. 8vo. Cloth, gilt... 2 50
ELEANOR: OR, LIFE WITHOUT LOVE. 12mo. Cloth. 75
LIFE IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA. Illustrated.
12mo. Cloth....................75
THE VACATION: OR, MRS. STANLEY AND HER CHIL  DREN. By Mrs. J. Thayer. Illustrated. 18mo. Cloth. Third
Edition.......................50
THE SAME, Gilt Edges.................                     75
SUNSHINE AND SHADE: OR, THE DENHAM FAM  ILY. By Sarah Maria. Fourth Edition. 18mo. Cloth.. 37i
T'HE SAME, Gilt Edges.............56
THE DREAM FULFILLED: OR, THE TRIALS AND
TRIUMPHS OF rHE MORELAND FAMILY.  18mo.  Cloth..  42
THIE SAME, Gilt Edges.  Fifth Edition........       621
THE  COOPER'S  SON:  OR, TRHE PRIZE  OF VIRTUE.
A Tale of the Revolution. Written for the Young. 18mo. Cloth.
Sixth Edition.  (In press.)...........       37i.
rHE'SAME, Gilt Edges................                     56
4
0 
JAMES Ig ]ENCH AND CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
NEW MINIATURE VOLUMES.
TJIE ART OF- CONVERSING.   Written for the in struction of Youth in the polite manners and language of the
drawing-room, by a Society of Gentlemen; with an illustrative
title. Fourteenth Edition.  Gilt Edges......... 37i
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides............... 50
FLORAL  GEMS:  OR, THE SONGS OF THE FLOWERS.
By Mrs. J. Thayer. Thirteenth Edition, with a beautiful frontis piece.  Gilt Edges.............          37i
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides..........50
THE AMETHYST: OR, POETICAL GEMS. A Gift Book
for all seasons.  Illustrated.  Gilt Edges.......37A
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides...........40
ZION. With Illustrative Title. By Rev. Mr. Taylor. 42
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides...........  56
THE TRIIUNE. With Illustrative Title. By Rev. Mr.
Taylor........................37A
TRIAD. With Illustrative Title. By Rev. Timothy A.
Taylor.................37i
TWO  MOTTOES.   By Rev. T. A. Taylor...  37i
SOLACE.   By Rev. T. A. Taylor......... 37i
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides............    50
SONNETS.   By Edward Moxon......  31
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides..........50
GRAY'S  ELEGY,  AND  OTHER POEMS.   The Poetical
Works of Thomas Gray.  "Poetry - Poetry; -Gray- Gray!"
[Daniel Webster, the night before his death, Oct. 24, 1852.].  31
THE SAME, Gilt Edges and Sides............       50
6 
JAMES FRENCH AND  CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
The following Writing Books are offered on Liberal Terms
FRENCH'S NEW WRITING BOOK, with a fine
engraved copy on each page. Just published, in Four Numbers,
on a highly-improved plan.
No. 1 Contains the First Principles, &c............         10
No. 2 A fine Copy Hand.............10
N1o. 3 A bold Business Hand Writing.........10
No. 4 Beautiful Epistolary Writing for the Lady......      10
James French & Co., No. 78 Washington street, have just published a new series of Writing Books for the use of Schools and
Academies. They are arranged upon a new and improved plan,
with a copy on each page, and ample instructions for learners.
We commend them to the attention of teachers and parents.
Transcript.
They cimmence with those simple forms which the learner needs
first to make, and they conduct him, by natural and appropriate
steps, to those styles of the art which indicate the chirography
not only of the finished penman, but which are adapted to the
wants of- those who wish to become accomplished accountants.Courier.
A new and original system of Writing Books, which cannot fail
to meet with favor. They consist of a series, and at the top of
each page is a finely-executed copy. We cordially recommend the
work. - Bee.
It is easily acquired, practical and beautiful.-Fitchburg Sentinel.
We have no hesitation in pronouncing them superior to anything
of the kind ever issued. -  Star Spanyled Banner.
FRENCH'S PRACTICAL WRITING BOOK, for
the use of Schools and Academies; in Three Numbers, with a
copy for each page.
No. 1, Commencing with the First Principles.....  10
No. 2, Running-hand copies for Business Purposes......10
No. 3, Very fine copies, together with German Text and Old Eng      lish...........................10
7
01,
I
i 
+s —
JAMES FRENCH AND CO.'S PUBLICATIONS.
NEW BOOKS IN PRESS,
TO BE ISSUED THIS MONTH.
BOSTON COMMON; A TALE OF OUR OWN TIMES.
12mo. 556 pages. Price,.........  $1.25
This work is universally regarded as combining beauty and
strength and practical value, to a degree rarely if ever equalled by
an American author.
It promises to have an immense sale.
ALTHA; OR, SHELLS FROM THE STRAND.  By Mrs. Ada
M. Field.  12mo.  Cloth, price,............         $1
"There is a spirit in man, and the inspiration of the Almighty
giveth understanding."
rhis new work is written in a style different from most of the
present literature. Happily showing the spirit of the times, it
abounds in religion and patriotism, showing in its sudden out  bursts of sentiment and affection the beauty of the inner life,
the wealth of happiness wedded to duty. 
RAISING THE VEIL; OR, SCENES IN THE COURTS.
12mo.  Cloth, price,..............$1
This work has been pronounced one of the most unique and
curious volumes that has been published for many ye.   Its
oddity of style, the peculiar ideas of the author, the singular
anecdotes which he introduces, which are of themselves amusing,
while they serve to instruct,- all combined, are sufficient to make
it one of the most readable books of the present day. In it will
be found portraits of well-known court officers; &c., together with
a full exposd of the Stool Pigeon Business as it has been carried
out in the different cities of the Union.
SENTIMENTS ON SOCIAL LIFE. 32mo.
8
t-"