CHAPTER XIV.

PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. [1853-1857.]

A DRIVING sleet filled the air on the 4th of March, 1853, when Franklin Pierce, the fourteenth President of the United States, stood upon the rude platform of New Hampshire pine, erected for the purpose over the steps of the eastern portico of the Federal capitol, and took the oath of office administered

Frank Perce

by Chief Justice Taney. The military display on that occasion, was larger than had ever been seen in the streets of the Federal city, and it was estimated that at least twenty thousand strangers were in Washington on the morning of the inauguration. Among that great assembly there was one who bore a near

1 Franklin Pierce was born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in November, 1804. He is the son of General Benjamin Pierce, an active officer in the old War for Independence, and one of the most useful men in New Hampshire. In 1820, when sixteen years of age, young Pierce became a student in Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine. He was graduated in 1824, chose law as a profession, and was admitted to practice at the bar in 1827. He became a warm politician, and partisan of General Jackson in 1828; and the next year, when he was twenty-five years of age, he was elected a member of the Legislature of his native State. There he served four years. He was elected to Congress in 1833, and served his constituents in the House of Representatives for four years. In 1837, the Legislature of New Hampshire elected him to a seat in the Federal Senate. He resigned his seat in June, 1842, and remained in private life until 1845, when he was appointed United States District Attorney for New Hampshire. He was commissioned a Brigadier-General in March, 1847, and joined the army in Mexico, under General Scott. After the war, he retired from public life, where he remained until called to the highest office in the gift of the people.

relationship to the great Washington,' and had been present at the inauguration of every President of the United States since the formation of our Federal government in 1789. Untrammeled by special party pledges, the new Chief Magistrate entered upon the duties of his office under pleasant auspices; and his inaugural address, full of promise and patriotism, received the general approval of his countrymen. Three days afterward [March 7] the Senate, in special session, confirmed his cabinet appointments,' and the administration now [1856] drawing to a close began its work.

The most serious difficulty which President Pierce was called upon to encounter, at the commencement of his administration, was a dispute concerning the boundary line between the Mexican province of Chihuahua and New Mexico. The Mesilla valley, a fertile and extensive region, was claimed by both Territories; and under the direction of Santa Anna, who was again President of the Mexican Republic in 1854, Chihuahua took armed possession of the disputed territory. For a time war seemed inevitable between the United States and Mexico. The dispute was finally settled by negotiations; but events are continually transpiring on the borders of the two countries, calculated to produce much irritation of feeling. The people of Mexico are becoming every year more impatient of the arbitrary rule of military leaders, and insurrection after insurrection continually disturb the Republic. The youth of the present generation will probably observe the rule of the United States eventually extended over the whole of that unhappy country.

A few days after the expedition under the command of Dr. Kane left New York, in May, 1853, another, consisting of four armed vessels and a supplyship, sailed from Norfolk, under the command of Captain Ringgold, of the United States Navy. Its destination was the eastern coast of Asia, and its object a thorough exploration of those regions of the Pacific Ocean yet to be traversed by vessels passing between the ports of our western frontier and China, and of the whaling grounds of the Sea of Okotsk and Behring's Straits. This expedition returned in the summer of 1856, having accomplished many of the objects for which it was sent out. In the mean while, plans had been sug

George Washington Parke Custis, of Arlington House, Virginia, a grandson of Mrs. Washington, and adopted son of the Father of his Country. He is now [Dec., 1856] the only surviving executor of the last Will of Washington. 2 Page 361.

3 William L. Marcy, Secretary of State; James Guthrie, Secretary of the Treasury; Robert McClelland, Secretary of the Interior; Jefferson Davis, Secretary of War; James C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy; James Campbell, Postmaster-General; Caleb Cushing, Attorney-General.

Note 7, page 484.

5 Page 497.

• Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is a native of Mexico, and first came into public life in 1821, during the excitements of revolution. He has been one of the chief revolutionists in that unhappy country. He was chosen President of the Republic in 1833. After an exciting career as a commanding General, he was again elected President in 1841, but was hurled from power in 1845. After the capture of the city of Mexico by the Americans under General Scott [page 494], he retired to the West Indies, and finally to Carthagena, where he resided until 1853, when he returned to Mexico, and was elected President again. In the summer of 1854, he was accused of a design to assume imperial power, and violent insurrections were the consequence. These resulted in his being again deprived of power; and now [1856] he is in exile. Few men have experienced greater vicissitudes than Santa Anna.

SANTA ANNA.

gested, and some matured, for the construction of one or more railways from the Mississippi valley across the continent to the Pacific coast. This subject yet [1856] occupies a prominent place in the public mind, and is next in importance, as a national question, to that of human slavery, now the great and absorbing topic of the time. The thirty-second Congress, at its last session," authorized surveys for the selection of the best path for such railroad; and by mid-summer [1853] four expeditions were fitted out to explore as many different routes. One, under Major Stephens, was instructed to survey a northern route from the upper waters of the Mississippi to Puget's Sound. The course to be taken was from St. Paul's, in Minnesota, to the Great Bend of the Missouri river; thence on the table land between the Missouri and Saskatchawan rivers, to the most available pass in the Rocky Mountains. A second expedition, under Lieutenant Whipple, was directed to cross the continent from the Mississippi, along a line adjacent to the 36th parallel of latitude. It was to proceed from the Mississippi, along the head waters of the Canadian river, across the Rio Peco, and enter the valley of the Rio del Norte near Albuquerque, thence through Walker's Pass in the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific, on the coast of Southern California, near San Pedro, Los Angelos, or San Diego. A third, under Captain Gunnison, was to proceed through the Rocky Mountains, near the head waters of the Del Norte, by way of the Heurfano river, into the valley of the Greene and Grand rivers, thence westwardly along the Nicollet river of the Great Basin, and north, by way of the Great Salt Lake in Utah. A fourth was to leave the more southern portions of the Mississippi, and reach the Pacific somewhere in Lower California-perhaps at San Diego. These expeditions were intended, by their combined operations, to sweep the whole area of our territory between the Mississippi and the Pacific. Their work is not yet [1856] accomplished. They have been compelled to encounter the most discouraging obstacles, but the results will be of infinite importance, not only to our country, but to the world. These, taken in connection with the operations of portions of the navy of the United States,

in explorations, certainly rank among the most important movements of the age. Who can estimate the effect of a consummation of these gigantic plans, upon the growth and prosperity of the United States, when the Pacific's shores shall be reached by railways, and steamships shall ply regularly between these termini and that "farther India,"

2 Page 504.

AN OCEAN STEAMSHIP. 1 Note 3, page 366. Late in the autumn of 1853, Colonel Fremont started with a number of men, to explore the Cochatope Pass, in mid-winter, and ascertain, by his own observation, whether the snows were so deep at that season of the year, as to render railroad travel through there impracticable. He and his party suffered terribly. Forty-five days they fed on mules, which, from want of food, could go no further, and were killed and eaten-every particle, even to the entrails! They were met and relieved by another party on the 19th of February, 1854. This was Fremont's fifth and last exploring expedition. In February, 1854, the Indians of the Wasatch Mountains attacked Captain Gunnison's party, and slew the leader and several of his men. Their remains were afterward found by another party, when the spring sun had melted the snow.

whose wealth the commercial world has so long coveted?' The beaten tracks of commerce will be changed, and teeming marts will burst into existence where now the dwindling tribes of the forest build their wigwams," and gaze musingly upon the sunset, the emblem of their own destiny."

In the year 1851 an immense building, made of iron and glass, was erected in Hyde Park, London, under royal patronage; and within it an exhibition of the industry of all nations was opened on the 1st of May of that year. It was a WORLD'S FAIR; and representatives from every civilized nation of the globe were there, mingling together as brothers of one family, and all equally interested in the perfection of each other's productions. The idea was one of great moral grandeur, for it set an insignia of dignity upon labor, hitherto withheld by those who bore scepters and orders. There men of all nations and creeds received a lesson upon the importance of brotherhood among the children of men, such as the pen and tongue could not teach; and they are now diffusing the blessings of that lesson among their several peoples, the fruits of which will be seen by future generations.

ed there with imposing ceremonies led by the presiding Chief Magistrate of the United States. For several months the Palace was thronged with delighted visitors; and on the 4th of May, 1854, it was re-opened with impressive cereThere, in that beautiful Palace, Labor was crowned as the supreme dignity of a nation and of the world. Although the

monies as a perpetual exhibition.

2 Page 13.

3

Page 33.

1 Note 4, page 38. The chief patron was Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, queen of Great Britain. On that occasion, prayer was read by Dr. Wainwright, provisional bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the diocese of New York (since deceased); an address was pronounced by Theodore Sedgwick, president of the Association by which the building was erected; and on the 16th of the month, a grand entertainment was given by the directors to distinguished guests, among whom were the President of the United States, and members of his cabinet; Sir Charles Lyell, the eminent English geologist, and others.

One of the speakers on that occasion [Elihu Burritt] said: "Worthy of the grandest circumstances which could be thrown around a human assembly, worthy of this occasion and a hundred like this, is that beautiful idea, the coronation of Labor. * ** Not American labor, not British

labor, not French labor, not the labor of the New World or the Old, but the labor of mankind as one undivided brotherhood-labor as the oldest, the noblest, prerogative of duty and humanity." And Rev. E. H. Chapin closed with the beautiful invocation: "O! genius of Art, fill us with the inspiration of still higher and more spiritual beauty. O! instruments of invention, enlarge our dominion over reality. Let iron and fire become as blood and muscle, and in this electric net-work let heart and brain inclose the world with truth and sympathy. And thou, O! beautiful dome of light, suggestive of the brooding future, the future of human love and divine communion, expand and spread above the tribes of men, a canopy broad as the earth, and glorious as the upper heaven."

whole proceedings were but an ephemeral show, and the scheme of a perpetual exhibition has utterly failed, the event will ever remain a prominent initial letter, beautifully illuminated, on the pages of our history.

In the same month [July, 1853] an event occurred which greatly increased the respect of foreign nations for the flag of the United States. A Hungarian refugee,' named Martin Koszta, had taken the legal measures to become a nat

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CAPTAIN INGRAHAM.

uralized citizen of our republic. While engaged in business at Smyrna, on the Mediterranean, he was seized, by order of the Austrian consul-general,' and taken on board an Austrian brig to be conveyed to Trieste as a rebel refugee, notwithstanding he carried an American protection. Captain Ingraham, of the United States sloop-of-war St. Louis, then lying in the harbor of Smyrna, immediately claimed Koszta as an American citizen. On the refusal of the Austrian authorities to release the prisoner, Ingraham cleared his vessel for action [July 2], and threatened to fire upon the brig if Koszta was not delivered up within a given time. The Austrians yielded to the powerful arguments of forty well-shotted cannons, and Koszta was placed in the custody of the French consul, to await the action of the respective governments. Ingraham's course was everywhere applauded; and Congress signified its approbation by voting him an elegant sword. The pride of the Austrian government was severely wounded, and it issued a protest against the proceedings of Captain Ingraham, and sent it to all the European courts. Mr. Hulseman, the Austrian minister at Washington,' demanded an apology, or other redress, from our government, and menaced the United States with the displeasure of his royal master. But no serious difficulty occurred. It was plainly perceived that the Austrians were in the wrong; and Koszta, under the protection of the United States flag, returned to this land of free opinions.

On the first Monday in December, 1853, the thirty-third Congress (first session) assembled in the Federal capitol. A greater degree of good feeling was exhibited among members of both Houses, from all parts of the Union, than had been witnessed since the excitement incident to the slavery agitation in 1850. The people regarded the session as one of great moment, for subjects of vast national importance would necessarily occupy the attention of their representatives. The construction of a railway to the Pacific Ocean' was a topic of paramount importance to be discussed. There were treaties in progress respecting boundaries and claims between the United States and their southern neighbors, Mexico and Central America, chiefly concerning grants of territory for inter-oceanic communications across the Isthmus; and boundary lines between

When Austria, by the aid of Russia [note 1, page 511], crushed the rebellion in Hungary, in 1848, many of the active patriots became exiles in foreign lands. A large number came to the United States, and many of them became naturalized citizens-that is, after due legal preparation, took an oath to support the Constitution and laws of the United States, and to perform faithfully all the duties of a citizen. 2 Note 1, page 395. ⚫ Page 500.

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Note 3, page 366.

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3 Page 415. Page 516.