involved and imperiled in this question. And are patriotic men in any part of the Union prepared, on such issue, thus madly to invite all the consequences of the forfeiture of their Constitutional engagements? It is impossible. The storm of frenzy and faction must inevitably dash itself in vain against the unshaken rock of the Constitution. I shall never doubt it. I know that the Union is stronger a thousand times than all the wild and chimerical schemes of social change, which are generated, one after another, in the unstable minds of visionary sophists and interested agitators. I rely confidently on the patriotism of the people, on the dignity and self-respect of the States, on the wisdom of Congress, and, above all, on the continued gracious favor of Almighty God, to maintain against all enemies, whether at home or abroad, the sanctity of the Constitution and the integrity of the Union.

CHAPTER XV.

THE MESSAGE - MORE VETOES-GATHERING DIFFICUL TIES WALKER, THE FILIBUSTER-CENTRAL AMERICA AND ITS NEW CIVILIZATION-THE FILIBUSTER MAINTAINED IN THE PLATFORM AT CINCINNATI.

TH

HIS remarkable message starts out with the "congratulation that the Republic is tranquilly advancing in a career of prosperity and peace," an assertion which must have, to a great extent, sounded as strangely at that day as it does now. So far as internal, or even external, tranquillity was concerned, then, or prospectively, the facts hardly justified the statement, which must be regarded as the expression of the President's desire more than the record of a historic truth. The discussion of foreign relations which now follows is extremely plain with a lawyer's touch of argumentation.

The latter half of the message is a defensive argument, which it may, perhaps, be difficult to read. now for the first time, without mixed feelings of disappointment and amazement. To reconcile it to

a court of "justice," or even to the Halls of Congress, would certainly be an easier task. The President handles the whole irritating subject of sectional strife with an utter absence of that native delicacy and refinement which this work has attributed to him, a

fact no doubt greatly owing to Cabinet modifications. There is not only a free selection of those doubtful and inflammable terms, sectionalists, extremists, agitators, fanatics, passionate rage, sectional agitation, partisan spirit, vindictive hostility, visionary sophists, false pretext, etc.; but also a careful adherence to a line of phraseology distinctive of partisan hair-splitting, and always needless otherwise, if not untrue, such as the "State of Texas returned to the Union,' and the position of Mr. Douglas and others now as to the doubtful Constitutionality of the "Missouri Compromise," and the recent discovery that it had been repealed substantially in 1850, without anybody uttering a syllable on the subject, and other like things. This whole performance was extra-official and coarse, and wholly uncalled for from the President, and decidedly injurious in its influence. The whole argument was an attempt to direct and influence Congress and the people, and it appears in the form of an Executive castigation of the North. Its manner and language, which were unfortunate, must be taken for its spirit. This message aggrieved and enraged the great majority in the North, and only increased the ill-feelings of the times.

If there had ever been any doubt as to the position occupied by the President, there was none now. And with this message fell to the ground the oftreiterated statement that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was not really a measure of his Administration. It is here set forth with sufficient plainness that he not only embraced that Act with the "great doctrine of

squatter sovereignty" with great warmth, but also all the legislation and other steps necessary to carry them out.

A conciliatory appeal from the President of the whole people to the country, the whole country, and to the contending sections separately, was in order at that time; but what the President did instead of this was unwise and hurtful, and sadly contradictory of his inaugural promises, and the principles and promises on which the campaign resulting in his election was fought. As to the correctness of the positions now taken by Mr. Pierce, or even the facts assumed by him in this defense and argument, the reader must decide for himself. If this message was an insult to the intelligence and honest and earnest sense of right in a large portion of his countrymen, President Pierce's Kansas message of January 24th and last annual communication to Congress were still more so. In style and manner, and to a great extent in substance, they were uncalled for and impolitic. From this third annual message the nature of the contest between the President and Congress may be readily inferred.

On the 19th of May, 1856, the President vetoed a bill for improving the mouth of the Mississippi River; also on the same date he vetoed a similar bill for improving the St. Clair River, in Michigan. On the 22d of that month he sent to the Senate his third veto message for the session. This was also a bill for improving the St. Mary's River, in Michigan. On the 11th and 14th of August bills for improving

the Des Moines Rapids and Patapsco River were returned to the branch where they originated with the President's veto. But these bills were all passed by a two-thirds vote in both Houses over the vetoes.

The attention of Congress, the Administration, and the country was now mainly turned towards affairs in Kansas and Central America, and especially were the former the source of the wildest excitement everywhere, as well as of constant conflict and some bitter and disreputable scenes at the National Capital. "Bleeding Kansas" was the theme of all tongues, and from this time till the end of his term, President Pierce and his supporters were chiefly occupied in defending the measures which had led directly to this warlike territorial and slavery contest. The records of these times, both official and popular, have an air of extravagance about them, and appear so far tinctured with partisan one-sidedness as to render the task of the explorer after the truth of history extremely difficult, if not uncertain, in the end.

On the 15th of May, 1856, the President sent to Congress an important message on Central American affairs. One point in this message especially demands some notice here, as relating to the reception of a minister from the filibuster government, with some show of strength but less of durability, recently established in Nicaragua. The adventures of William Walker, a Tennesseean, and his followers in Central America, form one of the most strange and indefensible episodes in American history; but deserve a place in this work mainly on account of the relation