Слике страница
PDF
ePub
[graphic]

Drawn by HL. Stephens

Augustus Robin, NY

THE PRESIDENT AND THE JAPANESE EMBASSY

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX AND TILDEN FOUNDATION

Hampshire, was inaugurated. The latter was nominated for the office by the Democratic convention held at Baltimore early in June, 1852, when William R. King, of Alabama, was named for the office of Vice-President. At the same place, on the 16th of June, Winfield Scott was nominated for President and William A. Graham for Vice-President, by a Whig convention. The Democratic nominees were elected, but failing health prevented the VicePresident taking his seat. He died in April, 1863, at the age of sixty-eight

years.

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

[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]

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 by Chief Justice Taney. The military display on that occasion was larger

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

than had ever been seen in the streets of the National city, and it was estimated that at least twenty thousand strangers were in Washington on the morning of the inauguration. 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 promises and patriotic sentiments, received the general approval of his countrymen. Three days afterward [March 7] the Senate, in special session, confirmed his cabinet appointments.'

[ocr errors]

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, and friendly relations have existed between the two governments ever since. Those relations were delicate during a large portion of the late Civil War in the United States, while French bayonets kept the Austrian Archduke Maximilian in the attitude of a ruler, with the title of emperor, over the Mexican people, whose liberties Napoleon the Third, emperor of France, was thereby trying to destroy. The republican government in power when Maximilian

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. When, in the spring of 1857, he left the chair of state, he again retired into private life, and has never been in public employment since.

1 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

[graphic]

Cushing, Attorney-General.

Note 7, page 484.

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 he has never been able to regain it. Much of the time since he was driven from public life he has lived in exile in Cuba, and in 1866 he was a resident of the United States. He went to Mexico during the earlier period of 1867, when he was arrested, and thrown into prison. Few men have experienced greater vicissitudes than Santa Anna.

SANTA ANNA.

came was steadily recognized by that of the United States as the legitimate government of Mexico, and, diplomatically, Maximilian was unknown to it.

The earlier portion of Pierce's administration was distinguished by important explorations by sea and land, in the interest of American commerce. The acquisition of California, and the marvelous rapidity with which it was filling with an enterprising population, opened to the view of statesmen an immense commercial interest on the Pacific coast, which demanded the most liberal legislation. Congress seems to have comprehended the importance of the matter, and under its authority four armed vessels and a supplyship sailed [May, 1853] from Norfolk, under Captain Ringgold, for the eastern coast of Asia, by the way of Cape Horn. Its chief object was a thorough exploration of those regions of the Pacific Ocean which it was then evident would soon be traversed between the ports of our own western frontier and the East Indies; also of the whaling-grounds of the Kamtchatka Sea and Behring's Straits, on the borders of which the United States purchased from Russia, in 1867, at the cost of $7,200,000 in gold, a large and important territory. Steamships had then just commenced making stated and regular voyages from California to China and Japan.

[graphic]

AN OCEAN STEAMSHIP.

While the expedition just mentioned was away, plans were maturing for the construction of one or more railways across the continent, to connect, by a continuous line of transportation, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Congress authorized surveys for such road or roads, and by midsummer [1853] four expeditions were fitted out for the purpose-one to explore from the upper waters of the Mississippi, at St. Paul, to Puget's Sound, on the Pacific; another to cross the continent from the Mississippi, along a line adjacent to the thirtysixth parallel of latitude; another from the Mississippi, by way of the Great Salt Lake, in Utah; and a fourth from some point on the Lower Mississippi to the coast of Southern California, at San Pedro, Los Angelos, or San Diego. These expeditions performed their duties well, in the midst of great hardships,' and over one of the routes then explored, called the Central, which traverses Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada and California, a railway was completed in May, 1869. Who can estimate the effect of these gigantic operations upon the destiny of our Republic, so connected in commercial relations with that "Farther India" whose wealth the civilized world so long coveted?

1 At the time these explorations were going on, Colonel Fremont (see page 488) was at the head of a similar party among the Rocky Mountains. That exploring in the direction of the Great Salt Lake, was in charge of Captain Gunnison, of the National army. He found the Indians hostile when he approached the Mormon country, and among the Wasatch mountains they fell upon the explorers and killed a number of them, including the leader. Fremont's party suffered dreadfully for want of food in the midst of deep snow. For forty-five days they fed on the meat of exhausted mules which they slew, and every particle was devoured, even the entrails! They were met and saved by another party in February, 1854.

« ПретходнаНастави »