Page:Southern Historical Society Papers volume 17.djvu/136

 128 Southern Historical Society Papers,

exploration of the western frontiers, and the maintenance of large garrisons for the defense of settlers against the Indians. And there was no direction in which was not felt his comprehensive under- standing and his diligent hand.

His efforts to obtain increased pay for officers and men, and pen- sions to their widows, betokened those liberal sentiments to the de- fenders of their country which he never lost opportunity to evince or express.

He refused to carry politics into the matter of clerical appoint- ments, and in selecting a clerk was indifferent whether he was a Democrat or a Whig. To get the best clerk was his sole thought, and while I am not prepared to condemn as spoilsmen those who seek agents in unison with their principles, I can readily recognize the simplicity and loftiness of a nature which pays no heed to con- siderations of partisan advantage.

The confidence which he inspired was indicated by the trust re- posed in him by Congress to take charge of the appropriations made for the construction of the new Senate chamber and hall of Repre- sentatives, and of those also to locate the most eligible route for the railway to connect the Mississippi valley with the Pacific coast.

The administration of Franklin Pierce closed in 1857, and it had presented the only instance in our history of a cabinet unchanged for four years in the individuals which composed it. None have filled the executive chair with more fidelity to public interests than Frank- lin Pierce, and words with which his Secretary of War eulogized him were worthily spoken by one to whom they were equally applicable : frank and bold in his opinions, he never deceived any one. And if treachery had ever come near him it would have stood abashed in the presence of his truth, his manliness and his confiding simplicity.'*
 * ' Chivalrous, generous, amiable, true to his friends and his faith,

FIRST PUBLIC APPEARANCE IN POLITICS— IN THE HOUSE OF REP- RESENTATIVES IN 1845.

In his first public appearance, in 1843, Mr. Davis had uttered the key-note of his political faith by moving to instruct the delegates from Mississippi to vote for John C. Calhoun as a presidential nomi- nee in a national Democratic convention.

Calhoun was, as he regarded, "the most trusted leader of the South and the greatest and purest statesman in the Senate," and while he did not concur in his doctrines of nullification, he adopted