Page:The Biographical Dictionary of America, vol. 08.djvu/346

 PIERCE

PIERCE

by Augustus C. Dodge of Iowa) U.S. minister to Spain. He appointed Jolin A. Campbell of Alabama associate justice of the U.S. supreme court in 1853, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Mr. Justice McKinley of Alabama. In his inaugural address President Pierce advised against the agitation of the question of slavery and the rendition of fugitive slaves, as long as the constitution protected the slaveholders and the institution. He feared that the excitement attending such discussion miglit threaten the stability of the union of tiie states. He settled the boundary dispute with Mexico by appointing James Gadsden U.S. minister to Mexico, and empowering him to negotiate a treaty with that country, by which the United States secured 45,000 square miles out of which parts of Arizona and New Mexico were formed, jiaying therefor $10,000,000, but re- ceivijig a considera- bly larger sum from Mexico for Indian depredation claims. Under the direction of the war depart- ment he caused the surveys of several routes for a railroad to the Pacific, and the publication of the va- rious reports gave to the people a large amount of knowledge of the territory tra- versed. In 1858 Mar- tin Koszta. a Hungarian refugee, was captured in the harbor of Smyrna and confined on the Austrian brig Hussar as a political prisoner. The United States agent at that port demanded his release on the ground that he had taken the preliminary steps toward becoming an American citizen. Commander D. N. Ingraham (q.v.) of the U.S. sloop of war St. Louis threatened to fire upon the Hussar unless Koszta was released, and by mutual agreement he was placed in charge of the French consul, and a few days thereafter released by order of the Austrian government. The President and both houses of congress approved the course of Ingraham and presented him with a medal. By mutual concessions the question in controversy respecting the fisheries claims of Great Britain was amicably settled. The treaty with Great Britian insuring commer- cial reciprocity with the Canadian provinces, and the treaty with Japan opening the ports of that empire to commerce were ratified by the senate in 1854. In the United States congress the Kansas-Nebraska bill was debated in the 3.3d congress and passed. This act rendered void the

Missouri compromise and re-opened the question of slavery in the territories, wiiicli resulted in the Kansas dual government and a miniature civil war, which was ended by the action of the President in appointing John W. Geary of Penn- sylvania military governor of the territory in 1856, with power to restore order. During the progress of the Crimean war, 1854-55, recruits were being secretly enlisted in the United States for the Britisli army. Learning that the British minister sanctioned the proceeding, President Pierce demanded Mr. Crampton's recall, and when the British government refused, he promptly dis- missed him, and also the British consuls at New York, Pliiladelphia and Cincinnati, who were parties to the movement. The British govern- ment accepted the situation, and sent new men to fill the places of those dismissed. During Pres- ident Pierce's administration, the court of claims was organized, the diplomatic and consular system was reorganized, and General Scott was made lieu- tenant-general. He vetoed a bill appropriating 10,000.000 acres of land- to the states for the relief of indigent insane, the appropriation bill for public ■works in 1854, the bill for the payment of French spoliation claims, and an increased appropriation for the Collins line of steamers in 18.55. When William Walker, the filibuster, gained undisputed control of Nicaragua in 1856, and announced that he had been elected president, the President- recognized the government, and received a minister sent by W^alker to Washington. By di- rection of President Pierce the United States ministers to Great Britain, France and Spain, met at Ostend, Oct. 9, 1854, adjourned to Aix la Chapelle, and sent from there to Washington the "Ostend Manifesto", which declared that the sale of Cuba to the United States would be advantageous to both governments; but that if Spain refused to sell, it was incumbent upon the United States to " wrest it from her '* rather than see it Africanized like Santo Domingo. The un- settled conditions of the European powers, and the question of slavery in the territories of the United States overshadowed the Cuban ques- tion, however, and it was not revived during Pres- ident Pierce's administration. The Democrat'c national convention met at Cincinnati, June 2, 1856, and President Pierce was a candidate for renomination, receiving on the first ballot 122 votes to 135 for Buchanan, and 33 for Douglas. On the 17th ballot James Buchanan was nomin- ated. In August, 18.56, the house of representa- tives attached a rider to the army appropriation bill, providing that no part of the army should be employed to enforce the laws of the Kansas territorial legislature until the validity of such laws was determined by congress; and when the bill came before the senate, that body refused to