Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1850-1854, 1853-12-30
A Note on the Presidents Message.

notice OF that portion OF the Presidents Mes
sage in which he directs the attention of Con
gress and his constituents to the compromise
measures. Mr.. Pierce says:
" 1t is no part OF my purpose TO give prominence
10 any subject which may properly be regarded aj
set at rest by the deliberate judgement of the poo
pie. But while the present is bright with promise
and the future full of demand and nducemcnt for
the exercise OF active intelligence, the past can ne
yer be without useful lessons of admonition and
instruction. If its dangers serve not as beacons
they will evidently fail TO fulfil the object of wise
design. When the grave shall have closed over
all who are now endeavoring to meet the obga-
tons of duty the year 1850 will be REQUIRED TO as
period filled with anxious apprehension A sue
cessful war had just terminated. Peace brought
with it vast augmentation of territory Dstur-
bing questions arose, bearing upon the domestic
institutions of one portion of the confederacv, and
involving the constitutional rights of the states
But Notwithstanding differences of opinion and
sentiment which then existed in relation to details
and specific provisions, the acqucscence of distin-
guished citizens, whose devotion TO the Union can
never be doubted, has given renewed yigor TO our
institutions, and restored sense of repose and Sc
curity to the public mind throughout the confede-
racy. That this reposc is to sutierno shock during
my official term, if have power to avert it, those
who placed me here may be assured"
There are one or two things i'll this passage
with which we fully agree. 1t is very true
that the occasion to which the President re-
fers, and the Legislation to which it gave rise,
are mot without useful LESSONS Of admonition
and instruction. The fugitive slave law
stands as a perpetual beacon to warn men
against inhunan legislation for political eff
feet. That very law is already branded by
presses in the slave states as unworthy Of our
age and our country, as containing hard fea-
lures and provisions which are barbarously
enforced Every time the law is put in ex-
ecution, its hideous featuresare brought anew
before the public gaze. Any attempt to re-
cover fugitive under this law presents, in
greater or less degree, an example of the bar
barous enforcement Of its provisions, provo
king wrath, and exciting discussion. 1t is a
great error, therefore, and one into which we
marvel Mr.. Pierce should have fallen into, to
say that this question is set at rest 1t is still
discussed at the South, with great asperity of
language-it is still discussed at the North,
with no dimiuution Of bitterness.
In another point Of view, the legislation
of the year 1850 inculcates a very important
lesson. If Mr.. Pierce had been one of the
authors of the compromise, he would not now
have been President of the United States
The wing party turned its heel upon Fillmore
and Webster, two of the most jealous cham
pions of those measures, and took for their
candidate for the Presidency a man from the
army, who had never been in political life
Webster died, as some of his friends affirm,
from chagrin at the treatment he received !;
and Fillmore sinks like lead in the ocean of
political oblivion, never, probably to emerge
The democratic party set aside every one of
its members who had been engaged in bring
ing about that compromise, and drawing
from lawyers office in a New Hampshire
village, a man who had wholly retired from
public life made him their candidate and cleo
ted him to the Presidency In our own state.
what has been the fate of the warmcst cham
pions of the compromise, who organized out
of both parties an association for its support
the getters-up Of the Castle Garden Union
Safety Committee? The vhg leaders in
that affair are cast off by their own party
the democratic leaders find themselves abando-
ned and left alone even by those with whom
they then acted. At the South, what has been
| the reward of the politicians who were fore
most in forci Q these measures upon the ma
tion' Howell Cobb, at one time the most
popular i'll Georgia, is beaten in the elections
and compelled to go back to private life
Foote, the noisiest champion Of the compro-
mise III the United States Senate, is defeated
in his desperate struggle to be returned to
that body and left in "a hopeless minority
Clemens who had fair prospect of long
political life, is sent back to retirement for
consenting to be follower of Foote in sup
porting the compromise measures. We
might multiply these examples if we had
space-but these are enough to justify all
that the message has said Of the admonitions
inculcated by the political expel fence of the
year 1850.
That year, the President truly says, was a
period of anxiety and apprehension. He
means, we suppose that the anxiety was fol
the preservation of the Uuion; but there were
in fact few sensible people, except persons o.
a very timid temperament or made somewhat
morbidly fearful by age who at that timt
] really entertained any fears lest the EnioI