Weekly hawk-eye and telegraph. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1855-1857, 1856-03-26
A Word In Favor of MIR. Pierce.


The Washington Sentinel is the organ of one
branch of the pro-slavery party. Hear what
it says in its Wednesdays sheet of the man who
now fills the Executive chair at the seat of gov
ernment:
Franklin Pierce came into Office nearly by
reclamation, and he had for his encouragement
and support Senate with large democratic
majority, and but fomr fresoilers all told "a House
of Representatives with an overwhelming dem
ocratic majority, and with only small freesoil
party. By the fast and loose course CT his ad-
ministraiion-- his habitual faithbreakng with
everybody-his pledges ever disregarded, or,
what is worse, evaded-his shutting, undecided
course in our foreign relationships abolition ap-
pointments-and a thousand and one other
things we could add, equally demorolizing in
their tendency; the Lower House is in the hands
of Black Republicans, and in the Senate
of the United States the small nucleus of
four freesoilcrs has been increased to one fifth
of the whole body" f-..-
There is some truth in this, though certainly
in placing the responsibility on the shoulders of
Mr.. Pierce, the Sentinel does him less than JUS
tice. The people by whom he is surrounded
and by whose advice he has been guided, are
rather more to blame than he. Mr.. Pierce is
a small lawyer from Concord, of slender capacity
and no frmness of principal person whose
intellectual character is best expressed by a
homely metaphor sometimes used by housewives
when they say of a feeble minded man that he
is ;" rather slack baked" 1t is very true, that
Mr.. Pierce has broken up the democratic party,
filed the House of Representatives with freesoil-
ers, and brought a large reinforcement of that
party into the Senate; but he was scarcely
more free agent in the matter than the hammer
with which laborer breaks up rock to macada
mlZe Il road. III any person. acceptable to the
Sentinel and the Verginians for whom it speaks
had been placed in the Executive chair, the case
would not have been different.
Suppose Mr. Hunter had been the President
instead of Mr.. Pierce; the Nebraska bill would
have passed as matter of course 1t was
southern measure, of southern ori.ion prepared
under southern auspices, though the instrument
chosen for bringing it forward in the Senate,
Mr. Douglas was from a northern state. The
whole Executive patronage would have been en-
ployed to carry it through Congress, under Mr..
Hunter, as it was under Mr. Pierce Mr.. Hunter
would not have made himself ridiculous, as Mr.
Pierce has done, by giving pledge that the
slavery question shouldnot be agitated while he
held the Presidency; but the ini9uity would have
been surely conslmmated and the result would
have been exasperated, and the character of the
House of Representatives would have undergone
precisely the change which it now has. The
felt, because il was perpctrated by Mr.. Hunter.
Even if Mr. Fillmore had been placed in Of
flee for second term, we are confident that the
measure which awakcns such general discomfort
in the free states would have passed the two
Houses. The very moment he took the Execu-
tive chair after the death of General Taylor, he
yielded to theintuencc of southern politicians.
lie renowned at once the plan oisettln@ the sla-
very question which Gen. Taylor had adhered to
with so much pcrtinacity-a plan infinitly more
just to the people at large, as well more tavora-
bic to the interests of freedom, than that propos-
ed by Senator Foote-and placed himselfin the
hands of the shareholders. We could not have
expected from him any resistance to their will,
if he had remained in Office four years longer
but, on The contrary more con.ented and ha-
btual passvencss. The same breach of faith
would have been perpetrated, and the same in-
dgnation would have been aroused in the free |
states, with the same effect on the elections and
the same merging of other controversies in the
question of the extension OF slavery.
Those who seek to introduce the local laws of
the southern states into territoricsat least, the
more sagacious among them-perceive clearly
that they want President who is either a south
err man and one with themselves in interest, or
else q northern man who is easily controlled by |
the influences by which public men are surround
ed at Washington. If they must take a northern |
man, it is Indispensable that he should be one |
whom they can make their tool. II he has any I
any force, of character and unsubdued
of a propensity to act for himself, he is
not safe Instrument in their hands. He may
at some unlucky moment begin fancy, in spite
Of all their teachings that the popular feeling is
against slavery, and that the surest way of ac-
curing the favor of the people is to resist its ex
tension, and may suddenly break away from the
I'll.
have formed for him.
We can see therefore, the reason why so many.
Of the extreme pro-siavery men are DESTROYS that
Mr.. Pierce should be again nominated They
very properly regard him as a safe man and en-
terrain no lear of his raising mutiny in the yes
sell of state. As to the dissolution of the demo-
,rotic party they understand as well as we do
hat it is simply the effect of the measures which
hey have forced upon him.