Preble County Democrat. [volume] (Eaton, Ohio) 1857-1859, 1857-03-05
lFron the Boston Post.
The Administration OF PreSI0eht
Piercc...Yhc Public Debt.

rFron the Boston Post.
The Administration Of President
Pierce.--The Public Debt.
AS the term of President Pierce APP
proaches to its close, we everywhere
meet with the most emphatic and glow
ing eulogies on his brilliant %administra-
ton. Mr.. Pierce has been perhaps the
most thoroughly abused Executive since
the days of Jackson; but, like the i'm
old hero, he will continue to
grow in popular esteem until his name
beco mes another word for greatness
through all the land. Posterity will do
Franklin Pierce justice. He will re-
tire from the White House, having ad-
the government with singu-
lar ability, and with the best wishes OF
the best men in the country resting up
on him. But we arc keeping the read
err from the just tribute of the Mlssls-
sippian:
The able and lucid exposition of the
affairs of the government in the message
of President Pierce has compelled many
of the opposition newspapers to admit
the vigor, wisdom, and integrity of his
administration.
These concessions are moro rcmarka-
bic as they come from quarters which
have not been apt to regard just, equal,
and economical management of public
affairs as the object of good government,
but have been impatient of such quail
ties, and disconnected unless some
scheme of favoritism to class interests
were adopted by government.
The head of the administration has
arrogatcd to himself the praise which is
Justly his due, and has dismissed in two
lines the great fact which assimilates his
administration to that of General Jack
son-the payment Of the national debt.
When General Pierce, in March, 1853,
entered upon the administration of gov
crnment
The public debt was S69,676,937
The new tax debt 2,75O,0OO
71,879,937
In the cxtinguishmcnt of this debt
and premium there has been paid S45,-
S25.219, and the balance of debt is $780,
953,309, ''all of which," says the mes
sage, "might be extinguishcd within a
year without embarrassing the public
service, but being not yet due, and only
redeemablc at the option of the holder,
cannot be pressed to payment by the
government
The merit Of this reduction is due to
the administration. General jackson
veto of the Maysville-road bill was not
less essential to the protection Of the
treasury and the extinction of the first
public debt than the vctoes by which
President Pierce arrested the general
system of internal improvements were
to this second emancipation of the ma
ton from debt, which he has substan-
TALLY achieved.
To these acts in defence of popular
right, let us add his veto Of the French
spoliation bill, and the merit of an Off
cial course free from nepotism, and such
stains as the Galphin swindle and the
Gardiner claim inflicted on preceding
administrations.
The freedom of our country from
debt and the relief Of our citizens from
taxation are blessings which are felt a
this moment the more gratefully as IL
all the other manifestations of Govern
ment. in State, counties, and cities, tn
burdens of administration press heavii.,
upon all classes, and are being heapet
up, literally, to curse their postcrlty.
They are repugnant to the Demo
cratic idea, and the Democratic part.
has never regarded with favor, but ha
firmly opposed, those schemes by whicl
under the pretcnce of 'internal improve
ment," speculative and expensive PROF
ects have been attempted to be fastened
upon the national treasury.
Experience has proved that the gen
cral government is the least fitted of al
agencies for the management OF publ
enterprises of this kind, and according
ly all its interference in them has prove
f:ruitlcss and wasteful, and Il source c
corruption.
To leave all such undertakings to tn
States is the policy of the general gov
ernment, and that State is wise, which
in turn, hands them over to private cap
ital, enterprise and skill.
This has been the experience OF thu
great State; and this is the conclusion {
which all the States Of the Old Worio
free or dcspotic, have at last been iol
ced.
General Pierce on retiring from Ii
high post, will leave to his successor, nc
only an OVERLOOKING treasury, but a sys
tenn of policy which has only to be main
tanned to defend the treasury from tn
combinations which threaten it-combi
nations which are not to be appease'
by any partial concessions or any tam
pcrins policy, but which grows stron::
to demand more as their strength l
freshened by new ~draughts upon tn
treasury, whose Unsuitable appetite, Ink
those Of the morbid mind, grows b
what it feeds on"
To defeat them has been the glory q
Jackson's ana Piercc's administration
and it Will be a glory not less great 10
their incoming successor to maintain III
victory.-So"th Side (T".) Dem.
Hly~The Lancaster Express says tina