Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-03-05
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THURsDAY, MARCH 5. Iss7.


The hauwe Of Administration.
Yesterday, the term Of office of Franklin
Pierce as President OF the United States, ceased,
aud that of James Buchanan commenced.
Whether this change in men will produce any
change IN policy, the future must determine;
but of ore thing we trust We may be certain of
that Mr.. Buchanan has not reached to the ripe
age Of nearly three score and ten. one half OF it
spent in the public service, before assuming his
high position, without learning something If lis
du ies-at least, enough to avoid some of tie
shoals and qucksands upon which the admins
tration OF his predecessor was wrecked At
all events, so we hope and pray.
When Franklin Pierce entered upon the office
of Caief Magistrate, the whole country was in a
state Of domestic quiet and repose In addition
to the pledge of his party not to suffer the re-
opening" again of the ''slavery agitation" which
it was complained had recently so cnnvulsed the
eoantry, President Pierce pledged himself anew,
in his inaugural and in his first annual message,
10 stand by all the slavery compromise legislation
of the past, and protect the country, by all the
constitutional means in his power, fiom a renew
al of that "agitation." But no sooner had his ad-
ministration got fairly under way, than he began
to vie with Atchisor Douglas and other chief
eonspirators against the peace and liberty of the
country, in his efforts for the repeal Of the Mis-
souri, Compromise. with the object of riding upon
the whirlwind of " agitation" thereby produced,
into second Presidential term.
But the political judgment of his own party at
Cincinnati coineiied with the judgment of the
people in casting him aside-the North regarding
him as a traitor to free principles, and the South
looking upon him a instrument, used up
in their service, and therefore unprof able for
further using. The South loved the treason, but
dtt sted the traitor so she, the only friend he
had, flung him, loathed, away" amid the gen
eral lullaby which greeted his ears, from both
North aud South, of =" poor Pierce !"
Whether President Buchanan shall so conduct
his administ alton as to give any better sa.isIac
tioh to his own party, or to the country, shall
have to wait for time, which alone satisfactorily
disposes of all things, to determine. He enters
upon his duties with great opportunities in his
grasp, if he is disposed to avail himself of them,
for the benefit of his country. But. after the ex-
perience We have had with his predecessor who
was similarly situated, we must confess we fnd
no chance for favorable antcipations. To start
with, the CONSTRUCTION Of his Cabinet, recently
announced, is against hun, Tor success or Eff
cheney. he incongruous and conflicting clt ments
which compose his party,ybrating between slave
ry propagAnnIsm and border ruffianisn on the ore
hand, and Northern pretension of squatier SOW
ereignty" being necessarily identical with
" free Kanzas," on the other. Between these
two opposite factions, Mr.. Buchanan does not
possess that decision Of mind requisite to stand at
the helm of affairs. With an old fogy Of the
ante-deluvian species at the head of his Cabinet
council, and such an ultra embodiment of pro-
slavery servility Toucey at its tail aud with the
residue OF his Cabinet, composed of equally alb
surd material, there is no knowing where advice
from that quarter may lead the new President.
dependent he is, from his we'll known lack of
decision Of character, upon others for counsel.