would be resented as an affront to the sovereignty of the United States.

As Fillmore's administration drew to a close the political parties .... again marshaled their forces. Franklin Pierce of New Hampshire appeared as the candidate of the Democratic party, and General Win-/7552field Scott as the choice of the Whigs. The question at issue before the country was the Compromise Act of 1850. But the parties, instead of being divided, were for once agreed as to the wisdom of that measure. Both the Whig and Democratic platforms stoutly reaffirmed the justice of the Omnibus Bill, by which the dissensions of the country had been quieted. A third party arose, however, whose members, both Whigs and Democrats, doubted the wisdom of the compromise of 1850, and declared that all the Territories of the United States ought to be free. John P. Hale of New Hampshire was put forward as the candidate of this Free Soil party. Mr. Pierce was elected by a large majority, and William R. King of Alabama was chosen Vice-President.

THE

CHAPTER LIX.

PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION, 1853–1857.

HE new chief magistrate was a native of New Hampshire, a graduate of Bowdoin College, a lawyer, a politician, a general in the Mexican. War, a statesman of considerable abilities. Mr. King, the Vice-Presi-dent, had for a long time represented Alabama in the Senate of the United States. On account of failing health he was sojourning in the island of Cuba at the time of the inauguration, and there he received the oath of office. Growing still more feeble, he returned to his own State, where he died on the 18th of April, 1853. As secretary of state under the new administration William L. Marcy of New York was chosen.

In the summer of 1853 the first corps of engineers was sent out by the government to explore the route for A PACIFIC RAILROAD. The enterprise was at first regarded as visionary, then believed in as possible, and finally undertaken and accomplished. In the same year that marked the beginning of the project the disputed boundary between New Mexico and Chihuahua was satisfactorily settled. The maps on which the former treaties with Mexico had been based were found to be erroneous.

Santa

Anna, who had again become president of the Mexican republic, attempted to take advantage of the error, and sent an army to occupy the territory between the true and the false boundary. This action was resisted by the authorities of New Mexico and the United States, and a second Mexican war seemed imminent. The difficulty was adjusted, however, by the purchase of the doubtful claim of Mexico. This transaction, known as THE GADSDEN PURCHASE, led to the erection of the new Territory of Arizona.

The first year of Pierce's administration was signalized by the opening of intercourse between the United States and the great empire of Japan. Hitherto the Japanese ports had been closed against the vessels of Christian nations. In order to remove this foolish and injurious restriction Commodore Perry, a son of Oliver H. Perry of the war of 1812, sailed with his squadron into the Bay of Yeddo. When warned to depart, he explained to the Japanese officers the sincere desire of the United States to enter into a commercial treaty with the emperor. After much delay and hesitancy consent was obtained to hold an interview with that august personage. Accordingly, on the 14th of July, the commodore with his officers obtained an audience with the dusky monarch of the East, and presented a letter from the President of the United States. Still the government of Japan was wary of accepting the proposition, and it was not until the spring of 1854 that a treaty could be concluded. The privileges of commerce were thus conceded to American merchant vessels, and two ports of entry were designated for their use.

1953

On the very day of Commodore Perry's introduction to the emperor of Japan the Crystal Palace was opened in the city of New York for the second WORLD'S FAIR. The palace itself was a marvel in architecture, being built exclusively of iron and glass. Thousands of specimens of the arts and manufactures of all civilized nations were put on exhibition within the spacious building. The enterprise and inventive genius of the whole country were quickened into a new life by the beautiful and instructive display. International exhibitions are among the happiest fruits of an enlightened age.

During the administration of Pierce the country was frequently disturbed by the filibustering expeditions of General William Walker into Central America. This audacious and unscrupulous adventurer began his operations in 1853 by escaping with a band of followers from the port of San Francisco and making a descent on La Paz in Lower California. In the spring of 1854 he marched overland with a hundred men and raised the standard of revolt in the state of Sonora;

but the company was dispersed and himself made prisoner. In May of the same year he was tried by the authorities of San Francisco and acquitted. But not satisfied with his previous experience, he again raised a band of sixty-two followers and proceeded to Central America. Being joined by a regiment of natives he fought and gained a battle at Rivas, on the 29th of June, 1855. In a second battle at Virgin Bay he was also successful. Fighting continued until the following summer when his influence had become so powerful that he was elected president of Nicaraugua. Then came a change in his fortunes. A great insurrection ensued; and the other Central American states, assisted by the Vanderbilt steam-ship company, whose rights he had violated, combined against him and on the 1st of May, 1857, he was again made prisoner. But in a short time he was foot-loose at New Orleans, where he organized a third company of adventurers-men who had everything to gain and nothing to lose—and on the 25th of November succeeded in reaching Punta Arenas, Nicaraugua.

Within less than a month, however, he was again obliged to surrender to Commodore Paulding of the United States navy. For a while the great filibuster was a prisoner at New York; but getting his liberty, he continued his scheming, and in June of 1860 a third time reached Central America at the head of a considerable force. This time the descent was made at Truxillo, Honduras. But the president of that state, assisted by a British man-of-war, soon overpowered and captured the whole band. On the 3d of September Walker was tried by a court-martial at Truxillo, condemned, and shot. The courage with which he met his fate has half redeemed his forfeited fame and left after times in doubt whether he shall be called fanatic or hero.*

To this period also belongs the history of what is known in American diplomacy as THE MARTIN KOSZTA AFFAIR. Martin Koszta was a leader in the Hungarian revolt against Austria, in 1849. After the rebellion was suppressed he fled to Turkey whence he was demanded by the Austrian government as a refugee and traitor. The Turkish authorities, however, refused to give him up but agreed that he should be sent into exile to some foreign land never to return. Koszta chose the United States as his asylum, came hither, and took out partial but not complete papers of naturalization. In 1854 he returned to Turkey, contrary—as it was alleged-to his former promise. At the city of Smyrna he received a passport from the American consul residing there, and went ashore. But the Austrian consul at Smyrna, hearing

* It will be observed that the narrative of Walker's exploits and end, extends nearly to the conclusion of Buchanan's administration.

of Koszta's arrival and having no power to arrest him on shore, induced some bandits to seize him and throw him into the water of the bay where a boat in waiting picked him up and carried him on board an Austrian frigate. The American officials immediately demanded his release, which was refused. Thereupon Captain Duncan Ingraham, commanding the American sloop of war St. Louis, loaded his guns, pointed them at the Austrian vessel, and was about to make hot work, when it was agreed by all parties that Koszta should be put in charge of the French government until his nationality should be decided. In this condition of affairs the question was given over for discussion to Baron Hülseman-the Austrian minister at Washington-and William L. Marcy, the American secretary of state. The correspondence was one of the ablest on record and extended, before its termination, to almost every question affecting naturalization and citizenship, and indeed to many other important topics of international law. Mr. Marcy was completely triumphant in his argument and Koszta was remanded to the United States. Of so much importance is the life of one man, when it involves the great question of human rights.

In the years 1853-54, the peaceable relations of the United States and Spain were again endangered by Cuban difficulties. President Pierce believed that owing to the financial embarrassment of the Spanish government, Cuba might now be purchased at a reasonable price and annexed to the United States. The delicate business of negotiating was intrusted at first to Mr. Soulé, the American minister at Madrid. But afterwards James Buchanan and John Y. Mason were added to the mission. A convention of the ambassadors of the various governments concerned was held at Ostend, and an important instrument was there drawn up-chiefly by Mr. Buchanan-known as THE OSTEND MANIFESTO. The document was chiefly devoted to an elaborate statement of the arguments in favor of the purchase and annexation of Cuba by the United States, as a measure of sound wisdom to both the Spanish and American governments. But nothing of practical importance resulted from the embassy or the manifesto.

And now the great domain lying west of Minnesota, Iowa and Missouri was to be organized into territorial governments. Already into these vast regions the tide of immigration was pouring, and it became necessary to provide for the future. In January of 1854, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois brought before the Senate of the United States a proposition to organize the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. In the bill reported for this purpose a clause was inserted providing that the people of the two Territories, in forming their con

stitutions, should decide for themselves whether the new States should be free or slaveholding. This was a virtual repeal of the Missouri Compromise, for both the new territories lay north of the parallel of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes. Thus by a single stroke the old settlement of the slavery question was to be undone. From January until May, Mr. Douglas's report, known as THE KANSAS-NEBRASKA BILL, was debated in Congress. All the bitter sectional antagonisms of the past were aroused in full force. The bill was violently opposed by a majority of the representatives from the East and North; but the minority, uniting with the congressmen of the South, enabled Douglas to carry his measure through Congress, and in May of 1854 the bill received the sanction of the President.

Kansas itself now became a battle-field for the contending parties. Whether the new State should admit slavery now depended upon the vote of the people. Wherefore both factions made a rush for the territory in order to secure a majority. Kansas was soon filled with an agitated mass of people, thousands of whom had been sent thither to vote. An election held in November of 1854 resulted in the choice of a pro-slavery delegate to Congress, and in the general territorial election of the following year the same party was triumphant. The State Legislature thus chosen assembled at Lecompton, organized the government and framed a constitution permitting slavery. The Free Soil party, declaring the general election to have been illegal on account of fraudulent voting, assembled in convention at Topeka, framed a constitution excluding slavery, and organized a rival government. Civil war broke out between the factions. From the autumn of 1855 until the following summer the Territory was the scene of constant turmoil and violence. On the 3d of September the President appointed John W. Geary of Pennsylvania military governor of Kansas, with full powers to restore order and punish lawlessness. On his arrival the hostile parties were quieted and peace restored. But the agitation in the Territory had already extended to all parts of the Union, and became the issue on which the people divided in the presidential election of 1856.

The parties made ready for the contest. James Buchanan of Pennsylvania was nominated as the Democratic candidate. By planting himself on a platform of principles in which the doctrines of the Kansas-Nebraska Bill were distinctly reaffirmed, he was able to secure a heavy vote both North and South. For many Northern Democrats, though opposed to slavery, held firmly to the opinion that the people of every Territory ought to have the right to decide the question for