CHAPTER V. GENERAL PIERCE AT HOME-SLAVERY VIEWS-CANDIDATE FOR THE PRESIDENCY-CONVENTIONS OF A 1852-DEMOCRATIC PLATFORM-FRANKLIN LTHOUGH it was maintained at the time that Pierce was one of Mr. Polk's bad army appointments, this sentiment was held only among politicians, and not shared by the army to any great extent. After his departure from Mexico, and after the close of the war, regular and volunteer officers of every shade of politics voluntarily spoke kindly and favorably of him. His reception on his return home was of the warmest kind, showing the approval of his conduct. On the 27th of January, 1848, he was publicly received at Concord. During the session of the summer of 1848 the Legislature voted him a fine sword in honor of his reputable services in Mexico. On departing for the war his friends had given him a splendid sword. Both of these are now the property of his nephew, Frank Hawthorne Pierce. In the spring of this year (1848) General Pierce was offered the nomination of his party for governor; but this he declined, having again resumed the successful pursuit of his profession. He was also quite active and influential in the political affairs of his State at this period. The constitution of New Hampshire had always discriminated in favor of the Protestant Church, and Catholics were debarred from holding offices under it. As far as evidence can be traced reliably on this point Pierce had from the very outset of his political career opposed this religious test and some other features of the original constitution of 1792. But the friends of revision had failed in their efforts, even to secure the call of a convention until 1852. On the 6th of November in that year a constitutional convention consisting of nearly three hundred members met at Concord. With few opposing votes Pierce was chosen its presiding officer. Early in the session of this body, perhaps the most able that had ever met in the State, the religious test question was brought forward, when Pierce, Levi Woodbury, and others of their political faith especially, advocated a total repeal of all such features of the constitution. This they succeeded in bringing about; but the new constitution framed by this convention was defeated before the people at the next election. Immediately afterwards (in April) the convention met to receive and act upon the verdict of the people. The convention again determined to bring the question to the polls at the next election, hoping for a more favorable result. But in this the advocates of the repeal of the religious tests were disappointed, the people of New Hampshire not yet being ready for this departure from the very straight provisions of their constitution. Pierce joined in the debates on the test question before the convention of 1850, and in the course of his remarks is thus reported in the Convention Record: "Mr. Pierce, of Concord, said that he could concur heartily in all that the gentleman from Portsmouth had uttered, except in his last remark. It was quite obvious that, so far from having taxed the patience of the committee, his speeches upon both the great subjects embraced in the resolutions under consideration had been listened to with unqualified gratification. Not because he threw the weight of his high character and the power of his arguments into the scale on the side of right in a case where there was hesitancy, where the judgment of members was not definitely formed, where there was a shade of doubt as to the result; but because it was desirable that the grounds on which we proceed in matters of such grave import should be stated, as they had been, with singular force of reasoning and beauty of illustration. It was also a service well rendered, not less in vindication of the past than the present. The motives of the fathers of the present constitution and of the people in 1792 had been placed in their true light. So much was due to them. It was also due to this convention and the people whom they represent, and due to the reputation of the State abroad, that it will be well understood that both of the provisions— the religious test and the property qualification-had been a dead letter, at least as long as the chairman (Mr. Sawyer) had participated to any extent in the councils of the State. They had been practically inoperative from Mr. Pierce's earliest recollection. The chairman would remember that many years ago, at a time of high party excitement, it was suggested that a member of the House of Representatives occupied his seat without the requisite property qualifications. But two objections at once occurred to any action upon the subject; the first was, that investigation and action, instead of rejecting one member, might probably vacate twenty seats; the second was, that no member could probably be found to move in the matter so utterly repugnant to public sentiment. ་ "The religious test in the Constitution had undeniably been a stigma upon the State, at home and abroad. It had been repeatedly named to him, and once at least in a foreign land, as unworthy of the intelligent and liberal spirit of our countrymen. Although he at times felt keenly the reproach, he had uniformly referred, as he had no doubt other gentlemen had done, to other parts of the Constitution as illustrating the true and free spirit of our fathers, and to these as, at least for many years, a blank. The great question of religious toleration was practically settled, and settled in a manner never to be reversed while we retain our present form of government, more than thirty years ago. The provisions now claiming the attention of the committee could hardly be said to involve an open question. They had been the subject of discussion in every lyceum, every academy, debating club, every town; and there was perhaps no subject upon which public opinion and public feeling was so uniform and decisive. The substance-if substance they ever had-having long since passed away, he rejoiced that the proper occasion had at length arrived to dispense with the form." General Pierce did not abandon the cause he had advocated in the convention, and while the question was before the people he exerted himself in an unusual manner to weaken the opposition to the new constitution. Even while the election was in progress he made a speech in Concord, in which he said : "Can it be possible that the people of New Hampshire will vote to retain a feature in its fundamental law, ingrafted there under peculiar circumstances, repugnant to the plainest ideas of justice and equality, repugnant to the whole scope and tenor of the constitution, upon which it stands as a fungus-dead, to be sure, but still there, a blot and deformity, obnoxious in the last degree to the spirit of the age in which we live? How can we say that our land is the asylum of the oppressed of other countries, when we fail to extend over them the shield of equal rights, and say to them, There is the panoply under which, so far as the dearest and most sacred of all rights is concerned, you may shelter yourselves? I love and revere the faith of my Protestant fathers; but do not Martin Lawler and his country men, now near me, and who have this day exercised the rights of freemen, revere and cling to the faith of their fathers? Are you to tell them that they can vote for you, but are to be excluded from the privilege of being voted for? that while you tax them to maintain your government, they shall not be eligible to positions that control taxation? Shame upon such a provision while we boast of equal rights! I hope this provision of our Constitution receives the deliberate reprobation of every man now in this hall. But if I am mistaken in this, it is due to the honor of the State, it is due to the plainest dictates of justice, that whoever may favor this test should state the reasons upon which he relies. For one, I never think of it without a deep sense of regret, and, I may add, of humiliation for my native State." In the face of all these facts, with a view of drawing off his Catholic supporters, it was actually attempted in 1852 to make it appear that Franklin Pierce had opposed the repeal of the religious or Church tests of his State. In January, 1852, the Democratic Convention of New Hampshire nominated General Pierce as the |