The election of Pierce may be considered primarily as a verdict in favor of carrying out the terms of the compromise of 1850 and the policy of expansion. In his first inaugural ad dress Pierce said: °The policy of my adminis tration will not be controlled by any timid fore bodings of evil from expansion.' He also de clared that °our position on the globe renders the acquisition of certain possessions not within our jurisdiction eminently important for our protection.' This doubtless referred to Cuba, much desired by the southern expansionists for additional slave territory. Pierce appointed Pierre Soule of Louisiana as Minister to Spain, a man who had previously declared in open senate his desire to annex Cuba to the United States by some other method than by purchase. In August 1854, Secretary of State Marcy sug gested that Soule, James Buchanan, and John Y. Mason, ministers respectively to Spain, Eng land and France, have °a full and free inter change of views' in regard to the acquisition of Cuba. The result was a meeting at Ostend, where on 9 Oct. 1854 they drew up the famous Ostend Manifesto, in which Spain was urged tc sell Cuba to the United States, and in case of refusal the question should be considered whether the interests of the United States were endangered by Cuba remaining in the posses sion of Spain. If answered in the affirmative, then °by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain if we possess the power.' The exact relation of Pierce to this document is not fully known. It was disavowed by Secretary of State Marcy in the name of the President, but Pierce was held as more or less responsible for the incident by his enemies.
Moreover it was during the administration of Pierce that William Walker carried out his notorious filibustering expeditions in Central America, for the purpose of setting up a gov ernment under American rule favorable to slavery. In June 1855 he entered Nicaragua with a small force, captured Granada on 13 October, procured his election as President in July 1856, and proclaimed Nicaragua a slave State. His dominion was recognized by the American minister resident, and Pierce received Walker's envoy, though he had previously issued proclamations warning the people against armed expeditions to countries with whom the United States was at peace. Ministers from other Central American republics protested against this violation of neutrality, but to no purpose.
Pierce supported several other policies of importance. He wished to expand American commerce as rapidly as possible, first by fed eral subsidies to shipping and second by open ing up new areas for trade. Commodore Perry was sent to Japan to induce this nation to open her ports to American trade and was successful in his mission. Pierce also supported the plan of linking California more closely with the rest of the country by means of a transcontinental railroad. The best route lay through territory, a portion of which was in the possession of Mexico. Accordingly James Gadsen was sent to Mexico to purchase a strip of territory on the southern border of New Mexico. He se cured a tract of some 50,000 square miles for $10,000,000, which was known as the Gadsen purchase. The railroad was planned largely to benefit the economic development of the lower South, and Congress voted the funds for the survey of routes. Pierce advocated the build ing of the railroad in his first annual message, and handed over the work of seeing to the sur vey to Jefferson Davis.
Another policy was the opening up of the Northwest to settlement. The platform of the Democratic party declared that the party resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever shape or color the attempt may be made.' Pierce also, in his inaugural ad dress, advised against the reopening of the slavery question. Nevertheless the conflict over the extension of slavery into the territories was the great event of his administration. The
occasion was the plan of Senator Douglas to open up the great Northwest to settlement, re move the Indians to reservations or to the Southwest, connect Chicago with the Pacific Northwest by a railroad, open the territory to slavery and thereby become the next President of the United States. The supremacy of the Northwest was at stake and this was a plan to checkmate the South for a Southern Pacific railroad. Douglas won the support of the Middle West, western Missouri, and powerful interests in the South. This last because of a promise that the Kansas-Nebraska bill should contain a clause giving settlers the right to de termine for themselves whether they would have slaves — the doctrine of popular sover eignty. Thus the Missouri Compromise of 1820 prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana territory north of 36° 30', except Missouri, would be re pealed. Pierce gave his support to this plan and signed the bill. Thus he aided the South in its desire for the extension of slavery into the territories, although the most of the North west would in the end naturally become free territory. This action of Pierce wrecked his administration. He immediately organized Kansas and Nebraska as territories, and sup ported the pro-slavery party in Kansas during the remainder'of his term of office, in an effort to prevent the admission of Kansas as a free State. Thus he helped make the Democratic party of the North subservient to that of the South, and supported the slave power in its ex treme demands for more slave territory. He believed that this would satisfy the South and thus disunion and civil war would he avoided. He was under the influence of Jefferson Davis, his Secretary of War, and this accounts, in part, for his attitude on several important public questions. After his retirement from the pres idency he traveled in Europe for three years, returning home early in 1860. He was opposed to the methods of the Abolitionists, but sup ported the North when war broke out.
Pierce did not measure up to the standard of most of the Presidents. He was not a com manding figure in any field. He was honest in his intentions as a conciliator of the two sec tions, in his belief that the Constitution guaran teed slavery as an institution, and that the way to avoid civil war and disunion was to support the South in this view. His strong leaning to ward the South, however, really had the effect of promoting sectional strife and finally in leading to civil war. He was an amiable, hon est, generous, modest, educated gentleman, but lacked intellectual acumen and that idealism necessary for great leadership. His chief stock in trade was attention to legislative details, fidelity to party, winning manners, and a neu tral compromising character which was a nega tive rather than a positive and constructive force. His last years were passed at his home at Concord, N. H., beloved by his personal friends but almost forgotten by his countrymen.
There is no good life of Pierce. The early biographies were published for campaign purposes and do not cover his term of office. Consult life by Bartlett, D. W. (Auburn N. Y., 1852), and by Hawthorne, Nathaniel (Boston 1852), both eulogistic ac counts; Ireland, J. R.,