onvention met, and some sagacious and far-
seeing men, among whom the late Caleb Cushing was one, and General
Benjamin F. Butler another, had canvassed the merits of Pierce
before the convention met. They saw that from his record in Congress
he would be entirely acceptable to the South, and at the opportune
moment their plans were perfected and Pierce was nominated with a
great show of enthusiasm. William R. King of Alabama was selected
to run as Vice-President.

General Pierce had many qualities that rendered him a strong
candidate. He had served with credit if not distinction both in
the House and the Senate. He was elected to the House in 1832,
when he was but twenty-eight years of age, and resigned his seat
in the Senate in 1842. In the ten years which intervened before
his nomination for the Presidency, he had devoted himself to the
law with brilliant success, leaving it only for his short service
in the Mexican war. He was still a young man when he was preferred
to all the prominent statesmen of his party as a Presidential
candidate. He was remarkably attractive in personal appearance,
prepossessing in manner, ready and even eloquent as a public speaker,
fluent and graceful in conversation. He presented thus a rare
combination of the qualities which attach friends and win popular
support.

The platform of principles enunciated by the convention was just
what the South desired and demanded. The entire interest centred
in the slavery question. Indeed, the declarations upon other issues
were not listened to by the delegates, and were scarcely read by
the public. Without a dissenting voice the convention resolved
that "all efforts of the Abolitionists or others to induce Congress
to interfere with questions of slavery or to take incipient steps
in relation thereto, are calculated to lead to the most alarming
and dangerous consequences." The Compromise measures, including
the fugitive-slave law, which was specially named, were most heartily
indorsed, and were regarded as an adjustment of the whole controversy.
By way of indicting how full, complete, and final the settlement
was, the convention with unrestrained enthusiasm declared that "the
Democratic party will resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress
or out of it, the agitation of the slavery question, under whatever
shape or color the attempts may be made." Among the men who joined
in these declarations were not a few who had supported Van Buren