se
peculiarly odious transactions exerted a deeper influence on public
opinion than the Democratic leaders imagined, they were local and
apparently under control. There was no national disquietude on
the vexed question of slavery when Franklin Pierce was installed
as President.

In his Inaugural address General Pierce pledged himself with evident
zeal to the upholding of the Compromise measures and to the rigid
enforcement of the laws. There is no doubt that a large majority
of the people of the United States--North and South--were satisfied
with the situation and bade God-speed to the popular President
whose administration opened so auspiciously. The year 1853 was
politically as quiet as Monroe's era of good feeling, and when
Congress came together in its closing month, the President dwelt
impressively upon the dangers we had passed and upon the blessings
that were in store for us. In tones of solemnity he declared that
when "the grave shall have closed over all who are now endeavoring
to meet the obligations of duty, the year 1850 will be recurred to
as a period of anxious apprehension." With high praise of the
Compromise legislation of that year he said "it had given renewed
vigor to our institutions and restored a sense of repose and security
to the public mind." Evidently remembering the pledge given by
the convention which nominated him "to resist all attempts at
renewing the agitation of the slavery question in or out of Congress,"
the President gave emphatic assurance that this "repose" should
suffer no shock during his term if he "had the power to avert it."
These words were addressed to Congress on the fifth day of December,
1853, and it would be uncandid to deny that even in the North they
were heartily approved by a large majority of the people,--perhaps
by a majority in every State.

OMINOUS MOVEMENT IN CONGRESS.

In precisely one month from the delivery of these words by the
President an ominous movement was made in Congress. Notwithstanding
all the vows of fealty to the Compromise of 1850, the pro-slavery
leaders of the South were not contented with the aspect of affairs.
The result of the Mexican war had deeply disappointed them. Its
most striking political effect thus far was the addition to the
Union of a large and imposing free State on the Pacific,--an empire
indeed in prospective wealth and power. In the battle between free
institutions and