he wishes, expressed in several quarters, by going among them
to attempt to encourage them in their noble and patriotic efforts,
but it is impossible. Public and professional engagements have
withdrawn me from my private affairs during the past two years,
and the few weeks of interval between the last and the next session
of Congress are equally insufficient for the attention my business
requires and for the relaxation of public labors which impaired
health demands. I am, dear sir, with great respect, you friend
and humble servant,

"William H. Seward."

The election of 1852 resulted in the overwhelming defeat of General
Scott, and the practical annihilation of the Whig party. Franklin
Pierce received 244 electoral votes, and General Scott but 42.

The triumphant election of Mr. Pierce, on the platform stated,
justified the expectation that during his term there would be no
opening of the slavery controversy by the Democratic party. If
that party had been content with the compromise of 1850, and had
faithfully observed the pledges in its platform, there would have
been no Civil War. Conservative Whigs, north and south, would have
united with conservative Democrats in maintaining and enforcing
existing laws. The efforts of the opponents of slavery and of
aggressive pro-slavery propagandists would have been alike ineffective.
The irrepressible conflict would have been indefinitely postponed.
Yet, as will appear hereafter, the leaders of the 33rd Congress of
both parties, and mainly on sectional lines, openly and flagrantly
violated the pledges of their party, and renewed a contest that
was only closed by the most destructive Civil War of modern times,
and by the abolition of slavery. As this legislation brought me
into public life, I wish to justify my statement by the public
records, with all charity to the authors of the measures who no
doubt did not anticipate the baleful events that would spring from
them, nor the expanded and strengthened republic which was the
final result. "Man proposes, but God disposes."

When the 33rd Congress met, on the 6th day of December, 1853, the
tariff issue was practically in abeyance. The net ordinary receipts
of the government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1853, were
$61,587,031.68. The net ordinary expenditures of the government
for the same year were $47,743,989.09, leaving a surplus of revenue
over expenditures of $13,843,042.59, of which, $6,833,072.65 was
a