te for governor in 1848; and the notes of
defiance compelled the Concord statesman to send for Dix again, who
graciously relieved him of his embarrassment.[425] Then the President
turned to William L. Marcy, whose return from Florida was coincident
with the intrigue against Dix. The former secretary of war had not
mustered with the Free-soilers, but his attitude at Baltimore made him
_persona non grata_ to Dickinson. This kept Pierce in trouble. He
wanted a New Yorker, but he wanted peace, and so he delayed action
until the day after his inauguration.[426] When it proved to be
Marcy, with Dix promised the mission to France,[427] and Dickinson
offered nothing better than the collectorship of the port of New York,
the Hunkers waited for an opportunity to make their resentment felt.

[Footnote 424: Morgan Dix, _Memoirs of John A. Dix_, Vol. 1, p. 271.]

[Footnote 425: _Ibid._, Vol. 1, p. 272.]

[Footnote 426: "To satisfy the greatest number was the aim of the
President, to whom this problem became the subject of serious thoughts
and many councils; and although the whole Cabinet, as finally
announced, was published in the newspapers one week before the
inauguration, Pierce did not really decide who should be secretary of
state until he had actually been one day in office, for up to the
morning of March 5, that portfolio had not been offered to
Marcy."--James F. Rhodes, _History of the United States_, Vol. 1, p.
389.]

[Footnote 427: "The President offered Dix the mission to France. The
time fixed was early in the summer of that year. Meanwhile passage was
taken for Havre, preparations for a four years' residence abroad were
made, and every arrangement was completed which an anticipated absence
from home renders necessary. But political intrigue was instantly
resumed, and again with complete success. The opposition now came, or
appears to have come, mainly from certain Southern politicians.
Charges were made--such, for example, as this: that General Dix was an
Abolitionist, and that the Administration would be untrue to the South
by allowing a man of that extreme and fanatical party to represent it
abroad.... But though these insinuations were repelled, the influence
was too strong to be resisted. In fact, the place was wanted for an
eminent gentleman from Virginia."--Morgan Dix, _Memoirs of John A.
Dix_, Vol. 1, pp. 273, 274, 275.]

This was the situation when the Democratic state convention met at
Syracuse on Septemb