PIERCE
PIERCE
by Augustus C. Dodge of Iowa) U.S. minister
to Spain. He appointed Jolin A. Campbell of
Alabama associate justice of the U.S. supreme
court in 1853, to fill the vacancy caused by the
death of Mr. Justice McKinley of Alabama. In
his inaugural address President Pierce advised
against the agitation of the question of slavery
and the rendition of fugitive slaves, as long as
the constitution protected the slaveholders and
the institution. He feared that the excitement
attending such discussion miglit threaten the
stability of the union of tiie states. He settled
the boundary dispute with Mexico by appointing
James Gadsden U.S. minister to Mexico, and
empowering him to negotiate a treaty with that
country, by which the United States secured
45,000 square miles out of which parts of Arizona
and New Mexico were formed, jiaying therefor
$10,000,000, but re-
ceivijig a considera-
bly larger sum from
Mexico for Indian
depredation claims.
Under the direction
of the war depart-
ment he caused the
surveys of several
routes for a railroad
to the Pacific, and the
publication of the va-
rious reports gave to
the people a large
amount of knowledge
of the territory tra-
versed. In 1858 Mar-
tin Koszta. a Hungarian refugee, was captured in
the harbor of Smyrna and confined on the Austrian
brig Hussar as a political prisoner. The United
States agent at that port demanded his release
on the ground that he had taken the preliminary
steps toward becoming an American citizen.
Commander D. N. Ingraham (q.v.) of the U.S.
sloop of war St. Louis threatened to fire upon
the Hussar unless Koszta was released, and by
mutual agreement he was placed in charge of
the French consul, and a few days thereafter
released by order of the Austrian government.
The President and both houses of congress
approved the course of Ingraham and presented
him with a medal. By mutual concessions the
question in controversy respecting the fisheries
claims of Great Britain was amicably settled.
The treaty with Great Britian insuring commer-
cial reciprocity with the Canadian provinces,
and the treaty with Japan opening the ports of
that empire to commerce were ratified by the
senate in 1854. In the United States congress
the Kansas-Nebraska bill was debated in the 3.3d
congress and passed. This act rendered void the
Missouri compromise and re-opened the question
of slavery in the territories, wiiicli resulted in
the Kansas dual government and a miniature
civil war, which was ended by the action of the
President in appointing John W. Geary of Penn-
sylvania military governor of the territory in
1856, with power to restore order. During the
progress of the Crimean war, 1854-55, recruits
were being secretly enlisted in the United States
for the Britisli army. Learning that the British
minister sanctioned the proceeding, President
Pierce demanded Mr. Crampton's recall, and when
the British government refused, he promptly dis-
missed him, and also the British consuls at New
York, Pliiladelphia and Cincinnati, who were
parties to the movement. The British govern-
ment accepted the situation, and sent new men
to fill the places of those dismissed. During Pres-
ident Pierce's administration, the court of claims
was organized, the diplomatic and consular system
was reorganized, and General Scott was made lieu-
tenant-general. He vetoed a bill appropriating
10,000.000 acres of land- to the states for the relief
of indigent insane, the appropriation bill for public
■works in 1854, the bill for the payment of French
spoliation claims, and an increased appropriation
for the Collins line of steamers in 18.55. When
William Walker, the filibuster, gained undisputed
control of Nicaragua in 1856, and announced
that he had been elected president, the President-
recognized the government, and received a
minister sent by W^alker to Washington. By di-
rection of President Pierce the United States
ministers to Great Britain, France and Spain,
met at Ostend, Oct. 9, 1854, adjourned to Aix la
Chapelle, and sent from there to Washington the
"Ostend Manifesto", which declared that the
sale of Cuba to the United States would be
advantageous to both governments; but that if
Spain refused to sell, it was incumbent upon the
United States to " wrest it from her '* rather than
see it Africanized like Santo Domingo. The un-
settled conditions of the European powers, and
the question of slavery in the territories of the
United States overshadowed the Cuban ques-
tion, however, and it was not revived during Pres-
ident Pierce's administration. The Democrat'c
national convention met at Cincinnati, June 2,
1856, and President Pierce was a candidate for
renomination, receiving on the first ballot 122
votes to 135 for Buchanan, and 33 for Douglas.
On the 17th ballot James Buchanan was nomin-
ated. In August, 18.56, the house of representa-
tives attached a rider to the army appropriation
bill, providing that no part of the army should be
employed to enforce the laws of the Kansas
territorial legislature until the validity of such
laws was determined by congress; and when the
bill came before the senate, that body refused to
