FRANKLIN PIERCE 181 sense of propriety," force himself into a conspicu ous position. There is abundant proof, however, that he won the friendship of his eminent asso ciates. In 1842 he resigned his seat in the senate, with the intention of permanently withdrawing from public life. He again returned to the practice of law, settling in Concord, N. H., whither he had removed his family in 1838, and where he ever afterward resided. In 1845 he was tendered by the governor of New Hampshire, but declined, an appointment to the U. S. senate to fill the vacancy occasioned by the appointment of Levi Woodbury to the U. S. supreme bench. He also declined the nomination for governor tendered to him by the Democratic state convention. He declined, too, an appointment to the office of U. S. attorney- general, offered to him in 1845 by President Polk, by a letter in which he said that when he left the senate he did so "with the fixed purpose never again to be voluntarily separated from his family for any considerable time, except at the call of his country in time of war." But, while thus evincing his determination to remain in private life, he did not lose his interest in political affairs. In the coun cils of his party in New Hampshire he exercised a very great influence. He zealously advocated the annexation of Texas, declaring that, while he pre ferred it free, he would take it with slavery rather
