Executive departments have, during the last twelve years, been opposed to General Jackson's and Mr. Van Buren's administration.

"They were faithful and competent officers, I believe; at all events they were not reached by the spirit of proscription. Where, for the last twelve years, your political friends have enjoyed a majority of the places, how have our friends been treated now that the tables are turned? They have not escaped your sharper and broader axe, wielded against your open and universal professions.

“But whatever was done by the late administrations was not done under false pretences. We put forth no canting hypocritical circulars; we stood before the nation and the world on the naked unqualified ground that we preferred our friends to our opponents; that to confer place was our privilege which we chose to exercise. I ought not to say we chose, sir; for I will say what those friends best acquainted with me know—that there was nothing in the administration of General Jackson which I so uniformly failed to justify, as the removal of one worthy officer to give place to another.

"But that removals have occurred is not the thing of which I complain. I complain of your hypocrisy. I charge that your press and your leading orators made promises to the nation which they did not intend to redeem, and which they now vainly attempt to cover up by cobwebs. The Senator from South Carolina, near me, (Mr. Calhoun) remarked

yesterday, that he had no language to express the infamy which, in his judgment, must attach to that man who had been before the people raising his voice in the general shout that proscription was to be proscribed, and was, in the face of such action, now here begging for place at the footstool of power. If my heart ever responded fully, unqualifiedly, to any sentiment, it was to that. Fortunately, before the keen scrutiny of our countrymen, disguises are vain, masks unavailing. The practice of the present administration has already fixed upon its professions one of two things-the stamp either of truth or falsehood; the people will judge which.

"One word more and I leave this subject—a painful one for me, from the beginning to the end. The Senator from North Carolina, in the course of his remarks the other day, asked, 'Do gentlemen expect that their friends are to be retained in office against the will of the nation? Are they so unreasonable as to expect what the circumstances and the necessity of the case forbid? What our expectations were, is not the question now; but what were your pledges and promises before the people. On a previous occasion, the distinguished Senator from Kentucky (Mr. Clay) made a similar remark: 'An ungracious task, but the nation demands it.' Sir, this demand of the nation-this plea of 'state necessity,' let me tell gentlemen, is as old as the history of wrong and oppression. It has been the standing plea-the never-failing resort of despotism.

"The great Julius found it convenient, when he restored the dignity of the Roman Senate, but destroyed its independence. It gave countenance to, and justified, all the atrocities of the Inquisition in Spain. It gave utterance to the stifled groans from the black hole of Calcutta. It was written in tears upon 'the Bridge of Sighs' in Venice; and pointed to those dark recesses, upon whose gloomy portals there was never seen a returning footstep.

"It was the plea of the austere and ambitious Strafford, in the days of Charles the First. It filled the Bastile of France, and lent its sanction to the terrible atrocities perpetrated there. It was the plea that snatched the mild, eloquent, and patriotic Camile Desmoulins from his young and beautiful wife, and hurried him upon the hurdle to the guillotine, with thousands of others equally unoffending and innocent. It was upon this plea that the greatest of generals, if not of men -you cannot mistake me-I mean him, the presence of whose very ashes within the last few months was sufficient to stir the hearts of a continent-it was upon this plea that he abjured that noble wife, who threw around his humble days light and gladness, and by her own lofty energies and high intellect encouraged his aspirations. It was upon this plea that he committed that worst and most fatal act of his eventful life. Upon this, too, he drew around his person the imperial purple. It has in all times, and in every age, been

the foe of liberty, and the indispensable stay of usurpation.

"Where were the chains of despotism ever thrown around the freedom of speech and of the press, but on this plea of 'State necessity? Let the spirit of Charles the Tenth and of his ministers answer.

"It is cold, selfish, heartless; and has always been regardless of age, sex, condition, services, or any of the incidents of life that appeal to patriotism or humanity.

"Wherever its authority has been acknowledged, it has assailed men who stood by their country when she needed strong arms and bold hearts; and has assailed them when, maimed and disabled in her service, they could no longer brandish a weapon in her defence.

"It has afflicted the feeble and dependent wife for the imaginary faults of her husband.

"It has stricken down innocence in its beauty, youth in its freshness, manhood in its vigor, and old age in its feebleness and decrepitude. Whatever other plea of apology may be set up for the sweeping, ruthless exercise of this civil guillotine at the present day-in the name of Liberty, let us be spared this fearful one of 'state necessity' in this early age of the republic, upon the floor of the American Senate, in the face of a people yet free."

CHAPTER VI.

His Congressional Career-Subject of Slavery-Resigns his Seat Again appointed to the Senate, but will not accept-Correspondence -Offered a seat in the Cabinet of Mr. Polk.

WE have now given to the reader some of the most important of General Pierce's congressional speeches. They are all, it will be evident, at once of an eminently practical nature. They were not delivered upon subjects calculated to elicit enthusiastic eloquence, but upon vital questions of political economy-upon questions which deeply concerned the well-being of the nation. Upon such questions Mr. Pierce in Congress adopted a style of speech at once striking and simple. That he is the master of remarkable eloquence no man will deny who has ever heard him in one of his best efforts at the bar. But he preferred a working life and a plain, unvarnished style. His speeches resemble closely those of Cobden and Peel and Russell, and many others of England's most renowned parliamentery debaters. There is none of the clap-trap of popular eloquence, but clear convincing logic, which carries conviction straight to the heart. He was not noted in the House or Senate for speech-making, for he scarcely ever took part in debate; but his votes are on every page of the Congressional journals. We might pro