January 16

"The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded."

Franklin Pierce, 14^th President, 1853-1857

-From his Inaugural Address, Friday, March 4, 1853- Pierce was elected to the Presidency at the age of forty eight and is the only President from the state of Vermont. He was a college contemporary of authors Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Nathaniel Hawthorne. He was a compromise candidate of the Democratic Party, gaining the nomination over Stephen A. Douglas (of the Lincoln-Douglas Debates). In the election, he defeated anti-slavery candidate, General Winfield Scott, who had risen to prominence for his performance in the Mexican-American War. As President, he appointed Jefferson Davis his Secretary of War, who later became President of the Confederacy during the Civil War. Tragically, his last surviving son, Benjamin, was killed in a train accident only two months before Pierce took office. His Presidency was largely ineffectual, with the controversy of the expansion of slavery into new territories again dividing the nation. One of the notable accomplishments of his administration was the opening of trade with Japan through the Admiral Perry expedition. In his address, recited from memory, Pierce praised the founding fathers and their ability approve a new constitution which balanced power between the federal and state governments:"...when we were just emerging from the weakness and embarrassments of the Confederation, there was an evident consciousness of vigor equal to the great mission so wisely and bravely fulfilled by our fathers. It was not a presumptuous assurance, but a calm faith, springing from a clear view of the sources of power in a government constituted like ours. It is no paradox to say that although comparatively weak the new-born nation was intrinsically strong. Inconsiderable in population and apparent resources, it was upheld by a broad and intelligent comprehension of rights and an all-pervading purpose to maintain them...The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded. You have a right, therefore, to expect your agents in every department to regard strictly the limits imposed upon them by the Constitution of the United States. The great scheme of our constitutional liberty rests upon a proper distribution of power between the State and Federal authorities, and experience has shown that the harmony and happiness of our people must depend upon a just discrimination between the separate rights and responsibilities of the States and your common rights and obligations under the General Government..."