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if, through the madness of northern Abolitionists, | that dire calamity must come, the fighting will not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely. It will be within our own borders, in our own streets, between the two classes of citizens to whom I have referred. Those who defy law and scout constitu- tional obligations will, if we ever reach the arbitra- ineni i if arms, find occupation enough at home. . . . I have tried to impress upon our own people, es- pecially in New Hampshire and Connecticut, where the only elections are to take place during the coming spring, that, while our Union meetings are all in the right direction and well enough for the pivseul, they will not be worth the paper upon which their resolutions are written unless we can overthrow abolitionism at the polls and repeal the unconstitutional and obnoxious laws which in the cause of ' personal liberty ' have been placed upon our statute-books."

On 21 April, 1861, nine days after the disunion- ists had begun civil war by firing on Fort Sumter, he addressed a Union mass-meeting at Concord, and urged the people to sustain the government against the southern Confederacy. From that time until his death he lived in retirement at Concord. To the last he retained his hold upon the hearts of his personal friends, and the exquisite urbanity of his earlier days. His wife and his three chil- dren had preceded him to the tomb. Some years at'ler Pierce's deal h I lie le^i-lat inv of New Hampshire, in behalf of the state, placed his portrait beside the speaker's desk in the hall of the house of representatives at Concord. Time has softened the harsh judgment that his political foes passed upon him in the heat of party strife and civil war. His generosity and kindness of heart are gratefully remembered by those who knew him, and particularly by the younger mem- bers of his profession, whom he was always ready to aid and advise. It is remembered that in his professional career he was ever willing, at what- ever risk to his fortune or popularity, to shield the poor and obscure from oppression and injustice. It is remembered, too, that he sought in public life no opportunities for personal gain. His integrity was above suspicion. After nine years' service in congress and in the senate of the United States, after a brilliant and successful professional career and four years in the presidency, his estate hardly amounted to $72,000. In his whole political ca- reer he always stood for a strict construction of the constitution, for economy and frugality in pub- lic affairs, and for a strict accountability of public officials to their constituents. No political or per- sonal influence could induce him to shield those whom he believed to have defrauded the govern- ment. Pierce had ambition, but greed for public office was foreign to his nature. Few, if any. in- stauees can be found in our history where a man of thirty-eight, in the full vigor of health, volun- tarily gave up a seat in the U. S. senate, which he was apparently sure to retain as long as he wished. His refusal at the age of forty-one to leave his law- practice for the place of attorney-general in Polk's cabinet is almost without a parallel. Franklin Pierce, too, was a true patriot and a sincere lover of his country. The Revolutionary services of a father whom he revered were constantly in his thoughts. Two of his brothers, with that father's consent, took an honorable part in the war of 1812. His only sister was the wife of Gen. John H. Mc- Neil, as gallant an officer as ever fought for his country. To decline a cabinet appointment and enlist as a private soldier in the army of his coun- try were acts which one who knew his early train- ing and his chivalrous character might reasonably expect of him. But for slavery and the questions growing out of it, his administration would have passed into history as one of the most successful in our national life. To judge him justly, his po- litical training and the circumstances that envi- roned him must be taken into account. Like his honored father, he believed that the statesmen of the Revolution had agreed to maintain the legal rights of the slave-holders, and that without such agreement we should have had no Federal consti- tution or Union. He believed that good faith re- quired that agreement to be performed. In that belief all or nearly all the leaders of both the great parties concurred. However divided on other i|iie>iioiis, on that the south was a unit. The price of its political support was compliance with its de- mands, and both the old parties (however reluct- antly) paid the price. Political leaders believed that, unless it was paid, civil war and disunion would result, and their patriotism re-enforced their party spirit and personal ambition. Among them all there were probably few whose conduct would have been essentially different from that of Pierce had they been in the same situation. He gave his support to the repeal of the Missouri compromise with great reluctance, and in the. belief that the measure would satisfy the south and thus avert from the country the doom of civil war and disunion. See the lives by Nathaniel Hawthorne (Boston, 1852) and D. VV. Bartlett (Auburn, 1852), and "Re- view of Pierce's Administration," by A. E. Carroll (Boston, 1856). The steel plate is from a portrait by George P. A. Healey. The vignette on page 8 is a view of President Pierce's birthplace, and that on page 10 represents his grave, which is in the cemetery at Concord, N. H. His wife, Jane Means Appleton, b. in Hampton, N. H., 12 March, 1806 ; d. in Andover, Mass., 2 Dec., 18G3, was a daughter of the Rev. Jesse Appleton, D. D. (q. v.), president of Bowdoin college. She was brought up in an atmosphere of culti- vated and refined Christian influences, was thoroughly edu- cated, and grew to womanhood sur- rounded by most con- genial circumstances. She was married 111 1834. Public obser- vation was extremely painful to her, and

she always preferred

the quiet of her New England home to the glare and glitter of fashionable life in Va-hiiisrtoii. A friend said of her : " How well she filled her station as wife, mother, daughter, sister, and friend, those only can tell who knew her in these private relations. In this quiet sphere she found her joy. and here her gentle but powerful influence was deeply and constantly felt, through wise counsels and deliente suggestions, the purest, finest tastes, and a devoted life." She was the mother of three children, all boys, but none survived her. Two died in early youth, and the youngest. Benjamin, was killed in an accident on the Boston and Maine railroad while travelling from Andover to Lawrence, Mass., on 6 Jan., 1853. only two months before his father's inauguration as president. Mr. and Mrs. Pierce were with him at the time, and the boy. a bright lad of thirteen years, had been amus-