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that tfhe question is afc rest , and that no sectional , or ambitaene , or fanatical excitement , may again threaten the durability of our institutions , or obscure the light of our jrooBperity . But let not the foundation of our hope rest upon man ' s ^ wisdom . It will not be sufficient that sectional prejudices Tfind no place in the public deliberations . It will not be ¦ sufficient that the rash counsels of human passions are ^ rejected . It must be felt , that there is no national security but in the nation ' s humble , acknowledged dependence upon God and His overruling providence .
We have been carried in safety through a perilous crisis . Wise counsels , like those which gave us the Constitution , prevailed to uphold it . Let the period be remembered as an admonition , and not as an encouragement , in any section of the Union , to make experiments where experiments are fraught with such fearful hazard . Let it be impressed upon all hearts , that , beautiful as our fabric is , no earthly power or wisdom , could reunite its broken fragments . Standing asl do almost -within view of the green slopes of Monticello , and , as it were , within reach of the tomb of Washington , with all the cherished memories of the past gathering around me , like so many eloquent voices of exhortation from Heaven , I can express no better hope for my country than , that the kind Providence which smiled upon _ our fathers may enable their children to preserve the blessings they have inherited .
Great cheering and firing of cannon succeeded the address , which the President delivered , as if extempore . " He had no papers or notes , " says a correspondent , " but delivered the address beautifully and gracefully , without a blemish , to the end . It will be remembered that Presidents Taylor , Polk , and others , read their addresses from the manuscript . When he came to that part of his address which related to the protection of American citizens abroad , he turned face to face with Mr . FilLmore and the diplomatic corps , and laid down the law with thrilling emphasis ; and when he again turned to the mass of the people in front occupying the vast square below , they shouted with delight , and every man of the 60 , 000 in the streets declared that' Pierce is the man for the times . '"
The address , according to another authority , which the President delivered unfalteringly from memory , and "without a single note , was received with great enthusiasm by the vast multitude , particularly those portions of it that asserted the Monroe doctrine , the protection of American citizens abroad , the firm adherence of the President to the compromise measures , and his determination to carry out the Fugitive Slave Law . Cries of " Good , good , " and other warm expressions of admiration , were elicited from the crowd . The sentiments ,
the tone of the address , the earnest manner in which it was spoken , his beautiful action , his manly , erect appearance , his pale cast of countenance , in which intellect and courage were the predominating features , and his clear , loud voice , distinctly heard by the remotest of his audience , all combined to make a deep impression in favour of General Pierce , and many asserted that this was the best inaugural address ever delivered from that spot . He is undoubtedly a very effective speaker . He remained with his hat off until the close of the
proceedings . The ladies were in eestacies , and so anxious were some who happened to bo in the rear to see and hear him , that they climbed upon the pediments of the columns of the capitol , to their no small danger . Altogether it was a glorious spectacle of sublime majesty , casting into the shade the idle pomp and unmeaning pageantry of the coronation of kings and emperors . On the conclusion of the ceremonies , the President was escorted to the White House , whore he held a kind of levee . The proceedings of the day closed with a private dinner at the White House . Ex-President Fillmore quietly returned to the apartments in the hotol where President Pierce had resided .
Speaking of the Cabinet said to have been constructed by General Pierce , the New York correspondent of the Times say a : — " If I put as much confidence in the conjectures of the newspaper press on the subject of General 1 'ierce ' s Cabinet as tho public generally do , I should to-day send you brief political histories of Governor Marcy , of Now York , to whom conjecture- assigns tho State Department , equivalent to tho portfolio for Foreign Affairs ; James Guthrio , of . Kentucky , Secretary of tho Treasury ; Jefl'orson Davit ) , of Mississippi , Secretary of War ; Mr . Dobbin , of North Carolina , Secretary of tho Navy ; Governor M'Clelland , of Michigan , Secretary of tho Interior ; Judge Campbell , of Pennsylvania , Postmaster-General ; and Caleb Gushing , of MasHanhuHotts , Attorney-General .
" Supposing this to be the Cabinet , curious an tho choice may be , there aro pretty plausible reasons for it on tho jmrt of General Pierce . Davis and dishing wore Generals with Pierce himself , and his companionH in the Mexican war , and Governor Marcy was during th <> same period Secretary of War . So hore are four men most intimately associated in . that celebrated campaign . Ho far as Governor Marcy is concerned , it will hardly bo questioned that ho is a man of very great ability , and ho has now for
upwarda of thirty years boon engaged in public affairs . Ho began in an important municipal oflico in tlio little city of Troy , at tho head of tho navigation on tho Jtudson ltivor . IFobooaino Controller of tho State of Now York , subsequently Governor , at a later period senator , and held tho War Department during Mr . Polk'n adminiHtrution . It can hardly bo doubted that ho could fill tho State department with an much ability as any other man . Of Mr . Gutbrje Jobs is known , lie has novojr been , jn public hie
out of his own State ; but he has the reputation there of legal ability and considerable wealth . Jefferson Davis is a man of brilliant talents , was thoroughly educated at tho Military Academy of West Point , served some time in the army , left it , served a term in the United States Senate , and distinguished himself in the Mexican campaign . He is an accomplished man , and the best choice the President could make for a Secretary of War . Mr . Dobbin has been in- Congress , and , but for some difficulty in . his party , would have been elected two months ago to the "United
States' Senate from North Carolina . Mr . M'Clelland is now the actual Governor of Michigan . He is a man of great integrity , of fine talents , and universally respected and beloved where le is known . He also has had sir years ' experience in Congress . Judge Campbell , by profession a lawyer , and a Koman Catholic in faith , is now Attorney-General of the great State of Pennsylvania , and his appointment will give general satisfaction . Caleb Cushing ' s nomination for . the Cabinet will , however , probably excite more interest than any other man in it , owing to Ms eminence in so many departments of life . "
It appears that Meagher , the gallant and eloquent young Ireland man , who escaped from Van Dieman ' s Land , without breaking his parole , was a guest of General Pierce before the 4 th of March . Our Times insinuates that this is a political crime .
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LETTERS FROM PARIS . [ Fkom ottr own Correspondent . 1 Letter LX 1 V . Paris , March 15 , 1853 . After the lively emotions of the preceding weeks , political matters have languished these last few days . Nothing remarkable ~ \ m be recorded , except , perhaps , the retirement of St . Arnaud and the quarrel among the French Bishops . St . Arnaud , who hasreally beensuffering from a disease of the stomach for the last five months , but / who for the reasons I have more than once explained to you , clung tenaciously to his post as long as he could , has now been forced by the violence of his disorder to abandon it . He has started for the Hyeres Islands ( those Golden Isles of the ancients ) , to seek some respite and repose . In spite of his intolerable sufferings St . Arnaud has continued to direct the affairs of his ministerial department with incredible obstinacy . After the profound demoralization that the success of the coujTd ' etat had spread among the Generals and officers , the army demanded a hand of iron to hold it together . St . Arnaud knew well that when he was gone , this powerful organism would run a terrible risk of
falling into dissolution . With all his weight , then , he kept the army down , as the very sheet-anchor of the bastard regime under which we vegetate , and which is but a sorry parody of the Empire . The most explicit orders were given to isolate the army from the rest of the jiation . All contact , all relation , all conversation , between soldiers and civilians was severely interdicted . Every letter addressed to a soldier was scrupulously opened and examined . The number of spies in every regiment was quadrupled . The merest word , the slightest step , was instantly reported to the colonel , and if an officer or a private had exposed himself to but the
fuintest shadow of suspicion be was shipped off without ado to Africa . Never was the army subject to such a regime ; it found itself , in a word , tho first victim of the despotism it had established . If St . Arnaud was so obstinate in sticking to his post , it was from the fear lest under a successor less resoluto the army might become conspirator , traitor , insurgent . By tho departure of St . Arnaud all these eventualities are nowbrought within possibility . He remains , indeed , still nominally Minister of War , but his place is reully open to a successor . To take his place tho names of many gonoralt ? aro mentioned .
1 . General Caurobert , * to whom Bonaparte once offered the Ministry of War , but who assigned as the condition of his acceptance tho recall of tho exiled Generals .
2 . General Delaruo , who has for many yours been attached to tho ministry of-war . 3 . Marshal Vaillant , ex-general in the Engineers . The name of General Aupick , at present ambassador at Madrid , has been also mentioned . His sudden return to Paris gave riso to tho report that ho wns to replace St . Arnaud , but tho report wants confirmation . Tho most likely mini , it sooina , is General Caumbert , who for houio time has been visited with tho special favours of Bonaparte , and who stands high in tho imperial rogard . One hears that General Caurobert i « , as times go , an honest man as compared with St . Arnaud , who , you know , wn . s a man over head and ears in disgraceful gambling debts , lost to all honour , and sunk in ( Uibauehery .
Excuse mo digressing into a reflection hero . To commit a coup do main , like the social crime of tho second of D ecember , you must havo ruined and degraded nion for iiiHtrumenta ; but to make tho power thus acquired to last , to make success durable , you
must get men relatively honest . Now , the employment of these comparatively-honest men is in itself a great concession to public opinion ; it is the first triumph of the nation , and a first defeat for the usurping government . Let the moment only come for this opinion to lift up its voice and protest aloud against the yoke it has been tamed to endure ; then let but a popular movement arise to translate this feeling into act , and those " honest" men whom the Government had thought to rally to its cause for its own safety , will be the very cause of its fall .
Under such circumstances , a ruined and desperate man ( tin liomme perdu ) would not hesitate : he would go R-head , reckless of death , and this very recklessness would be his best chance of winning the venture ; while an " honest" man , beset by the scruples of a troubled conscience , would perish through his honesty . And may not this be the mysterious course by which Providence is preparing to drag us out of this slough in which we are now sunk ? " Slough" is the word : men and things , all is foul and filthy among us , governors and governed ; our heads are buried in the mire in which " society" sought a footing . Never in the whole range of history was any nation placed in a more false position than ours .
The second fact which has attracted public attention during the past week is the quarrel of the clergy . There exists , you know , at Paris , a religious journal , entitled L'Univers , the organ of what is called the Catholic party par excellence—in other words , the Ecclesiastical Legitimists . Now , just as in February , ' 48 , the priests and the Legitimists came out more republican than the Republicans themselves , now that we have the Emperor , these gentlemen appear more Bonapartist than the Bonapartists themselves . The JJnivers cries Vive VEmpereur ! But even while it cries Vive I'JEmperettr , it demands the "
re-establishment of authority on its true basis , " and in accordance with its programme , it preaches the return , pure and simple , to the doctrines , the institutions , political and educational , of the middle ages . M . Veuillot , the chief editor of the Univers , has constituted himself the leading champion of the Inquisition ; and he demands , moreover , the proscription of Homer , Demosthenes , and Plato , among Greek authors ; and the proscription of Virgil , Horace , Livy , and Tacitus , among the Latins ; and their places to be filled in the colleges by St . Augustin , Thomas Aquinas , &c . Several of the French bishops have espoused the demands ot the JJnivers ;
and in pastoral letters which have been published , and with which I have entertained you in former letters , they fulminate anathemas on the devote d Iliad , Odyssey and JEneid ! So far , however , the thing was only ludicrous ; but , unfortunately , certain other bishops have seriously taken up the cudgels for the Pagans ; among these champions of the classics is Ms Sibour , Archbishop of Paris . M « Sibour was nominated by General Cavaignac , and for a long time he manifested quasirepublican opinions . Well , the Archbishop having
censured the Univers , certain bishops took up its defence . Whereupon the Archbishop resolved to strike a coup d ' autorite , administered ii " warning" to tho Univers , and in a pastoral to tho faithful of his diocese , interdicted sill the clergy and their congregations from reading tho said journal . Tho Bishop of Moulins , M . do Dreux Breze—a great mime in tho old French noblesse , seized this occasion , with some nspelity , to mortify tho plebeian Sibour , ami in a mandement to his diocesans bo attacks the mandement of tho
Archbishop , and almost recommends tho reading of tho Univers . Great indignation of the Archbishop , who instantly denounces tho bishop ' s pastoral to the Popo ; but instead of doing it secretly , In ; does it openly , pending to tho journals for publication his letter destined for tho l ' ope . This published letter concludes as follows : — " So long as I live , the religious journals at Paris will bo subject to my surveillance , and , if necessary , to repression , by the power of which I
disposetho spiritual power . Either they will keep within their duly , or they will quit my diocoHo , to seek elsowhero" ( "i . « ., at MouHiiH , Chalons , Avignon , & , <• . ) " a jurisdiction moro complaisant , to preach contempt of tho liiorurcliy , mid to inako war upon tho authority which 1 hold by the divine mercy and the grace of tho Holy Apostolic See . Wherefore , trZs tiaint Mm , I submit to tho tribunal of your JIolinoNH tho circular epistle of Mon-Koignour tlo Moulin . s , nnd I appeal to you for justice . ' *
But tho four bishops hereby denounced havo equally appealed to tho Popo against tho Archbishop of Paris and his adherents , tlio Bishops of Vivicrs , Orleans , Chart-res , Verdun , and Marseilles . They havo repre-Honted tlio Univers uh tlio defender of tho interests of tho Holy See , and the bishops , their opponents , an tho assortoi-H of tlio ( iallican liberties . M . Veuillot , for bis own part . iH now at Koine , and tboronmkos his appeal in person to tho 1 ' ojm ) . All this hubbub is a mere querelle de sacristans , to which , in other tunes , no o . ne would have paid
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March 19 , 1853 . ] THE LEADER , 271
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• This is th «> ( Jonoral who , on tho evo of tho Second of December , ' 61 , was won over to tho causo of tho coup d'jfaC . by the beautiful Madwae 7 $ -jj , en peignoir . —JbPr
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Leader (1850-1860), March 19, 1853, page 271, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1978/page/7/
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