CORRESPONDENCE. Letter to General Pierce. CONCORD, June 17, 1852. SIR: A National Convention of the democratic republican party, which met in Baltimore the first Tuesday in June, unanimously nominated you as a candidate for the high trust of President of the United States. We have been delegated to acquaint you with the nomination, and earnestly to request that you will accept it. Persuaded, as we are, that this office should not be pursued by an unchastened ambition, it can never be refused by a dutiful patriotism. The circumstances under which you will be presented for the canvass of your countrymen are propitious to the interests which the constitution entrusts to our federal Union, and must be auspicious to your own fame. You come before the people without the impulse of personal wishes, and free from all selfish expectations. You are identified with none of the distractions which have recently disturbed our country, whilst you are known to be faithful to the constitution-to all its guarantees and compromises. You will be free to exert your tried abilities, within the path of duty, in protecting that repose we happily enjoy, and in giving efficacy and control to those cardinal principles that have already illustrated the party which has selected you as its leader-principles that regard the security and prosperity of the whole country, and the paramount power of its laws, as indissolubly associated with the perpetuity of our civil and religious liberties. The convention did not pretermit the duty of reiterating those principles, and you will find them prominently set forth in the resolutions it adopted. To these we respectfully invite your attention. It is firmly believed that to your talents and patriotism the security of our holy Union, with its expanded and expanding interests, may be wisely trusted, and that, amid all the perils which may assail the constitution, you will have the heart to love and the arm to defend it. With congratulations to you and the country upon this demonstration of its exalted regard, and the patriot hopes that cluster over it, we have the honor to be, with all respect, your fellow-citizens, Hon. FRANKLIN PIERCE, of New Hampshire. J. S. BARBOUR, J. THOMPSON, PIERRE SOULE. General Pierce's Reply. CONCORD, (N. H.,) June 17, 1852. GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to acknowledge your personal kindness in presenting to me this day your letter officially informing me of my nomination, by the Democratic National Convention, as a candidate for the presidency of the United States. The surprise with which I received the intelligence of the nomination was not unmingled with painful solicitude, and yet it is proper for me to say that the manner in which it was conferred was peculiarly gratifying. The delegation from New Hampshire, with all the glow of State pride and all the warmth of personal regard, would not have submitted my name to the convention, nor would they have cast a vote for me, under circumstances other than those which occurred. I shall always cherish with pride and gratitude the recollection of the fact that the voice which first pronounced for me-and pronounced alonecame from the mother of States-a pride and gratitude rising far above any consequences that can betide me personally. May I not regard it as a fact pointing to the overthrow of sectional jealousies, and looking to the perennial life and vigor of a Union cemented by the blood of those who have passed to their reward-a Union wonderful in its formation, boundless in its hopes, amazing in its destiny! I accept the nomination, relying upon an abiding devotion to the interests, the honor, and the glory of our whole country, but, beyond and above all, upon a Power superior to all human might-a Power which, from the first gun of the Revolution, in every crisis through which we have passed, in every hour of our acknowledged peril, when the dark clouds have shut down around us, has interposed, as if to baffle human wisdom, outmarch human forecast, and bring out of darkness the rainbow of promise. Weak myself, faith and hope repose there in security. I accept the nomination upon the platform adopted by the convention, not because this is expected of me as a candidate, but because the principles it embraces command the approbation of my judgment; and with them I believe I can safely say there has been no word nor act of my life in conflict. I have only to tender my grateful acknowledgments to you, gentlemen, to the convention of which you were members, and to the people of our common country. I am, with the highest respect, your most obedient servant, To Hon. J. S. BARBOUR, J. THOMPSON, ALPHEUS FELCH, PIERRE SOUle. FRANK. PIERCE. Letter to Hon. William R. King. WASHINGTON, June 21, 1852. SIR: The democratic republican party, which met in convention at Baltimore the first of June, nominated you as its candidate in the ensuing election for the elevated office of Vice President of the United States. The duty of communicating it to you has been assigned to us, and we respectfully ask you to accept it. The length of your public life, and the virtue and ability which have characterized it, make you known to the whole country, and give both the Union and the States the acceptable assurance that to you may be well confided all the responsibilities of this high trust, whether they be immediate or contingent. The foreign and intestine trials through which our country has passed while you were in its service have proved that in every difficulty you were wise, temperate, and firm. Your labors have eminently tended to guard the rights of the States, and to protect the integrity and safety of the Union. The resolutions adopted by the convention set forth the cardinal principles of the republican school of politics, and your past fidelity to them does not allow us to doubt of your continued devotion to these fundamental doctrines. It is this established fidelity-joined to a just appreciation of your practised abilities, your great experience, and your unsullied worth-which attracted to you the public mind, and awarded to you this distinguished proof of its unsolicited approbation. With all respect, your obedient servants, J. S. BARBOUR, PIERRE SOULE. Hon. WILLIAM R. KING. Mr. King's Reply. SENATE CHAMBER, June 22, 1852. GENTLEMEN: I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your letter notifying me that I have been nominated by the Democratic Convention as Vice President of the United States. This distinguished manifestation of the respect and confidence of my democratic brethren commands my most grateful acknowledgments, and I cheerfully accept the nomination with which I have been honored. Throughout a long public life I am not conscious that I have ever swerved from those principles which have been cherished and sustained by the democratic party; and in whatever situation I may be placed, my countrymen may rest assured that I shall adhere to them faithfully and zealously-perfectly satisfied that the prosperity of our common country and the permanency of our free institutions can be promoted and preserved only by administering the government in strict accordance with them. The platform as laid down by the convention meets with my cordial approbation. It is national in all its parts; and I am content not only to stand upon it, but on all occasions to defend it. For the very flattering terms in which you have been pleased, gentlemen, to characterize my public services, I feel that I am indebted to the personal regard which I am proud to know you individually entertain for me, and that you greatly overrate them. The only merit I can lay claim to is an honest discharge of the duties of the various positions with which I have been honored. This I claim-nothing more. With the highest respect and esteem, I am, gentlemen, your fellowcitizen, To Messrs. J. S. BARBOUR, J. THOMPSON, WILLIAM R. KING. |