Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/249

FRANKLIN PIERCE 195 out the country to fever heat. It remained un settled, to vex Buchanan s administration and further develop the germs of disunion and san guinary civil war. On June 2, 1856, the National Democratic con vention met at Cincinnati to nominate a candidate for president. On the first ballot James Buchanan had 135 votes, Pierce 122, Douglas 33, Cass 6. Pierce s vote gradually diminished, and on the 17th ballot Buchanan was nominated unanimously. In August the house of representatives attached to the army appropriation bill a proviso that no part of the army should be employed to enforce the laws of the Kansas territorial legislature until congress should have declared its validity. The senate re fused to concur, and congress adjourned without passing the bill. It was immediately convened by proclamation, and passed the bill without the proviso. The president s message in December fol lowing was mainly devoted to Kansas affairs, and was intensely hostile to the free-state party. His term ended on March 4, 1857, and he returned to his home in Concord. Soon afterward he visited Madeira, and extended his travels to Great Britain and the continent of Europe. He remained abroad nearly three years, returning to Concord early in 1860. In the presidential election of that year he took no active part, but his influence was cast