A COMPILATION OF THE MESSAGES AND PAPERS OF THE PRESIDENTS,

VOLUME V, PART 1

BY JAMES D. RICHARDSON

A REPRESENTATIVE FROM THE STATE OF TENNESSEE

1902






This volume, the fifth of the series, comprises a period of twelve
years. It includes the four years' term of the Taylor-Fillmore
Administration and the full terms of Presidents Pierce and Buchanan.
This brings the history down to March 4, 1861, the beginning of the late
war between the States. These twelve years form an important and
eventful epoch in the affairs of our country, as they immediately
precede the war and cover the official utterances of the Executives
during this period. Some of the more important events and incidents of
these twelve years are the Bulwer-Clayton treaty with Great Britain for
a joint occupancy of the proposed ship canal through Central America;
the compromise measures of 1850; the admission of California, Minnesota,
Oregon, and Kansas as States; the Gadsden purchase, by which the United
States acquired 45,535 square miles of territory, being portions of
Arizona and New Mexico; the Kansas-Nebraska legislation; the famous Dred
Scott decision; the John Brown insurrection, and the disruption of the