For the sake of true manhood, we gladly turn to consider the
course adopted by General Pierce.
The election for governor was now at a distance of only a few weeks; and
it could not be otherwise than a most hazardous movement for the
democratic party, at so late a period, to discard a candidate with whom
the people had become familiar. It involved nothing less than the
imminent peril of that political supremacy which the party had so long
enjoyed. With Mr. Atwood as candidate, success might be considered as
certain. To a short-sighted and a weak man, it would have appeared the
obvious policy to patch up the difficulty, and, at all events, to
conquer, under whatever leadership, and with whatever allies. But it was
one of those junctures which test the difference between the man of
principle and the mere politician--the man of moral courage and him who
yields to temporary expediency. General Pierce could not consent that
his party should gain a nominal triumph, at the expense of what he looked
upon as its real integrity and life. With this view of the matter, he
had no hesitation in his course; nor could the motives which otherwise
would have been strongest with him--pity for the situation of an
unfortunate individual, a personal friend, a Democrat, as Mr.
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