Non-fiction: Annual Message to Congress (1853)

Overview
Franklin Pierce’s first Annual Message to Congress sets out a program of conciliation at home and measured assertion abroad. He pledges faithful execution of all laws, fidelity to constitutional limits, and a general desire to quiet sectional discord after the turbulence of the early 1850s. Economic confidence, restrained federal action, and a posture of peace with preparedness frame his account of the nation’s condition and priorities.

Domestic Governance and the Union
Pierce casts the Compromise of 1850 as a final settlement of slavery-related controversies and urges Congress and the public to let that settlement stand. He vows impartial enforcement, including of the fugitive slave provisions, while warning that renewed agitation would endanger prosperity and the Union’s bonds. He argues for a federal government of enumerated powers and counsels caution on national undertakings that would draw Washington into local or sectional projects. The Executive, he assures, seeks harmony among the states by adhering to law rather than by enlarging power.

Economy, Revenue, and Infrastructure
Reporting a healthy Treasury and expanding commerce, Pierce emphasizes reducing or averting surpluses rather than finding new ways to spend them. He favors simplifying and adjusting the tariff to yield only the revenue necessary for government, continuing the Independent Treasury system, and steadily retiring public debt. On internal improvements, he accepts works of clear national character, such as harbor entrances and major navigation points, while resisting broad federal patronage of local projects. For great undertakings like a transcontinental railroad, he points toward surveys, prudent staging, and the judicious use of public lands rather than open-ended appropriations. He underscores the rapid spread of settlement and encourages policies that place actual settlers on public lands under fair terms, paired with better land administration and surveys.

Territories, Native Nations, and the Frontiers
Turning to the territories, Pierce calls for effective courts, mail service, and civil administration to keep pace with population. He describes a duty to protect settlers and travel routes while maintaining good faith in treaties with Native nations. Reform of the Indian service, suppression of abuses, and a steadier policy that combines humanity with firmness are presented as essential to frontier peace. He links these questions to the nation’s westward momentum and to the integrity of federal obligations.

Foreign Relations and National Interests
Pierce describes an outward-looking but law-abiding diplomacy. He rejects private military expeditions and affirms that any enlargement of the nation’s domain must proceed, if at all, through honorable negotiation. He highlights U.S. interests in the Caribbean and Gulf, notably the sensitivity surrounding Cuba, and insists that American policy aims at stability and nonaggression while remaining alert to any shift that might threaten U.S. security. With Mexico, he seeks the quiet adjustment of boundary difficulties inherited from the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. He underscores the importance of neutral and secure transit across Central American isthmuses and urges scrupulous adherence to treaty commitments there, including understandings with Great Britain that foreclose new colonial claims. He notes efforts to broaden commerce in the Pacific and to strengthen treaty rights in Asia, matching an expanding merchant marine with a Navy increasingly adapted to steam.

Army, Navy, and Public Service
The message favors modest increases and modernization in the Army and Navy, improved coastal defenses, and better ordnance and dockyard facilities. Pierce asks for administrative reforms across departments, a more efficient postal service that keeps pace with settlement, and a general codification and simplification of federal statutes. Throughout, he presents prosperity and peace as the fruit of limited government, constitutional fidelity, and steady, lawful engagement with a wider world.