   #copyright

Franklin Pierce

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: USA Presidents

   Franklin Pierce
   Franklin Pierce
     __________________________________________________________________

   14th President of the United States
   In office
   March 4, 1853 –  March 4, 1857
   Vice President(s)   William R. King (1853)
   None (1853-1857)
   Preceded by Millard Fillmore
   Succeeded by James Buchanan
     __________________________________________________________________

   Born November 23, 1804
   Hillsborough, New Hampshire
   Died October 8, 1869
   Concord, New Hampshire
   Political party Democratic
   Spouse Jane Appleton Pierce
   Religion Episcopal
   Signature

   Franklin Pierce, Sr. ( November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was an
   American politician and the 14th President of the United States,
   serving from 1853 to 1857. Pierce was a Democrat and a "doughface" (a
   Northerner with Southern sympathies) who served in the U.S. House of
   Representatives and Senate. Later, Pierce took part in the
   Mexican-American War, becoming a brigadier general. His private law
   practice in his home state, New Hampshire, was so successful that he
   turned down several important positions. Later, he was nominated for
   president as a " dark horse" candidate on the 49th ballot at the 1852
   Democratic National Convention. In the presidential election, Pierce
   and his running mate William R. King won in a landslide, beating
   Winfield Scott by a 50 to 44% margin in the popular vote and 254 to 42
   in the electoral vote. He became the youngest president up until that
   time.

   His good looks and inoffensive personality caused him to make many
   friends, but he suffered tragedy in his personal life and as president
   subsequently made decisions which were widely criticized and divisive
   in their effects, thus giving him the reputation as one of the worst
   presidents in U.S. history. Pierce's popularity in the North went down
   sharply after he came out in favour of the Kansas-Nebraska Act,
   repealing the Missouri Compromise and reopening the question of the
   expansion of slavery in the West. Pierce's credibility was further
   damaged when several of his foreign ministers issued the Ostend
   Manifesto. Historian David Potter concludes that the Ostend Manifesto
   and the Kansas-Nebraska Act were "the two great calamities of the
   Franklin Pierce administration.... Both brought down an avalanche of
   public criticism." More important says Potter, they permanently
   discredited Manifest Destiny and popular sovereignty. [Potter 1976 p
   193]

   Abandoned by his party, Pierce was not renominated at the 1856
   presidential election and was replaced by James Buchanan. After losing
   the Democratic nomination, Pierce continued his lifelong struggle with
   alcoholism as his marriage to Jane Means Appleton Pierce fell apart.
   His reputation was further damaged when he declared support for the
   Confederacy and died in 1869 from cirrhosis.

   Philip B. Kunhardt and Peter W. Kunhardt reflected the views of many
   historians when they wrote in The American President that Pierce was "a
   good man who didn't understand his own shortcomings. He was genuinely
   religious, loved his wife and reshaped himself so that he could adapt
   to her ways and show her true affection. He was one of the most popular
   men in New Hampshire, polite and thoughtful, easy and good at the
   political game, charming and fine and handsome. However, he has been
   criticized as timid and unable to cope with a changing America.

Early life

   Franklin Pierce was born in a log cabin near Hillsborough, New
   Hampshire. The site of his birth is now under Lake Franklin Pierce.
   Pierce's father was Benjamin Pierce, a frontier farmer who became a
   Revolutionary War soldier, a state militia general, and a two-time
   governor of New Hampshire. His mother was Anna Kendrick. Pierce was the
   seventh of eight children; he had four brothers and three sisters.

   Pierce attended school at Hillsborough Centre and moved to the Hancock
   Academy in Hancock at the age of 11; he was transferred to Francestown
   Academy in the spring of 1820. Later that year he was transferred to
   Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college. In fall 1820, he
   entered Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, where he participated in
   literary, political, and debating clubs.

   There he met writer Nathaniel Hawthorne, with whom he formed a lasting
   friendship, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He also met Calvin E.
   Stowe, Sargent S. Prentiss, and his future political rival, John P.
   Hale.

   In his second year of college, his grades were the lowest in his class;
   he shaped up and graduated in 1824, third in his class. After
   graduation, in 1826, he entered a law school in Northampton,
   Massachusetts, studying under Governor Levi Woodbury, and later Judges
   Samuel Howe and Edmund Parker, in Amherst, New Hampshire.

   He was admitted to the bar and began a law practice in Concord, New
   Hampshire in 1827.

Political career

   Pierce began his political career in 1828, when he was elected to the
   lower house of the New Hampshire General Court, the New Hampshire House
   of Representatives.

   He served in the House from 1829 to 1833, and as Speaker from 1832 to
   1833. Pierce was elected as a Democrat to the 23rd and 24th Congresses
   ( March 4, 1833 – March 4, 1837). He was only 27 years old, the
   youngest representative at the time.

   He was elected by the New Hampshire General Court as a Democrat to the
   United States Senate, serving from March 4, 1837, to February 28, 1842,
   when he resigned. He was chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on
   Pensions during the 26th Congress.
   Jane Appleton Pierce
   Enlarge
   Jane Appleton Pierce

   After his service in the Senate, Pierce resumed the practice of law in
   Concord with his partner Asa Fowler. He was district attorney for New
   Hampshire and declined the appointment as Attorney General of the
   United States tendered by President James Polk.

   On November 19, 1834, Pierce married Jane Means Appleton, the daughter
   of a former president of Bowdoin College. Appleton, who was born in
   1806 and died in 1863, was Pierce's opposite. She came from an
   aristocratic Whig family and was extremely shy, deeply religious, often
   ill, and pro- temperance.

   Mrs. Pierce hated life in Washington, D.C., and encouraged Pierce to
   resign his Senate seat and return to New Hampshire, which he did in
   1841. They had three children who all died in childhood. Franklin
   Pierce, Jr. ( 1836- 1836), Frank Robert Pierce ( 1839– 1843) died at
   the age of four from epidemic typhus, Benjamin "Bennie" Pierce ( 1841–
   1853) died at the age of 11 (or 12) in a tragic railway accident in
   Andover, Massachusetts which his parents witnessed, two months before
   the inauguration of his father. None of them lived to see their father
   become president.

Mexican War

   He enlisted in the volunteer services during the Mexican-American War
   and was soon made a colonel. In March 1847, he was appointed brigadier
   general of volunteers and took command of a brigade of reinforcements
   for Winfield Scott's army marching on Mexico City. His brigade was
   designated the 1st Brigade in the newly created 3rd Division and joined
   Scott's army in time for the Battle of Contreras. During the battle he
   was seriously wounded in the leg when he fell from his horse.

   He returned to his command the following day, but during the Battle of
   Churubusco, the pain in his leg became so great that he passed out and
   was carried from the field. His political opponents used this against
   him, claiming that he left the field because of cowardice instead of
   injury. He again returned to command and led his brigade throughout the
   rest of the campaign culminating in the capture of Mexico City.
   Although he was a political appointee, he proved to have some skill as
   a military commander. He returned home and was a member of the New
   Hampshire State constitutional convention in 1850 and served as its
   president.

Election of 1852

   The electoral map of the 1852 election.
   Enlarge
   The electoral map of the 1852 election.

   The Democratic Party nominated Pierce as a " dark horse" candidate
   during the Democratic National Convention of 1852. The convention
   assembled on June 12 in Baltimore, Maryland, with four competing
   contenders— Stephen A. Douglas, William Marcy, James Buchanan and Lewis
   Cass — for the nomination. Most of those who had left the party with
   Martin Van Buren to form the Free Soil Party had returned. Prior to the
   vote to determine the nominee, a party platform was adopted, opposing
   any further "agitation" over the slavery issue and supporting the
   Compromise of 1850 in an effort to unite the various Democratic
   factions.

   When the balloting for president began, the four candidates deadlocked,
   with no candidate reaching even a simple majority, much less the
   required supermajority of two-thirds. On the 35th ballot, Pierce was
   put forth as a compromise candidate. He had never fully articulated his
   views on slavery, which allowed him to be acceptable to all factions.
   He also had served in the Mexican-American War, which allowed the party
   to portray him as a war hero. Pierce was nominated unanimously on the
   49th ballot on June 5. Alabama Senator William R. King was chosen as
   the nominee for Vice President.

   Pierce's opponent was the United States Whig Party candidate, General
   Winfield Scott of Virginia, whom Pierce served under during the
   Mexican-American War, and his running mate, Senator (and later
   Governor) William Alexander Graham of North Carolina. Pierce easily
   prevailed as Scott — nicknamed Old Fuss and Feathers — ran a blundering
   campaign.

   The Whigs' platform was almost indistinguishable from that of the
   Democrats, reducing the campaign to a contest between the personalities
   of the two candidates and helping to drive down the turnout rates in
   the election to their lowest level since 1836. Pierce's likable
   personality, plus his helpful obscurity and lack of strongly held
   positions, helped him prevail over Scott, whose anti-slavery views hurt
   him in the South. Scott's advantage as a known war hero was countered
   by Pierce's service in the same war.

   Pierce was also helped by Irish Catholic support of the Democratic
   Party and their disdain for the Whig Party.

   The Democrats' slogan was "We Polked you in 1844; we shall Pierce you
   in 1852!" (a reference to the victory of James K. Polk in the 1844
   election). This proved to be true, as Scott lost every state except
   Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont. The total popular vote
   was 1,601,274 to 1,386,580, or 50.9% to 44.1%. Pierce won 27 of the 31
   states, including Scott's home state of Virginia. John P. Hale, who
   like Pierce was from New Hampshire, was the nominee of the remnants of
   the Free Soil Party, garnering 155,825 votes (5% of the total).

   The election of 1852 would be the last presidential contest in which
   the Whigs would field a candidate. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act
   divided the Whigs, with the Northern Whigs deeply opposed, resulting in
   a split between former Whigs, some of whom joined the nativist American
   Party Know-Nothings, others the Constitutional Union Party, and still
   others the newly formed Republicans.

Presidency 1853-1857

Beginnings

   Pierce served as U.S. President from March 4, 1853, to March 4, 1857.
   Two months before he took office on January 6, 1853, shortly after
   boarding a train in Boston, president-elect Pierce and his family were
   trapped in a derailed car when it rolled over an embankment near
   Andover, Massachusetts. Pierce and his wife survived and were merely
   shaken up, but they watched as their 11-year-old son Benjamin
   ("Bennie") was crushed to death in the train disaster. Grief-stricken,
   Pierce entered the presidency nervously exhausted.

   The family had already lost two children to typhus, and Jane Pierce
   believed the train accident was divine punishment for her husband's
   acceptance of the high office of the presidency. As a result, Pierce
   chose to " affirm" his Oath of Office on a law book rather than the
   Bible, becoming the first president to do so. Pierce is one of only
   three presidents to affirm the Oath of Office, the two other being
   Herbert Hoover, who chose to "affirm" rather than "swear" because of to
   his Quaker beliefs, and John Tyler. In his inaugural address, he
   proclaimed an era of peace and prosperity at home and vigor in
   relations with other nations, saying that the United States might have
   to acquire additional possessions for the sake of its own security and
   would not be deterred by "any timid forebodings of evil."

Policies

   Pierce selected for his Cabinet not men of similar beliefs but a broad
   cross-section of people he personally knew. Many thought that the
   diverse group would soon break up, but instead it became the only
   Cabinet, as of 2006, that remained unchanged through a four-year term.

   Pierce aroused sectional apprehension when he pressured the United
   Kingdom to relinquish its special interests along part of the Central
   American coast, and when he tried to persuade Spain to sell Cuba for
   $100 million (USD) because of the expansive sugar crop in Cuba.

   The release of the Ostend Manifesto, signed by several of Pierce's
   cabinet members, caused outrage with its suggestion that the U.S. seize
   Cuba by force, and permanently discredited the Democratic Party's
   expansionist policies, which it had so famously ridden to victory in
   1844.

   But the most controversial event of Pierce's presidency was the
   Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and
   reopened the question of slavery in the West. This measure, the
   handiwork of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, allegedly grew out of his
   desire to promote a railroad from Chicago, Illinois to California
   through Nebraska.

   Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, advocate of a southern
   transcontinental route, had persuaded Pierce to send James Gadsden to
   Mexico to buy land for a southern railroad. He purchased the area now
   comprising southern Arizona and part of southern New Mexico for $10
   million (USD), commonly known as the Gadsden Purchase.

   Douglas, to win Southern support for the organization of Nebraska,
   placed in his bill a provision declaring the Missouri Compromise null
   and void. Douglas provided in his bills that the residents of the new
   territories could decide the slavery question for themselves. Pierce,
   who had acquired a reputation as untrustworthy and easily manipulated,
   was persuaded to support Douglas' plan in a closed meeting between
   Pierce, Douglas, and several southern Senators, with Pierce consulting
   only Jefferson Davis of his cabinet.

   The passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act brought about a sequence of
   events that developed into Bleeding Kansas. Pro-slavery Border
   Ruffians, mostly from Missouri, illegally voted in a government that
   Pierce recognized, and Pierce called a shadow government set up by
   Free-Staters an act of "rebellion." Pierce continued to recognize the
   pro-slavery legislature even after a congressional investigative
   committee found its election illegitimate. He furthermore sent in
   federal troops to break up a meeting of the shadow government in
   Topeka.

   The Act also caused widespread outrage in the North and spurred the
   creation of the Republican Party, a sectional Northern party which was
   organized as a direct response to the bill. The election of Republican
   Abraham Lincoln would provoke secession in 1861.

   Meanwhile, Pierce lost all credibility he may have had in the North and
   in the South and was not renominated.

Major legislation signed

     * Signed Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Administration and Cabinet

   Franklin Pierce postage stamp
   Enlarge
   Franklin Pierce postage stamp
   OFFICE                    NAME              TERM
   President                 Franklin Pierce   1853–1857
   Vice President            William R. King   1853
   Secretary of State        William L. Marcy  1853–1857
   Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie     1853–1857
   Secretary of War          Jefferson Davis   1853–1857
   Attorney General          Caleb Cushing     1853–1857
   Postmaster General        James Campbell    1853–1857
   Secretary of the Navy     James C. Dobbin   1853–1857
   Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland 1853–1857

Supreme Court appointments

   Pierce appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the
   United States:
     * John Archibald Campbell – 1853

States admitted to the Union

   None

Later life

   After losing the Democratic nomination, Pierce reportedly quipped
   "there's nothing left to do but get drunk" (quoted also as "after the
   White House what is there to do but drink?") which he apparently did
   frequently. He once ran over an elderly woman while driving a carriage.
   During the Civil War, Pierce further damaged his reputation by
   declaring support for the Confederacy, headed by his old cabinet member
   Davis. One of the few friends to stick by Pierce was his college friend
   and biographer, Nathaniel Hawthorne.

   Franklin Pierce died in Concord, New Hampshire at 4:40 a.m. on October
   8, 1869 at 64 years old. He died from cirrhosis of the liver and was
   interred in the Minot Enclosure in the Old North Cemetery of Concord.

Trivia

   Pierce at the Old North Cemetery, Concord, NH
   Enlarge
   Pierce at the Old North Cemetery, Concord, NH

   Places named after President Pierce:
     * Franklin Pierce College in Rindge, New Hampshire
     * Franklin Pierce School District in Tacoma, Washington
     * Franklin Pierce High School in the Franklin Pierce School District
       in Tacoma, Washington
     * Pierce County in Washington, Nebraska, Georgia, and Wisconsin (But
       not in North Dakota)
     * The Franklin Pierce Law Centre in Concord, New Hampshire
     * Mt. Pierce in the Presidential Range of the White Mountains, New
       Hampshire

In Fiction

     * Benjamin Franklin Pierce out of M*A*S*H is named after Benjamin
       Franklin and President Franklin Pierce

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin_Pierce"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
