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U.S Presidents — Franklin Pierce

OVERVIEW Name: Franklin Pierce President: # 14 Term Number(s): 17 Term Length: 4 Took Office: March 4, 1853 Left Office: March 4, 1857 Age when Elected: 48 Party: Democratic Also Known As: "Young Hickory of the Granite Hills" BIOGRAPHIC INFORMATION Education: Bowdoin College Occupation: Lawyer Other Governmental Position: United States Senator from New Hampshire, Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire's At-large District, Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Military Service: Brigadier General in the United States Army Religion: Episcopal Spouse(s): Jane Appleton Pierce (November 19, 1834) Children: Franklin Pierce, Jr.; Frank Robert Pierce; Benjamin Pierce Birthdate: November 23, 1804 Birthplace: Hillsborough, New Hampshire Deathdate: October 8, 1869 Deathplace: Concord, New Hampshire Age at Death: 64 Cause of Death: stomach inflammation Place of Internment: Old North Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire Signature FIRST ELECTION Election Year: 1852 Main Opponent: Winfield Scott Voter Participation: N/A   Electoral Popular States Click for larger image Winner 254 (86.00%) 1,607,510 (50.80%) 27 Main Opponent 42 (14.19%) 1,386,942 (43.90%) 4 total 296 3,161,830 31 CABINET AND COURT APPOINTMENTS Vice President: William R. King, vacant Secretary of State: William L. Marcy (1853–1857) Secretary of the Treasury: James Guthrie (1853–1857) Secretary of War: Jefferson Davis (1853–1857) Secretary of the Navy: James C. Dobbin (1853–1857) Secretary of the Interior: Robert McClelland (1853–1857) Attorney General: Caleb Cushing (1853–1857) Postmaster General: James Campbell (1853–1857) Supreme Court Assignments: John Archibald Campbell (1853) PRESIDENT'S BIOGRAPHY Franklin Pierce became president at a time of apparent tranquility. The United States, by virtue of the Compromise of 1850, seemed to have weathered its sectional storm. By pursuing the recommendations of southern advisers, Pierce—a New Englander—hoped to prevent still another outbreak of that storm. But his policies, far from preserving calm, hastened the disruption of the Union. Born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in 1804, Pierce attended Bowdoin College. After graduation he studied law, then entered politics. At 24 he was elected to the New Hampshire legislature; two years later he became its speaker. During the 1830s he went to Washington, first as a representative, then as a senator. Pierce, after serving in the Mexican War, was proposed by New Hampshire friends for the presidential nomination in 1852. At the Democratic Convention, the delegates agreed easily enough upon a platform pledging undeviating support of the Compromise of 1850 and hostility to any efforts to agitate the slavery question. But they balloted 48 times and eliminated all the well-known candidates before nominating Pierce, a true "dark horse." Probably because the Democrats stood more firmly for the Compromise than the Whigs, and because Whig candidate General Winfield Scott was suspect in the South, Pierce won with a narrow margin of popular votes. Two months before he took office, he and his wife saw their eleven-year-old son killed when their train was wrecked. Grief-stricken, Pierce entered the presidency nervously exhausted. In his inaugural speech, he proclaimed an era of peace and prosperity at home, and vigor in relations with other nations. The United States might have to acquire additional possessions for the sake of its own security, he pointed out, and would not be deterred by "any timid forebodings of evil." Pierce had only to make gestures toward expansion to excite the wrath of northerners, who accused him of acting as a cat's-paw of Southerners eager to extend slavery into other areas. Therefore he aroused apprehension when he pressured Great Britain to relinquish its special interests along part of the Central American coast, and even more when he tried to persuade Spain to sell Cuba. But the most violent renewal of the storm stemmed from 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, grew in part out of his desire to promote a railroad from Chicago to California through Nebraska. Already 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 $10,000,000. Douglas's proposal, to organize western territories through which a railroad might run, caused extreme trouble. Douglas provided in his bills that the residents of the new territories could decide the slavery question for themselves. The result was a rush into Kansas, as southerners and northerners vied for control of the territory. Shooting broke out, and "bleeding Kansas" became a prelude to the Civil War. By the end of his administration, Pierce could claim "a peaceful condition of things in Kansas." But, to his disappointment, the Democrats refused to renominate him, turning to the less controversial Buchanan. Pierce returned to New Hampshire, leaving his successor to face the rising fury of the sectional whirlwind. He died in 1869. FIRST LADY'S BIOGRAPHY Jane Appleton Pierce In looks and in pathetic destiny, young Jane Means Appleton resembled the heroine of a Victorian novel. The gentle dignity of her face reflected her sensitive, retiring personality and physical weakness. Her father had died—the Reverend Jesse Appleton was a Congregational minister and president of Bowdoin College—and her mother had taken the family to Amherst, New Hampshire. And Jane met a Bowdoin graduate, a young lawyer with political ambitions, Franklin Pierce. although Franklin was immediately devoted to Jane, they did not marry until she was 28—surprising in that day of early marriages. Her family opposed the match; moreover, she always did her best to discourage his interest in politics. The death of a three-day-old son, the arrival of a new baby, and Jane's dislike of Washington counted heavily in his decision to retire at the apparent height of his career, as United States Senator, in 1842. Little Frank Robert, the second son, died the next year of typhus. Service in the Mexican War brought Pierce the rank of brigadier and local fame as a hero. He returned home safely, and for four years the Pierces lived quietly at Concord, New Hampshire, in the happiest period of their lives. With attentive pleasure, Jane watched her son Benjamin growing up. Then, in 1852, the Democratic Party made Pierce their candidate for president. His wife fainted at the news. When he took her to Newport for a respite, their son Benny wrote to her: "I hope he won't be elected for I should not like to be at Washington and I know you would not either." But the President-elect convinced Jane that his office would be an asset for Benny's success in life. On a journey by train, on January 6, 1853, the car was derailed and Benny was killed before their eyes. The whole nation shared the parents' grief. The inauguration on March 4 took place without an inaugural ball and without the presence of Mrs. Pierce. She joined her husband later that month, but any pleasure the White House might have brought her was gone. From this loss she never recovered fully. Other events deepened the somber mood of the new administration: Mrs. Fillmore's death in March, that of Vice President Rufus King in April. Always devout, Jane Pierce turned for solace to prayer. She had to force herself to meet the social obligations inherent in the role of first lady. Fortunately she had the companionship and help of a girlhood friend, now her aunt by marriage, Abigail Kent Means. Mrs. Robert E. Lee wrote in a private letter: "I have known many of the ladies of the White House, none more truly excellent than the afflicted wife of President Pierce. Her health was a bar to any great effort on her part to meet the expectations of the public in her high position but she was a refined, extremely religious and well educated lady." With retirement, the Pierces made a prolonged trip abroad in search of health for the invalid—she carried Benny's bible throughout the journey. The quest was unsuccessful, so the couple came home to New Hampshire to be near family and friends until Jane's death in 1863. She was buried near Benny's grave. MAJOR EVENTS 1853: Gadsden Purchase is negotiated by James Gadsden, U.S. minister to Mexico. The area now comprising southern Arizona and part of southern New Mexico is purchased from Mexico for $15 million (USD). 1854: Pierce signs the Kansas-Nebraska Act creating the territories of Kansas and Nebraska. It repeals the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and allows for the reconsideration of slavery in the West. 1854: Ostend Manifesto, a document written by Pierre Soule, U.S. minister to Spain. It advocated that the United States be able to purchase Cuba from Spain and if not, the U.S. would declare war against Spain. 1854: Treaty with Japan is negotiated by Commodore Matthew Perry. 1854–1856: "Bleeding Kansas." Violence erupts between anti-slavery "Free-Staters" and pro-slavery "Border Ruffian" settlers over the question of whether Kansas should be a free state or a slave state. TRIVIA 1. During Franklin Pierce's campaign for president, one of the Democratic party's slogans was: "We Polked you in 1844; we shall Pierce you in 1852." 2. Pierce went to college with Nathaniel Hawthorne and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. 3. Franklin Pierce gave his 3,319-word inaugural address from memory, without the aid of notes. 4. Pierce was the only president so far to have no turnover in his cabinet. 5. Pierce was the first president to have a Christmas tree in the White House.