Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, the fifth of eight children of Benjamin and Anna Kendrick Pierce.⁠[1]

His father, Benjamin Pierce, had moved to New Hampshire from MassachusettsMassachusettsMassachusetts (officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts) is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States; its capital and largest city is Boston. One of the original 13 states, it ratified the U.S. Constitution on February 6, 1788, the sixth state to do so. Its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 7,029,917.Open the full entry in 1785; a Revolutionary War veteran, he was a farmer, tavernkeeper and militia leader who later served two terms as governor of New Hampshire.⁠[2][1]

Pierce was born in a cabin on the site of what is now Franklin Pierce Lake; his father’s house nearby was completed in 1804, and Pierce lived there from infancy until his marriage in 1834.⁠[3][2]

Pierce attended the Hillsborough Center school as a child, entered Hancock Academy at 11 and Francestown Academy five years later, and then attended Phillips Exeter Academy.⁠[3][4]

He entered Bowdoin College in MaineMaineMaine is a state in the northeastern United States, bordered by Canada and New Hampshire; its capital is Augusta and its largest city is Portland. It entered the Union on March 15, 1820, as the 23rd state, and had a population of 1,362,359 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry at 15 and became friends with Nathaniel Hawthorne; Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and John Parker Hale were also at the college in his time. Once ranked last in his class, he graduated fifth in 1824.⁠[5][3]

Pierce studied law in Northampton, Massachusetts, was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in 1827 and returned to Hillsborough to practice.⁠[6][1]

In 1829, at 24, Pierce was elected to the lower house of the New Hampshire General Court; he served until 1833 and was its speaker in 1832 and 1833.⁠[4][7]

Pierce was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1832 and served from March 1833 to March 1837.⁠[4]

BritannicaEncyclopædia BritannicaEncyclopædia Britannica is a general English-language encyclopedia first published in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1768; the name also refers to its publisher, Chicago-based Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. (which presents itself as The Britannica Group). The print edition ended in 2012, and the company’s main businesses since then have been the online encyclopedia Britannica.com, digital education products for schools and libraries, and Merriam-Webster dictionaries.Open the full entry’s essay judges that his congressional career was undistinguished and that he was often overshadowed by older, better-known men.⁠[6]

On November 19, 1834, Pierce married Jane Means Appleton (1806–1863), whose father, Jesse Appleton, had been president of Bowdoin College.⁠[8][5]

Pierce entered the U.S. Senate in March 1837, the youngest member of the chamber at the time of his election.⁠[4][1]

In 1838 he moved permanently to Concord, New Hampshire.⁠[2]

Pierce resigned from the Senate on February 28, 1842.⁠[1]

After leaving the Senate, Pierce opened a law practice in Concord and became a successful trial lawyer in the 1840s; from 1842 to 1848 the family lived in a Concord house now known as the Pierce Manse.⁠[5][9]

In 1844 he helped manage James K. PolkJames K. PolkJames K. Polk (1795–1849) was an American politician who served as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives and governor of Tennessee, and as the 11th president of the United States from 1845 to 1849. During his presidency the United States annexed Texas, settled the Oregon boundary with Britain and, through the Mexican-American War, acquired a vast territory in what is now the American Southwest.Open the full entry’s presidential campaign in New Hampshire, and afterward he declined the patronage posts Polk offered.⁠[5]

From 1845 to 1846 he served as U.S. attorney for New Hampshire, appointed by Polk.⁠[1][4]

At the outbreak of the Mexican–American War, Pierce was appointed colonel commanding the 9th U.S. Infantry; on March 3, 1847, President Polk promoted him to brigadier general and gave him a brigade of 2,500 recruits.⁠[1]

His force served under General Winfield Scott. On August 19, 1847, at the Battle of Contreras, Pierce badly injured his leg when his horse stumbled, but he was riding again within a month; he missed the assault on Chapultepec in September 1847.⁠[5]

He remained in Mexico during the occupation of Mexico City, and after the war he returned to New Hampshire, where he became the undisputed leader of the state’s Democratic Party.⁠[1][5]

In 1850 Pierce served as president of the New Hampshire constitutional convention, and he supported the Compromise of 1850.⁠[4]

The Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore from June 1 to 4, 1852. After a deadlock among Lewis Cass, Stephen A. Douglas and James BuchananJames BuchananJames Buchanan (1791–1868) was an American Democratic politician and diplomat who served as secretary of state (1845–1849) and as the 15th president of the United States from 1857 to 1861.Open the full entry, Pierce was nominated as a compromise candidate on the 49th ballot.⁠[1][6]

The party platform endorsed the Compromise of 1850 and opposed renewed agitation of the slavery question. Pierce’s nickname, “Young Hickory,” was a reference to Andrew JacksonAndrew JacksonAndrew Jackson (1767–1845) was an American soldier and politician who served as President of the United States from 1829 to 1837, after leading U.S. forces to victory at the Battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812.Open the full entry.⁠[7][6]

Pierce defeated the Whig candidate, Winfield Scott, carrying 27 states to Scott’s four, with an electoral vote of 254 to 42.⁠[1]

At 47, Pierce was the youngest man elected president up to that time.⁠[6]

About two months before Pierce took office, his only surviving son, eleven-year-old Benjamin (Bennie), was killed in a railroad accident that both parents witnessed. The death of Vice President-elect William R. D. King also cast a shadow over the administration.⁠[4][1]

Pierce took office on March 4, 1853. In his inaugural address he proclaimed an era of peace and prosperity at home and vigor abroad, saying the United States might need further possessions for its security and would not be deterred by “any timid forebodings of evil.”⁠[6][7]

His cabinet comprised Secretary of State William Learned Marcy, Secretary of the Treasury James Guthrie, Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, Secretary of the Navy James Cochran Dobbin, Attorney General Caleb Cushing and Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland.⁠[6]

Persuaded by Jefferson Davis, Pierce sent James Gadsden to Mexico, and the United States bought what is now southern ArizonaArizonaArizona is a state in the southwestern United States; its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona was admitted to the Union on February 14, 1912, as the 48th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 7,151,502.Open the full entry and part of southern New MexicoNew MexicoNew Mexico is a state in the Southwestern United States. Its capital is Santa Fe and its largest city is Albuquerque. It was admitted to the Union on January 6, 1912, as the 47th state, and had a population of 2,117,522 in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020).Open the full entry for $10,000,000.⁠[7]

The purchase covered about 30,000 square miles and provided land for a southern transcontinental railroad route; the biographical sketch in the Papers of Abraham LincolnAbraham LincolnAbraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was the 16th president of the United States (1861–1865). Born to a frontier farming family in Kentucky, he had less than a year of formal schooling, taught himself law, and served in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. House of Representatives before winning the presidency as the Republican candidate in 1860. During the Civil War he preserved the Union, issued the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863 and pushed the Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery through Congress. He was shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford’s Theatre in Washington on April 14, 1865, and died the next day.Open the full entry judges it the only achievement of his foreign policy.⁠[6][4]

The Kansas–Nebraska Act was drafted by Senator Stephen A. Douglas; Pierce did not write it but encouraged Congress to pass it. Approved on May 30, 1854, it created the KansasKansasKansas is a state of the United States bordered by Nebraska to the north, Missouri to the east, Oklahoma to the south, and Colorado to the west; its capital is Topeka and its largest city is Wichita. It was admitted to the Union on January 29, 1861, as the 34th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 2,937,880.Open the full entry and NebraskaNebraskaNebraska is a state of the United States bordered by South Dakota to the north, Iowa and Missouri to the east, Kansas to the south, and Colorado to the southwest, with its panhandle bordering Wyoming to the west; its capital is Lincoln and its largest city is Omaha. It was admitted to the Union on March 1, 1867, as the 37th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 1,961,504.Open the full entry territories west of MissouriMissouriMissouri is a state of the United States bounded on the east by the Mississippi River; its capital is Jefferson City, its largest city is Kansas City, and its second-largest is St. Louis. It was admitted to the Union on August 10, 1821, as the 24th state, and its population in the 2020 census (April 1, 2020) was 6,154,913.Open the full entry, repealed the Missouri Compromise’s ban on slavery north of 36°30′, and let settlers in each territory decide by popular sovereignty whether to allow slavery.⁠[10][11]

Proslavery and antislavery settlers rushed into Kansas, and the conflict turned violent, earning the name “Bleeding Kansas”; opponents of the act helped found the Republican Party.⁠[10]

The Democrats suffered heavy losses in the midterm elections of 1854 and 1855.⁠[1]

The Ostend Manifesto, drafted in October 1854 to pursue the purchase of Cuba from Spain, was read by the public as a call to seize Cuba by force; the Pierce administration disavowed it and recalled its minister, Pierre Soulé.⁠[6]

The administration’s effort to buy Cuba from Spain for 120 million dollars failed, as did attempts to annex the Dominican Republic, HawaiiHawaiiHawaii is a U.S. state consisting of a group of volcanic islands in the central Pacific Ocean; its capital is Honolulu, on the island of Oʻahu. Hawaii was admitted to the Union on August 21, 1959, as the 50th state. Its population at the 2020 Census (April 1, 2020) was 1,455,271.Open the full entry and other territories.⁠[1][4]

Pierce pressed Great Britain to give up its interests along part of the Central American coast, and his administration recognized the regime William Walker established in Nicaragua.⁠[7][6]

In 1854 Pierce received Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s report of a successful mission that gave U.S. ships limited access to Japanese ports.⁠[6]

The administration reorganized the diplomatic and consular service and created the U.S. Court of Claims.⁠[6]

During his term the White House received its first central-heating system and its first bathroom with hot and cold running water.⁠[3]

Pierce appointed John W. Geary territorial governor of Kansas, which angered proslavery legislators. By the end of his term he claimed “a peaceful condition of things in Kansas.”⁠[1][7]

Pierce expected renomination, but the 1856 Democratic convention chose James Buchanan. He endorsed Buchanan, though the two remained distant.⁠[1][6]

After leaving office, Pierce stayed in Washington for two months and then traveled to Portugal, elsewhere in Europe and the Bahamas; he returned to New Hampshire in the summer of 1859 and bought property in Portsmouth.⁠[1]

Pierce opposed Abraham Lincoln’s 1860 presidential campaign, viewing Lincoln’s victory as a rejection of his own presidency.⁠[4]

During the war Pierce proclaimed his loyalty to the Union but publicly opposed Lincoln’s policies, especially the Emancipation Proclamation, and lost many longtime friends as a result; he blamed the North for the war and regularly criticized the Lincoln administration, and some wrongly suspected him of treason.⁠[1][4]

In 1863 his wife, Jane Pierce, died of tuberculosis.⁠[1]

Pierce died of cirrhosis in Concord on October 8, 1869, at the age of 64, and was buried in Concord’s Old North Cemetery alongside his wife and two of his children.⁠[1]

His grave is in the Minot enclosure of the Old North Cemetery.⁠[3]

Pierce and Jane Means Appleton had three sons, Franklin (1836), Frank Robert (1839–1843) and Benjamin (1841–1853), none of whom survived to adulthood.⁠[8][4]

Jane Pierce had opposed her husband’s candidacy for the presidency.⁠[6]

Pierce’s boyhood home in Hillsborough, the Franklin Pierce Homestead, is a National Historic Landmark; the State of New Hampshire acquired it in 1925, and the Hillsborough Historical Society manages it as a museum. It is listed as a historic site of NH State Parks.⁠[2][12]

The Pierce Manse in Concord, the only home Pierce ever owned, originally stood on Montgomery Street in downtown Concord; slated for demolition under urban renewal, it was moved to its present site in 1971 and restored with funds raised by the volunteer Pierce Brigade, which opened it to the public in 1974.⁠[9][13]

Britannica’s essay judges that Pierce failed to deal effectively with the sectional controversy over slavery before the Civil War and was inept in handling Kansas.⁠[6]

The White House biography judges that Pierce followed the advice of southern counselors in hoping to avert another sectional crisis, but that his policies instead hastened the disruption of the Union.⁠[7]

The Miller Center’s essay calls the Kansas–Nebraska Act “one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in American history” and judges that it set the nation on the path to civil war.⁠[11]

The Pierce Manse: Official website: https://piercemanse.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[13]

Franklin Pierce Homestead Historic Site: Official website: https://www.nhstateparks.org/find-parks-trails/franklin-pierce-homestead-historic-site (opens in a new window).⁠[12]