Figure 1.--.

Franklin Pierce was the youngest president up to that time. He is arguably the most obscure of all the American presidents. He was one in a series of one-term presidents bent on holding the Union together through compromise with southern planters and in doing so ruined his political career. The Civil War approached during the adminisration of Franklin Pierce as guerrilla raids in Kansas forsaw the fierceness of the impending struggle. 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.

Childhood

Franklin was born Novenber 23, 1804 in a log cabin near Hillsboro, New Hampshire. The site is now under Lake Franklin Pierce. He was one of the eight children born to Benjamin and Anna Kendrick Pierce. His father was a rough frontier farmer. He had served during the Revolutionary War, became a general in the state militia, and was twice elected governor of New Hampshire. As a boy, Franklin heard so much about the military exploits of his father in the Revolutionary War and of his older brother in the War of 1812 that at first he wanted to become a soldier. I have few details on his boyhood or how he was dressed as a boy.

Education

Pierce attended school at Hillsborough Center and later went to Hancock Academy. Disliking the stern discipline there, he ran away from school and walked home. His parents were uin church , but when they returned and found Franklin they at first father surprised him by saying nothing about his truancy. After Sunday lunch, his father hitched up the carriage and told young Frank to get in. Apparently his father thought walking all the way back to school was too much of a trip for his son. Halfway back to Hancock, however, his father told him to get out and walk back to school. He had to hike the rest of the way in a rainstorm. Later, Pierce wrote that this lesson in discipline marked a turning point in his life. Pierce attended Bowdoin College. There he began a lifelong friendship with one of his classmates, Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was later to become the famous author. Pierce's carefree and irresponsible attitude toward his studies soon carried him to the bottom of his class, though he became a favorite among the students. However, after applying himself to his studies, he graduated and graduated third in his class in 1824. After graduation he studied law and was admitted to the Bar in 1927.

Political Career

Pierce after becoming a lawyer entered politics. At 24 he was elected to the New Hampshire legislature; 2 years later he became its Speaker. Pierce served in Washington during the 1930s, first as a Representative, then as a Senator. He was a strong supporter of Andrew Jackson. One biographer contends that a notable confrontation with South Carolina Senator John C. Calhoun over abolitionism profoundly affected Pierce and left him fearful of contronting the South out of concern over seccession.. [Nichols] A more recent biographer interprets the confrontation differently. [Wallner]

Presidential Election of 1852

Pierce, after serving in the Mexican War, was proposed by New Hampshire friends for the Democratic 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." Pierce was from a small state which works against a presidentil candidate. He was, howevere, a masterful natural politican. [Wallner] His friendliness, simplicity, and ease in meeting people gained him many votes. He had the knack of remembering the name and face of nearly everyone he met. But his desire to please led him to make promises he could not always fulfill. Probably because the Democrats stood more firmly for the Compromise than the Whigs, and because Whig candidate Gen. Winfield Scott was suspect in the South, Pierce won with a narrow margin of popular votes. Pierce was acceptable to both the North and South, in part because of his service in the Mexican War and his absence from Washington during the devisive political debate over slavery and other sectional issues was polarizing the American electorate.

Slavery

Historians who have dimissed Pierce, generally charge that he went to great lengths to apease Southern slave-holders. One biographer, however, maintains that Pierce in his public statements and letters made no effort to hide the fact that he detested slavery and viewed it as a stain on the nation. He was much more open about this than several other presidents in the years leading up to the Civil War. He saw islavery was not an issue that could be resolved constituionally in his day. Pierce clashed with Abolitionists because he feared civil war. There were also other issues associated with the Abolitionists (anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and prohibitionist beliefs) that he did disagree with. [Wallner]

Presidency (1853-57)

Few politicans rate the Pierce presudency very highly. He is arguably the most obscure of all the American presidents. He was one in a series of one-term presidents bent on holding the Union together through compromise with southern planters and in doing so ruined his political career. The Civil War approached during the adminisration of Franklin Pierce as guerrilla raids in Kansas forsaw the fierceness of the impending struggle. 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.

Personal tragedy

The Pierce administration was preceeded by a great personal tragedy. The President-elect and his wife, 2 months before he took office, he and his wife saw their 11-year-old son killed before their eyes. The Pierces On January 6, 1853, during a family trip, were in a train wreck. President-elect and Mrs. Pierce were uninjured, but Benjamin was killed. It was a terrible blow to the parents who had already lost two sons. Mrs. Pierce, completely overcome, lived in seclusion at the White House. She came to believe that her son's life had been the price of her husband's victory. Her husbanf had to bear his wife's bitter accusations, as well as his own grief, at the very moment when he most needed strength and confidence. Grief-stricken, Pierce entered the Presidency nervously exhausted and denied the support of his wife.

Plans

In his Inaugural 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."

Foreign policy

Pierce hoped to purdsue an active foreign policy to distract Americans from sectarian domestic issues. He had only, however, 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. He also failed in efforts to purchase Alaska. He did succeed in opening trade with Japan, sending a squaderon under Comodore Matthew Perry to Japan.

Gadsden Purchase (1853)

Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, advocate of a southern transcontinental route, persuaded Pierce early in his presidency 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.

Kansas-Nebraska Act

A violent renewal of the sectional storm engulfing America stemmed from the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise. The Act 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. 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."

Retirement

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 after the Civil War in 1869.

Assessment

Some see him as a bumbler and ineffective. Often historians describe his an inept and too timid to confront Southern slave holders. A forceful exercise of Federal authority may ell have simply launched the War earlier. It should be noted that the Southern confederacy came close to winning the Civil War in 1862. Had the War occurred in the 1850s the North and South would have been moreevenly matched and the South's chance of successfully secceeding enhanced. One historian disputes the assessment of Pierce as inept and classifies him as a masterful politican. [Wallner] There is probably little any president could have done to have resolved the steady decline toward civil War. Anti-slavery sentiment was growing in the North and the South was unwilling to give up slavery.

Jane Means Appleton Pierce (1806-63)

In looks and in pathetic destiny young Jane Means Appleton resembled the heroine of a tragic Victorian novel. The gentle dignity of her face reflected her sensitive, retiring personality and physical weakness. Her father had died--he was a Congregational minister, the Reverend Jesse Appleton, president of Bowdoin College--and her mother had taken the family to Amherst, New Hampshire. And it was at Bowdoin that she met a graduate, a charming young lawyer with political ambitions, Franklin Pierce.

Although he 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 4 years the Pierces lived quietly at Concord, New Hampshired, 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, 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, January 6, 1853, their car was derailed and Benny 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. Pierce was ioffered the 1860 Democratic nomination, but declined it. He may have been able to have won the election, but by 1860s important elelements in the South were bent upon secession. The Pierce's European 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.

Children

The Pierces had three sons, two of which died at an early age. Their third son Benjamin survived infancy, but died tragically in an accident as the family was traveling begore befor the President-elect's innaguration. Perhaps the most tragic death of all the presidential children. The President's wife eventually came to believe that God did not approve of her husband's political career. Even Pierce himself began to think that God was chastising him.

Franklin Jr. (1836)

Baby Franklin Jr. was born in 1836, but died only 3 days later. His parents who dearly wanted children grieved terribly.

Robert (1839-43)

The Pierce's second son Robert was born in 1839. The death of a 3-day old baby, the arrival of a much-anticipated second son, and his wife's dislike of Washington, caused Pierce to retire at the apparent height of his political career as a United States Senator in 1842. The boy was lovingly cared for by doting parents. Unhappily, Robert died of typhus in their home during 1843.

Benjamin (1841-1853)

Their third son Benjamin was born in 1842. The Pierces', no doubt because of the tragic death of their first two boys, were absolutely devoted to their remaining son, Benny. Few presidential children were loved more than Benny. One early image shows Benny and Mrs. Polk. Benny is standing next to his seated mother. He wears a plaid tunic which looks much like a shirt. A belt is worn at the waist over the tunic. This is a popular fashion of the day and appears in many Daguerotyoes of the 1840s and 50s. Mrs. Pierce hated politics because she saw it taking her husband's attention away from her and their beloved Benny. She fainted when he unexpectedly and withoit seeking the office was nominated on the 49th ballot by the Democratic Convention. She so hated politics that Benny wrote her wishing that his father would loose the election. It was politics that would, indirectly lead to Benny's untimely death. Benny was tragically killed in a train accident as the Pierce's were making a family trip before the innagural. The train the Pierces' were aboard jumped the tracks. The accident occurred before his disdraught parents' eyes.

Sources

Nichols, Roy F. (1931).

Wallner, Peter A. Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son, Vol. I (Plaidswede Publishuing, 2004).

Wead, Doug. All the President's Children: Triumph and Tragedy in the Lives of America's First Familirs (Atria: New York, 2003), 456p.