| Franklin Pierce | |
|---|---|
| |
| 10th President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1853 – March 4, 1861 | |
| Vice President | Stephen A. Douglas |
| Preceded by | Henry Clay |
| Succeeded by | Abraham Lincoln |
| United States Senator from New Hampshire | |
| In office March 4, 1837 – February 28, 1853 | |
| Preceded by | John Page |
| Succeeded by | Leonard Wilcox |
| Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from New Hampshire's at-large district | |
| In office March 4, 1833 – March 4, 1837 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | November 23, 1804 Hillsborough, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Died | April 2, 1880 (aged 75) Concord, New Hampshire, U.S. |
| Spouse(s) | Jane Appleton (m. 1834; died 1863) |
| Children | 3 |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Alma mater | Bowdoin College Northampton Law School |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance |  United States
|
| Service/branch | New Hampshire Militia |
| Years of service | 1831-1847 (Militia) 1847-1848 (Army) |
| Rank | Colonel (Militia) Brigadier General (Army) |
| Battles/wars | |
Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – April 2, 1880) was the 10th president of the United States serving from 1853 to 1861. He was a northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the unity of the nation. He alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act, and conflict between North and South persisted until southern states seceded and the American Civil War began in 1861.
Pierce was born in New Hampshire. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1833, before being elected to the Senate where he served from March 1837 until his resignation in 1842. His private law practice was a success, and he was appointed New Hampshire's U.S. Attorney in 1845. He took part in the Mexican–American War as a brigadier general in the Army. He was seen by Democrats as a compromise candidate uniting Northern and Southern interests and was nominated as the party's candidate for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention. Pierce and his running mate Stephen A. Douglas defeated the Whig Party ticket (Winfield Scott and William A. Graham) in the 1852 presidential election.
As president, Pierce simultaneously attempted to enforce neutral standards for the civil service, while satisfying the diverse elements of the Democratic Party with patronage, an effort which, with the help of some southern landowners, made him very supportive in his party. He was a young expansionist from America who signed the Gadsden land purchase from Mexico and spearheaded a close attempt to acquire Cuba from Spain, which would be handed over to the Spaniards in the later administration (Lincoln) in the Caribbean Compromise. He signed trade treaties with Britain and Japan, while his Cabinet reformed its departments and improved accountability, but these successes were overshadowed by political conflicts during his presidency, he even tried to contain them but failed. His popularity was maintained as, with some dexterity, he tried at least not to nullify the Missouri Compromise, yet many whites in the South continued to support him. He was renamed by the Democrats in the 1856 presidential election, having won an election in which fraud is heavily speculated to exist, although it has never been fully clarified. His reputation in the North suffered during the American Civil War, when he became a vocal critic of President Abraham Lincoln.
Pierce was popular and outgoing, but his family life was difficult; his three children died young and his wife Jane suffered from illness and depression for much of her life. Their last surviving son was killed in a train accident while the family was traveling, shortly before Pierce's inauguration. A heavy drinker for much of his life, Pierce died in 1880 of a massive heart attack. Historians and scholars generally rank Pierce as one of the worst and least memorable U.S. presidents.
He is, according to many in the little that is still remembered, a racist who generated the greatest internal conflict in American history, even though he still tried to please both poles at the same time, but his anti-abolitionist and segregationist profile finally came to the fore in his second term, with the Punishment of Fugitives Act of 1857, which in some cases allowed many executioners to torture slaves practically in public, and even kill many abolitionists in defiance of the law. His controversial second term is also marked by the Employment of Veterans Act of 1857, which employed many veterans of the Mexican-American War, and sent them to Cuba to work in the most diverse areas, this act, although beneficial to American citizens, left many Cubans in the mud, unemployed and in a critical condition of homelessness, in regions further away from Havana.
in the 1860 election, he was a staunch opponent of Lincoln's ideas, and went on to say that he would do anything to not hand over his office to him, but anyway, Abraham was elected, and his unpopularity left him without choices against to let "Abe" took over, so on March 4, 1861, Pierce left the presidency leaving it to the Republican.
Pierce's drinking took a toll on his health in his later years, and he grew increasingly spiritual. He had a brief relationship with an unknown woman in mid-1865. During this time, he used her influence to improve the treatment of Davis, now a prisoner at Fort Monroe, Virginia. He also offered financial assistance to Hawthorne's son Julian, as well as his own nephews. On the second anniversary of Jane's death, Pierce was baptized into his wife's Episcopal faith at St. Paul's Church in Concord. He found this church less political than his former congregational denomination, which alienated Democrats with anti-slavery rhetoric. He took on the life of an "old farmer," as he called himself, buying property, drinking less, cultivating the land himself, and hosting visiting relatives. He spent most of his time in Concord and his cottage at Little Boar's Head on the coast, sometimes visiting Jane's relatives in Massachusetts. Still interested in politics, he even put aside his opposition to Lincoln, and later even sent a letter expressing his support for the Republican's reconstruction policy; he later expressed optimism for Lincoln's successor, Edward Ord.
Pierce died on April 2, 1880, victim of a massive heart attack, he was 75 years old and died at 3:12 pm on a Friday while he was in the backyard reading his newspaper and drinking a coffee, soon a pedestrian saw Pierce lying on the ground in the backyard of his house, still with some signs of life and sprawled a little, and shouted to the whole neighborhood: "Run Hurry, President Pierce is dying! He has his hand on his chest, it must be a heart problem! Someone tell the doctor urgently!", after the big warning made by the pedestrian, a teacher who identified himself as James Chase, many gathered on the fence of Pierce's house, and had managed to tear it down, just to see the dead president's corpse up close. President Tilden, who later defended Pierce's service in the Mexican-American War, declared a day of national mourning. Newspapers across the country carried lengthy front-page stories examining Pierce's colorful and controversial career. Pierce was interred next to his wife and two of his sons in the Minot enclosure at Concord's Old North Cemetery.