As president, Pierce attempted to enforce neutral standards for civil service while also satisfying the Democratic Party's diverse elements with patronage, an effort that largely failed and turned many in his party against him. He was aYoung America expansionist who signed theGadsden Purchase of land from Mexico and led a failed attempt to acquire Cuba from Spain. He signed trade treaties with Britain and Japan and his Cabinet reformed its departments and improved accountability, but political strife during his presidency overshadowed these successes. His popularity declined sharply in the Northern states after he supported the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which nullified theMissouri Compromise, while many Southern whites continued to support him. The act's passage led toviolent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West. Pierce's administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued theOstend Manifesto calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document that was roundly criticized. He fully expected the Democrats to renominate him in the1856 presidential election, but they abandoned him and his bid failed. His reputation in the North suffered further during the American Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Lincoln.
While Pierce was popular and outgoing, his family life was difficult; his three children died young, and his wife,Jane Pierce, suffered from illness and depression for much of her life.[1] Their last surviving son was killed in a train accident while the family was traveling, shortly beforePierce's inauguration. A heavy drinker for much of his life, Pierce died in 1869 ofcirrhosis. As a result of his support of the South, as well as failing to hold the Union together in time of strife, historians and scholars generally rank Pierce as one ofthe worst[2][3] andleast memorable U.S. presidents.[4]
Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, in alog cabin inHillsborough, New Hampshire. He was a sixth-generation descendant of Thomas Pierce, who had moved to theMassachusetts Bay Colony fromNorwich, Norfolk, England, in about 1634. His fatherBenjamin was a lieutenant in theAmerican Revolutionary War who moved fromChelmsford, Massachusetts, to Hillsborough after the war, purchasing 50 acres (20 ha) of land. Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife Anna Kendrick; his first wife Elizabeth Andrews died in childbirth, leaving a daughter. Benjamin was a prominentDemocratic-Republican[note 3] state legislator, farmer, and tavern-keeper. During Pierce's childhood, his father was deeply involved in state politics, while two of his older brothers fought in theWar of 1812; public affairs and the military were thus a major influence in his early life.[8]
Pierce's father placed Pierce in a school at Hillsborough Center in childhood and sent him to the town school inHancock at age 12.[note 4] Not fond of schooling, Pierce grew homesick and walked 12 miles (19 km) back to his home one Sunday. His father fed him dinner and drove him part of the distance back to school before ordering him to walk the rest of the way in a thunderstorm. Pierce later cited this moment as "the turning-point in my life".[10] Later that year, he transferred toPhillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college. By this time, he had built a reputation as a charming student, sometimes prone to misbehavior.[10]
NovelistNathaniel Hawthorne, a lifelong friend of Pierce, wrote the biographyLife of Franklin Pierce in support of Pierce's 1852 presidential campaign.[11]
In fall 1820, Pierce enteredBowdoin College inBrunswick, Maine, one of 19 freshmen. He joined the Athenian Society, a progressive literary society, alongsideJonathan Cilley (later elected to Congress) andNathaniel Hawthorne, with whom he formed lasting friendships. He was the last in his class after two years, but he worked hard to improve his grades and graduated in fifth place in 1824[12] in a graduating class of 14.[13]John P. Hale enrolled at Bowdoin in Pierce's junior year; he became a political ally of Pierce's and then his rival. Pierce organized and led an unofficial militia company called the Bowdoin Cadets during his junior year, which included Cilley and Hawthorne. The unit performed drill on campus near the president's house, until the noise caused him to demand that it halt. The students rebelled and went on strike, an event that Pierce was suspected of leading.[14] During his final year at Bowdoin, he spent several months teaching atHebron Academy in ruralHebron, Maine, where he earned his first salary and his students included future CongressmanJohn J. Perry.[15][16]
Pierceread law briefly with former New Hampshire GovernorLevi Woodbury, a family friend inPortsmouth, New Hampshire.[17] He then spent a semester atNorthampton Law School inNorthampton, Massachusetts, followed by a period of study in 1826 and 1827 under Judge Edmund Parker inAmherst, New Hampshire. He was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in late 1827 and began to practice in Hillsborough.[18] He lost his first case, but soon proved capable as a lawyer. Despite never being a legal scholar, his memory for names and faces served him well, as did his personal charm and deep voice.[19] In Hillsborough, his law partner was Albert Baker, who had studied law under Pierce and was the brother ofMary Baker Eddy.[20]
By 1824, New Hampshire was a hotbed of partisanship, with figures such as Woodbury andIsaac Hill laying the groundwork for a party of Democrats in support of GeneralAndrew Jackson. They opposed the establishedFederalists (and their successors, theNational Republicans), who were led by sitting PresidentJohn Quincy Adams. The work of the New Hampshire Democratic Party came to fruition in March 1827, when their pro-Jackson nominee, Benjamin Pierce, won the support of the pro-Adams faction and was elected governor of New Hampshire essentially unopposed. While the younger Pierce had set out to build a career as an attorney, he was fully drawn into the realm of politics as the1828 presidential election between Adams and Jackson approached. In the state elections held in March 1828, the Adams faction withdrew their support of Benjamin Pierce, voting him out of office,[note 5] but Franklin Pierce won his first election, a one-year term as Hillsborough'stown meeting moderator, a position to which he was reelected five times.[21]
Pierce actively campaigned in his district on behalf of Jackson, who carried both the district and the nation by large margins in the November 1828 election, even though helost New Hampshire. The outcome further strengthened the Democratic Party, and Pierce won his first legislative seat the following year, representing Hillsborough in theNew Hampshire House of Representatives. Pierce's father was elected again as governor, retiring after that term. The younger Pierce was appointed as chairman of the House Education Committee in 1829 and the Committee on Towns the following year. By 1831 the Democrats held a legislative majority, and Pierce was elected Speaker of the House. The young Speaker used his platform to oppose the expansion of banking, protect the state militia, and offer support to the national Democrats and Jackson's reelection effort. At 27, he was a star of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. Though attaining early political and professional success, in his personal letters he continued to lament his bachelorhood and yearned for a life beyond Hillsborough.[22]
Like all white males in New Hampshire between the ages of 18 and 45, Pierce was a member of thestate militia, and was appointedaide de camp to GovernorSamuel Dinsmoor in 1831. He remained in the militia until 1847, and attained the rank ofcolonel before becoming abrigadier general in theArmy during theMexican–American War.[23][24] Interested in revitalizing and reforming the state militias, which had become increasingly dormant during the years of peace following theWar of 1812, Pierce worked withAlden Partridge, president ofNorwich University, a military college inVermont, andTruman B. Ransom andAlonzo Jackman, Norwich faculty members and militia officers, to increase recruiting efforts and improve training and readiness.[25][26] Pierce served as a Norwich University trustee from 1841 to 1859, and received thehonorary degree ofLL.D. from Norwich in 1853.[27]
In late 1832, the Democratic Party convention nominated Pierce for one of New Hampshire's five seats in theU.S. House of Representatives. This wastantamount to election for the young Democrat, as the National Republicans had faded as a political force, while theWhigs had not yet begun to attract a large following. Democratic strength in New Hampshire was also bolstered byJackson's landslide reelection that year.[28] New Hampshire had been a marginal state politically, but from 1832 through the mid-1850s became the most reliably Democratic state in theNorthern United States, boosting Pierce's political career.[29] Pierce's term began in March 1833, but he would not be sworn in until Congress met in December, and his attention was elsewhere. He had recently become engaged and bought his first house in Hillsborough. Franklin and Benjamin Pierce were among the prominent citizens who welcomed President Jackson to the state on his visit in mid-1833.[28]
On November 19, 1834, Pierce marriedJane Means Appleton, a daughter ofCongregational ministerJesse Appleton and Elizabeth Means. The Appletons were prominent Whigs, in contrast with the Pierces' Democratic affiliation. Jane Pierce was shy, devoutly religious, and pro-temperance, encouraging Pierce to abstain from alcohol. She was somewhat gaunt, and constantly ill fromtuberculosis and psychological ailments. She abhorred politics and especially disliked Washington, D.C., creating a tension that would continue throughout Pierce's political ascent.[30][31][32]
Jane Pierce disliked Hillsborough as well, and in 1838, the Pierces relocated to the state capital,Concord, New Hampshire.[33] They had three sons, all of whom died in childhood. Franklin Jr. (February 2–5, 1836) died in infancy, while Frank Robert (August 27, 1839 – November 14, 1843) died at the age of four fromepidemic typhus. Benjamin (April 13, 1841 – January 6, 1853) died at the age of 11 in atrain accident.[34]
Pierce departed in November 1833 for Washington, D.C., where theTwenty-third United States Congress convened its regular session on December 2. Jackson's second term was under way, and the House of Representatives had a strong Democratic majority, whose primary focus was to prevent theSecond Bank of the United States from being rechartered. The Democrats, including Pierce, defeated proposals supported by the newly formed Whig Party, and the bank's charter expired. Pierce broke from his party on occasion, opposing Democratic bills to fundinternal improvements with federal money. He saw both the bank and infrastructure spending as unconstitutional, with internal improvements the responsibility of the states. Pierce's first term was fairly uneventful from a legislative standpoint, and he was easily reelected in March 1835. When not in Washington, he attended to his law practice, and in December 1835 returned to the capital for theTwenty-fourth Congress.[35]
Asabolitionism grew more vocal in the mid-1830s, Congress was inundated with petitions from anti-slavery groups seeking legislation to restrict slavery in the United States. From the beginning, Pierce found the abolitionists' "agitation" to be an annoyance, and saw federal action against slavery as an infringement on southern states' rights, even though he was morally opposed to slavery itself.[36] He was also frustrated with the "religious bigotry" of abolitionists, who cast their political opponents as sinners.[37] "I consider slavery a social and political evil," Pierce said, "and most sincerely wish that it had no existence upon the face of the earth."[38] Still, he wrote in December 1835, "One thing must be perfectly apparent to every intelligent man. This abolition movement must be crushed or there is an end to the Union."[39] After the Civil War, Pierce believed that if the North had not aggressively agitated against Southern slavery, the South would have eventually ended slavery on its own and that the conflict had been "brought upon the nation by fanatics on both sides".[40]
When Rep.James Henry Hammond of South Carolina looked to prevent anti-slavery petitions from reaching the House floor, however, Pierce sided with the abolitionists' right to petition. Nevertheless, Pierce supported what came to be known as thegag rule, which allowed for petitions to be received, but not read or considered. This passed the House in 1836.[36] He was attacked by the New Hampshire anti-slaveryHerald of Freedom as a "doughface", which had the dual meaning of "craven-spirited man" and "northerner with southern sympathies".[41] Pierce had stated that not one in 500 New Hampshirites were abolitionists; theHerald of Freedom article added up the number of signatures on petitions from that state, divided by the number of residents according to the 1830 census, and suggested the actual number was one-in-33. Pierce was outraged when South Carolina SenatorJohn C. Calhoun read the article on the Senate floor as "proof" that New Hampshire was a hotbed of abolitionism. Calhoun apologized after Pierce replied to him in a speech which stated that most signatories were women and children, who could not vote, which therefore cast doubt on the one-in-33 figure.[42]
The resignation in May 1836 of Senator Isaac Hill, who had been elected governor of New Hampshire, left a short-term opening to be filled by the state legislature, and with Hill's term as senator due to expire in March 1837, the legislature also had to fill the six-year term to follow. Pierce's candidacy for the Senate was championed by state Representative John P. Hale, a fellow Athenian at Bowdoin. After much debate, the legislature choseJohn Page to fill the rest of Hill's term. In December 1836, Pierce was elected to the full term, to commence in March 1837, and at age 32, was at the time one of the youngest members in Senate history. The election came at a difficult time for Pierce, as his father, sister, and brother were all seriously ill, while his wife also continued to suffer from chronic poor health. As senator, he was able to help his old friend Nathaniel Hawthorne, who often struggled financially, procuring for him asinecure as measurer of coal and salt at the Boston Customs House that allowed the author time to continue writing.[43]
Pierce voted the party line on most issues and was an able senator, but not an eminent one; he was overshadowed by theGreat Triumvirate of Calhoun,Henry Clay, andDaniel Webster, who dominated the Senate.[44] Pierce entered the Senate at a time of economic crisis, as thePanic of 1837 had begun. He considered the depression a result of the banking system's rapid growth, amidst "the extravagance of overtrading and the wilderness of speculation".[45] So that federal money would not support speculative bank loans, he supported newly elected Democratic presidentMartin Van Buren and his plan to create anindependent treasury, a proposal which split the Democratic Party. Debate over slavery continued in Congress, and abolitionists proposed its end in the District of Columbia, where Congress had jurisdiction. Pierce supported a resolution by Calhoun against this proposal, which Pierce considered a dangerous stepping stone to nationwide emancipation.[45] Meanwhile, the Whigs were growing in congressional strength, which would leave Pierce's party with only a small majority by the end of the decade.[46]
One topic of particular importance to Pierce was the military. He took an interest in military pensions, seeing abundant fraud within the system, and was named chairman of the Senate Committee on Military Pensions in theTwenty-sixth Congress (1839–1841). In that capacity, he urged the modernization and expansion of the Army, with a focus on militias and mobility rather than on coastal fortifications, which he considered outdated.[47]
Pierce campaigned vigorously throughout his home state for Van Buren's reelection in the1840 presidential election. The incumbent carried New Hampshire but lost the election to the Whig candidate, military heroWilliam Henry Harrison. The Whigs took a majority of seats in theTwenty-seventh Congress. Harrison died after a month in office, and Vice PresidentJohn Tyler succeeded him. Pierce and the Democrats were quick to challenge the new administration, questioning the removal of federal officeholders, and opposing Whig plans for a national bank. In December 1841 Pierce decided to resign from Congress, something he had been planning for some time.[48] New Hampshire Democrats insisted that their state's U. S. senators be limited to one six-year term, so he had little likelihood of reelection. Also, he was frustrated at being a member of the legislative minority and wished to devote his time to his family and law practice.[49] His last actions in the Senate in February 1842 were to oppose a bill distributing federal funds to the states—believing that the money should go to the military instead—and to challenge the Whigs to reveal the results of their investigation of theNew York Customs House, where the Whigs had probed for Democratic corruption for nearly a year but had issued no findings.[50]
TheConcord, New Hampshire house where Pierce lived from 1842 to 1848; now known as thePierce Manse, it was restored in the 1970s and is maintained as a historic attraction.[51]
Despite his resignation from the Senate, Pierce had no intention of leaving public life. The move to Concord had given him more opportunities for cases, and allowed Jane Pierce a more robust community life.[52] Jane had remained in Concord with her young son Frank and her newborn Benjamin for the latter part of Pierce's Senate term, and this separation had taken a toll on the family. Pierce, meanwhile, had begun a demanding but lucrative law partnership withAsa Fowler during congressional recesses.[53] Pierce returned to Concord in early 1842, and his reputation as a lawyer continued to flourish. Known for his gracious personality, eloquence, and excellent memory, Pierce attracted large audiences in court. He would often represent poor people for little or no compensation.[54]
Pierce remained involved in the state Democratic Party, which was split by several issues. Governor Hill, who represented the commercial, urban wing of the party, advocated the use of government charters to support corporations, granting them privileges such as limited liability and eminent domain for building railroads. The radical "locofoco" wing of his party represented farmers and other rural voters, who sought an expansion of social programs and labor regulations and a restriction on corporate privilege. The state's political culture grew less tolerant of banks and corporations after the Panic of 1837, and Hill was voted out of office. Pierce was closer to the radicals philosophically, and reluctantly agreed to represent Hill's adversary in a legal dispute regarding ownership of a newspaper—Hill lost, and founded his own paper, of which Pierce was a frequent target.[55]
In June 1842 Pierce was named chairman of the State Democratic Committee, and in the following year's state election he helped the radical wing take over the state legislature. The party remained divided on several issues, including railroad development and thetemperance movement, and Pierce took a leading role in helping the state legislature settle their differences. His priorities were "order, moderation, compromise, and party unity", which he tried to place ahead of his personal views on political issues.[56] As he would as president, Pierce valued Democratic Party unity highly, and saw the opposition to slavery as a threat to that.[57]
DemocraticJames K. Polk'sdark horse victory in the1844 presidential election was welcome news to Pierce, who had befriended the formerSpeaker of the House while both served in Congress. Pierce had campaigned heavily for Polk during the election, and in turn Polk appointed him asUnited States Attorney for New Hampshire.[58] Polk's most prominent cause was theannexation of Texas, an issue which caused a dramatic split between Pierce and his former ally Hale, now a U.S. Representative. Hale was so impassioned against adding a new slave state that he wrote a public letter to his constituents outlining his opposition to the measure.[59] Pierce responded by reassembling the state Democratic convention to revoke Hale's nomination for another term in Congress.[60] The political firestorm led to Pierce severing ties with his longtime friend, and with his law partner Fowler, who was a Hale supporter.[61] Hale refused to withdraw, and as a majority vote was needed for election in New Hampshire, the party split led to deadlock and a vacant House seat. Eventually, the Whigs and Hale'sIndependent Democrats took control of the legislature, elected WhigAnthony Colby as governor, and sent Hale to the Senate, much to Pierce's anger.[62]
Active military service was a long-held dream for Pierce, who had admired his father's and brothers' service in his youth, particularly his older brotherBenjamin's, as well as that ofJohn McNeil Jr., husband of Pierce's older half-sister Elizabeth. As a legislator, he was a passionate advocate for volunteer militias. As a militia officer himself, he had experience mustering and drilling bodies of troops. When Congress declared war against Mexico in May 1846, Pierce immediately volunteered to join, although no New England regiment yet existed. His hope to fight in theMexican–American War was one reason he refused an offer to become Polk'sAttorney General. GeneralZachary Taylor's advance slowed in northern Mexico, and GeneralWinfield Scott proposed capturing the port ofVera Cruz and driving overland to Mexico City. Congress passed a bill authorizing the creation of ten regiments, and Pierce was appointed commander and colonel of the9th Infantry Regiment in February 1847, with Truman B. Ransom aslieutenant colonel and second-in-command.[63]
Pierce's brief term as ageneral in the Mexican–American War boosted his public image.[64]
On March 3, 1847, Pierce was promoted tobrigadier general, and took command of abrigade of reinforcements for General Scott's army, with Ransom succeeding to command of the regiment. Needing time to assemble his brigade, Pierce reached the already seized port of Vera Cruz in late June, where he prepared a march of 2,500 men accompanying supplies for Scott. The three-week journey inland was perilous, and the men fought off several attacks before joining with Scott's army in early August, in time for theBattle of Contreras.[65] The battle was disastrous for Pierce: his horse was suddenly startled during a charge, knocking him groin-first against his saddle. The horse then tripped into a crevice and fell, pinning Pierce underneath and debilitating his knee.[66] The incident made it look like he had fainted, causing one soldier to call for someone else to take command, saying, "General Pierce is a damned coward."[67] Pierce returned for the following day's action, but injured his knee again, forcing him to hobble after his men; by the time he caught up, the battle was mostly won.[67]
As theBattle of Churubusco approached, Scott ordered Pierce to the rear to convalesce. He responded, "For God's sake, General, this is the last great battle, and I must lead my brigade." Scott yielded, and Pierce entered the fight tied to his saddle, but the pain in his leg became so great that he passed out on the field. The Americans won the battle and Pierce helped negotiate an armistice. He then returned to command and led his brigade throughout the rest of the campaign, eventually taking part in thecapture of Mexico City in mid-September, although his brigade was held in reserve for much of the battle.[68] For much of the Mexico City battle, he was in the sick tent, plagued by acute diarrhea.[67] Pierce remained in command of his brigade during the three-month occupation of the city; while frustrated by the stalled peace negotiations, he also tried to distance himself from the constant conflict between Scott and the other generals.[68]
Pierce was finally allowed to return to Concord in late December 1847. He was given a hero's welcome in his home state, and submitted his resignation from the Army, which was approved on March 20, 1848. His military exploits elevated his popularity in New Hampshire, but his injuries and subsequent troubles in battle led to accusations of cowardice that would long shadow him. He had demonstrated competence as a general, especially in the initial march from Vera Cruz, but his short tenure and his injury left little for historians to judge his ability as a military commander by.[64]
Ulysses S. Grant, who had the opportunity to observe Pierce firsthand during the war, countered the allegations of cowardice in his memoirs, written several years after Pierce's death: "Whatever General Pierce's qualifications may have been for the Presidency, he was a gentleman and a man of courage. I was not a supporter of him politically, but I knew him more intimately than I did any other of the volunteer generals."[69]
By the 1850s, Pierce had become a leader of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.[70]
Returning to Concord, Pierce resumed his law practice; in one notable case he defended the religious liberty of theShakers, the insular sect threatened with legal action over accusations of abuse. But his role as a party leader continued to take up most of his attention. He continued to wrangle with Hale, who was anti-slavery and had opposed the war, stances that Pierce regarded as needless agitation.[70]
The largeMexican Cession of land divided the U.S. politically, with many in the North insisting that slavery not be allowed there (and offering theWilmot Proviso to ensure it), while others wanted slavery barred north of theMissouri Compromise line of36°30′ N. Both proposals were anathema to many Southerners, and the controversy split the Democrats. At the1848 Democratic National Convention, the majority nominated former Michigan senatorLewis Cass for president, while a minority broke off to become theFree Soil Party, backing former president Van Buren. The Whigs chose GeneralZachary Taylor, a Louisianan, whose views on most political issues were unknown. Despite his past support for Van Buren, Pierce supported Cass, turning down the quiet offer of second place on the Free Soilticket, and was so effective that Taylor, who waselected president, was held in New Hampshire to his lowest percentage in any state.[71]
Senator Henry Clay, a Whig, hoped to put the slavery question to rest with a set of proposals that became known as theCompromise of 1850. These would give victories to North and South, and gained the support of his fellow Whig, Webster. With the bill stalled in the Senate, Illinois SenatorStephen A. Douglas led a successful effort to split it into separate measures so that each legislator could vote against the parts his state opposed without endangering the overall package. The bills passed, and were signed by PresidentMillard Fillmore (who had succeeded Taylor after the president's death earlier in 1850).[72] Pierce strongly supported the compromise, giving a well-received speech in December 1850 pledging himself to "The Union! Eternal Union!"[73] The same month, the Democratic nominee for governor, John Atwood, issued a letter opposing the Compromise, and Pierce helped to recall the state convention and remove Atwood from the ticket.[73] The fiasco compromised the election for the Democrats, who lost several races; still, Pierce's party retained its control over the state, and was well positioned for the upcoming presidential election.[74]
As the1852 presidential election approached, the Democrats were divided over slavery, though most of the"Barnburners" who had left the party with Van Buren to form the Free Soil Party had returned. It was widely expected that the1852 Democratic National Convention would deadlock, with no candidate able to win the necessary two-thirds majority. New Hampshire Democrats, including Pierce, supported his old teacher, Levi Woodbury, by then anAssociate Justice of the Supreme Court, as a compromise candidate, but Woodbury's death in September 1851 opened up an opportunity for Pierce's allies to present him as a potentialdark horse in the mold of Polk. New Hampshire Democrats felt that, as the state in which their party had most consistently gained Democratic majorities, they should supply the presidential candidate. Other possible standard-bearers included Douglas, Cass,William Marcy of New York,James Buchanan of Pennsylvania,Sam Houston of Texas, andThomas Hart Benton of Missouri.[75][76]
Despite home-state support, Pierce faced obstacles to his nomination, since he had been out of office for a decade, and lacked the front-runners' national reputation. He publicly declared that such a nomination would be "utterly repugnant to my tastes and wishes", but given New Hampshire Democrats' desire to see one of their own elected, he knew his future influence depended on his availability to run.[77] Thus, he quietly allowed his supporters to lobby for him, with the understanding that his name would not be entered at the convention unless it was clear that none of the front-runners could win. To broaden his potential base of southern support as the convention approached, he wrote letters reiterating his support for the Compromise of 1850, including the controversialFugitive Slave Act.[77][78]
The convention assembled on June 1 in Baltimore, and deadlock occurred as expected. On the first ballot of the 288 delegates, held on June 3, Cass claimed 116, Buchanan 93, and the rest were scattered, with no votes for Pierce. The next 34 ballots passed with no candidate even close to victory, and still no votes for Pierce. Buchanan's team then had its delegates vote for minor candidates, including Pierce, to demonstrate Buchanan's inevitability and unite the convention behind him. This novel tactic backfired after several ballots as Virginia, New Hampshire, and Maine switched to Pierce; the remaining Buchanan forces began to break for Marcy, and Pierce was soon in third place. After the 48th ballot, North Carolina CongressmanJames C. Dobbin delivered an unexpected and passionate endorsement of Pierce, sparking a wave of support for him. On the 49th ballot, Pierce received all but six of the votes, gaining the nomination. Delegates selected Alabama SenatorWilliam R. King, a Buchanan supporter, as Pierce's running mate, and adopted a platform that rejected further "agitation" over slavery and supported the Compromise of 1850.[79][80]
When word reached New Hampshire of the result, Pierce found it difficult to believe, and his wife fainted. Their son Benjamin wrote to his mother hoping that Franklin's candidacy would not be successful, as he knew she would not like to live in Washington.[81]
This anti-Pierce political cartoon depicts him as weak and cowardly.
The Whig nominee was General Scott, Pierce's commander in Mexico; his running mate wasSecretary of the NavyWilliam A. Graham. The Whigs could not unify their factions as the Democrats had, and the convention adopted a platform almost indistinguishable from the Democrats', including support of the Compromise of 1850. This incited the Free Soilers to field their own candidate, Senator Hale, at the Whigs' expense. The lack of political differences reduced the campaign to a bitter personality contest and helped to dampenvoter turnout to its lowest level since1836; according to biographer Peter A. Wallner, it was "one of the least exciting campaigns in presidential history".[82][83] Scott was harmed by the lack of enthusiasm of anti-slavery northern Whigs for him and the platform;New-York Tribune editorHorace Greeley summed up the attitude of many when he said of the Whig platform, "we defy it, execrate it, spit upon it".[84]
Pierce kept quiet so as not to upset his party's delicate unity, and allowed his allies to run the campaign. It was the custom at the time for candidates to not appear to seek the office, and he did no personal campaigning.[85][86][87] Pierce's opponents caricatured him as an anti-Catholic coward and alcoholic ("the hero of many a well-fought bottle").[88][86] Scott, meanwhile, drew weak support from the Whigs, who were torn by their pro-Compromise platform and found him to be an abysmal, gaffe-prone public speaker.[86] The Democrats were confident: a popular slogan was that the Democrats "willpierce their enemies in 1852 as theypoked [that is,Polked] them in 1844."[89] This proved true, as Scott won only Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts, and Vermont, finishing with 42 electoral votes to Pierce's 254. With 3.2 million votes cast, Pierce won the popular vote, 50.9% to 44.1%. A sizable block of Free Soilers broke for Pierce's in-state rival, Hale, who won 4.9% of the popular vote.[90][91] The Democrats took large majorities in Congress.[92]
Jane Pierce and "Benny", whose death cast a shadow over Pierce's term in office[93]
Pierce began his presidency in mourning. Weeks after his election, on January 6, 1853, he and his family were traveling from Boston by train when their car derailed and rolled down an embankment nearAndover, Massachusetts. Both Franklin and Jane Pierce survived, but their only remaining son, 11-year-old Benjamin, was crushed to death in the wreckage, his body nearly decapitated. Pierce was not able to hide the sight from his wife. They both suffered severe depression afterward, which likely affected his performance as president.[93][94] Jane Pierce wondered whether the incident was divine punishment for her husband's pursuit and acceptance of high office. She wrote a lengthy letter of apology to "Benny" for her failings as a mother.[93] She avoided social functions for much of her first two years asFirst Lady, making her public debut in that role to great sympathy at the annual public reception held at the White House on New Year's Day 1855.[95]
When Franklin Pierce departed New Hampshire for the inauguration, Jane chose not to accompany him. Pierce, then the youngest man to be elected president, chose toaffirm his oath of office on a law book rather than on a Bible, as all his predecessors except John Quincy Adams, whoswore on a book of law,[96] had done. He was the first president to deliver his inaugural address from memory.[97] In it, he hailed an era of peace and prosperity at home and urged a vigorous assertion of U.S. interests in its foreign relations, including the "eminently important" acquisition of new territories. "The policy of my Administration", he said, "will not be deterred by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." Avoiding the word "slavery", he emphasized his desire to put the "important subject" to rest and maintain a peaceful union. He alluded to his own personal tragedy, telling the crowd, "You have summoned me in my weakness, you must sustain me by your strength."[98]
In hisCabinet appointments, Pierce sought to unite a party that was squabbling over the fruits of victory. Most in the party had not originally supported him for the nomination, and some had allied with the Free Soil party to gain victory in local elections. Pierce decided to allow each of the party's factions some appointments, even those that had not supported the Compromise of 1850.[99]
The Senate unanimously and immediately confirmed all of Pierce's Cabinet nominations.[100] Pierce spent the first few weeks of his term sorting through hundreds of lower-level federal positions to be filled. This was a chore, as he sought to represent all factions of the party, and could fully satisfy none of them. Partisans found themselves unable to secure positions for their friends, which put the Democratic Party on edge and fueled bitterness between factions. Before long, northern newspapers accused Pierce of filling his government with pro-slavery secessionists, while southern newspapers accused him of abolitionism.[100]
Factionalism between pro- and anti-administration Democrats ramped up quickly, especially within the New York Democratic Party. The more conservative Hardshell Democrats or "Hards" of New York were deeply skeptical of the Pierce administration, which was associated with Marcy (who became Secretary of State) and the more moderate New York faction, the Softshell Democrats or "Softs".[101]
Vice PresidentWilliam R. King died a little more than one month into his term, leaving a vacancy that could not be filled.
Buchanan had urged Pierce to consult Vice President-elect King in selecting the Cabinet, but Pierce did not do so—Pierce and King had not communicated since they had been selected as candidates in June 1852. By the start of 1853, King was severely ill with tuberculosis, and went to Cuba to recuperate. His condition deteriorated, and Congress passed a special law allowing him to be sworn in before the American consul in Havana on March 24. Wanting to die at home, he returned to his plantation in Alabama on April 17 and died the next day. The office of vice president remained vacant for the remainder of Pierce's term, as the Constitution then had no provision for filling the vacancy. This extended vacancy meant that for nearly the entirety of Pierce's presidency theSenate President pro tempore, initiallyDavid Atchison of Missouri, was next in line to the presidency.[102]
Pierce sought to run a more efficient and accountable government than his predecessors.[103] His Cabinet members implemented an early system ofcivil service examinations, a forerunner to thePendleton Act passed three decades later, which mandated that most U.S. government positions be awarded on the basis of merit, not patronage.[104] SecretaryRobert McClelland reformed theInterior Department, systematizing its operations, expanding the use of paper records, and going after fraud.[105] Another of Pierce's reforms was to expand the role of the U.S. attorney general in appointing federal judges and attorneys, an important step in the eventual development of theJustice Department.[103] There was a vacancy on the Supreme Court—Fillmore, having failed to get Senate confirmation for his nominees, had offered it to newly elected Louisiana SenatorJudah P. Benjamin, who had declined. Pierce also offered the seat to Benjamin, but he persisted in his refusal,[106] whereupon Pierce nominatedJohn Archibald Campbell, an advocate of states' rights; this was Pierce's only Supreme Court appointment.[107]
Pierce chargedTreasury SecretaryJames Guthrie with reforming theTreasury, which was inefficiently managed and had many unsettled accounts. Guthrie increased oversight of Treasury employees and tariff collectors, many of whom were withholding money from the government. Despite laws requiring funds to be held in the Treasury, large deposits remained in private banks under the Whig administrations. Guthrie reclaimed these funds and sought to prosecute corrupt officials, with mixed success.[108]
Secretary of WarJefferson Davis, at Pierce's request, led surveys by theCorps of Topographical Engineers of possible transcontinental railroad routes throughout the country. The Democratic Party had long rejected federal appropriations for internal improvements, but Davis felt that such a project could be justified as a Constitutional national security objective. Davis also deployed theArmy Corps of Engineers to supervise construction projects in the District of Columbia, including the expansion of theUnited States Capitol and building of theWashington Monument.[109]
The Pierce administration aligned with the expansionistYoung America movement, with Marcy leading the charge as secretary of state. Marcy sought to present to the world a distinctively American, republican image. He issued a circular recommending that U.S. diplomats wear "the simple dress of an American citizen" instead of the elaboratediplomatic uniforms worn in European courts, and that they hire only American citizens to work in consulates.[110][111] Marcy received international praise for his 73-page letter defending Austrian refugeeMartin Koszta, who had been captured abroad in mid-1853 by the Austrian government despite his intention to become a U.S. citizen.[112][113]
An advocate of a southern transcontinental route, Davis persuaded Pierce to send rail magnateJames Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a potential railroad. Gadsden was also charged with renegotiating the provisions of theTreaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, which required the U.S. to prevent Native American raids into Mexico from New Mexico Territory. Gadsden negotiated a treaty with Mexican PresidentAntonio López de Santa Anna in December 1853, purchasing a large swath of land in the southwest. Negotiations were nearly derailed byWilliam Walker'sunauthorized expedition into Mexico, and so a clause was included charging the U.S. with combating future such attempts.[114][115] Congress reduced theGadsden Purchase to the region now comprising southernArizona and part of southern New Mexico; the price was cut from $15 million to $10 million. Congress also included a protection clause for a private citizen, Albert G. Sloo, whose interests were threatened by the purchase. Pierce opposed the use of the federal government to prop up private industry and did not endorse the final version of the treaty, but it was ratified nonetheless.[116][115] The acquisition brought thecontiguous United States to its present-day boundaries, excepting later minor adjustments.[117]
Relations with Great Britain needed resolution, as American fishermen were upset at theBritish Royal Navy's increasing enforcement of Canadianterritorial waters. Marcy completed a trade reciprocity agreement with the British minister to Washington,John Crampton, which reduced the need for British coastline enforcement. Buchanan was sent as minister to London to pressure the British government, which was slow to support a new treaty. A favorable reciprocity treaty was ratified in August 1854, which Pierce saw as a first step toward American annexation of Canada.[118][119] While the administration negotiated with Britain over theCanada–United States border, U.S. interests were also an issue in Central America, where theClayton–Bulwer Treaty of 1850 had failed to keep Britain from expanding its influence in the region. Gaining the advantage over Britain in the region was a key part of Pierce's expansionist goals.[120][121]
British consuls in the U.S. sought to enlist Americans for theCrimean War in 1854, in violation of neutrality laws, and Pierce eventually expelled Crampton and three consuls. To Pierce's surprise, the British did not expel Buchanan in retaliation. In his December 1855 State of the Union message to Congress, Pierce had set forth the American case that Britain had violated the Clayton-Bulwer Treaty. According to Buchanan, the British were impressed by the message and were rethinking their policy. Nevertheless, Buchanan was unable to get them to abandon their Central American possessions. TheCanadian-American Reciprocity Treaty was ratified by Congress, the British parliament, and Canada's colonial legislatures.[122]
Pierce's administration aroused sectional apprehensions when three U.S. diplomats in Europe drafted a proposal to the president to purchase Cuba from Spain for $120 million (USD), and justify the "wresting" of it from Spain if the offer were refused. The publication of theOstend Manifesto, which had been drawn up at Secretary of State Marcy's insistence, provoked the scorn of northerners, who viewed it as an attempt to annex a slave-holding possession to bolster Southern interests. It helped discredit the expansionist policy ofManifest Destiny the Democratic Party had often supported.[123][124]
Pierce favored expansion and a substantial reorganization of the military. Secretary of War Davis and Navy Secretary James C. Dobbin found the Army and Navy in poor condition, with insufficient forces, a reluctance to adopt new technology, and inefficient management.[125] Under the Pierce administration, CommodoreMatthew C. Perryvisited Japan (a venture originally planned under Fillmore) in an effort to expand trade to the East. Perry wanted to encroach on Asia by force, but Pierce and Dobbin pushed him to remain diplomatic. Perry signed a modest trade treaty with the Japaneseshogunate that was successfully ratified.[126][127] The 1856 launch of theUSSMerrimac, one of six newly commissionedsteam frigates, was one of Pierce's "most personally satisfying" days in office.[128]
The greatest challenge to the country's equilibrium during the Pierce administration was the passage of theKansas–Nebraska Act.Organizing the largely unsettledNebraska Territory, which stretched fromMissouri to theRocky Mountains, and from Texas north to what is now the Canada–United States border, was a crucial part of Douglas's plans for western expansion. He wanted a transcontinental railroad with a link from Chicago to California, through the vast western territory. Organizing the territory was necessary for settlement as the land would not be surveyed nor put up for sale until a territorial government was authorized. Those from slave states had never been content with western limits on slavery, and felt it should be able to expand into territories procured with blood and treasure that had come, in part, from the South. Douglas and his allies planned to organize the territory and let local settlersdecide whether to allow slavery. This would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, as most of it was north of the 36°30′ N line the Missouri Compromise deemed "free". The territory would be split into a northern part, Nebraska, and a southern part,Kansas, and the expectation was that Kansas would allow slavery and Nebraska would not.[129][130][131] In the view of pro-slaverySouthern politicians, the Compromise of 1850 had already annulled the Missouri Compromise by admitting the state of California, including territory south of the compromise line, as a free state.[132]
Pierce had wanted to organize the Nebraska Territory without explicitly addressing the matter of slavery, but Douglas could not get enough Southern votes to accomplish this.[133] Pierce was skeptical of the bill, knowing it would result in bitter opposition from the North. Douglas and Davis convinced him to support the bill regardless. It was tenaciously opposed by northerners such as Ohio SenatorSalmon P. Chase and Massachusetts SenatorCharles Sumner, who rallied public sentiment in the North against the bill. Northerners had been suspicious of the Gadsden Purchase, moves towards Cuba annexation, and the influence of slaveholding Cabinet members such as Davis, and saw the Nebraska bill as part of a pattern of southern aggression. The result was a political firestorm that did great damage to Pierce's presidency.[129][130][131]
Pierce and his administration used threats and promises to keep most Democrats on board in favor of the bill. The Whigs split along sectional lines; the conflict destroyed them as a national party. The Kansas–Nebraska Act was passed in May 1854 and ultimately defined the Pierce presidency. The political turmoil that followed the passage saw the short-term rise of the nativist and anti-Catholic American Party, often called theKnow Nothings, and the founding of theRepublican Party.[129][130][131]
Northerners resented Pierce's attempted expansion of slavery through Kansas–Nebraska and Cuba.[134][135] In this 1856 cartoon, aFree Soiler is held down by Pierce, Buchanan, and Cass while Douglas shoves "Slavery" (depicted as a black man) down his throat.
Even as the act was being debated, settlers on both sides of the slavery issue poured into the territories so as to secure the outcome they wanted in the voting. The passage of the act resulted in so much violence between groups that the territory became known asBleeding Kansas. Thousands of pro-slaveryBorder Ruffians came across from Missouri to vote in the territorial elections although they were not resident in Kansas, giving that element the victory. Pierce supported the outcome despite the irregularities. WhenFree-Staters set up a shadow government, and drafted theTopeka Constitution, Pierce called their work an act of rebellion. The president continued to recognize the pro-slavery legislature, which was dominated by Democrats, even after a Congressional investigative committee found its election to have been illegitimate. He dispatched federal troops to break up a meeting of theTopeka government.[136][137]
Passage of the act coincided with the seizure of escaped slaveAnthony Burns in Boston. Northerners rallied in support of Burns, but Pierce was determined to follow the Fugitive Slave Act to the letter, and dispatched federal troops to enforce Burns's return to his Virginia owner despite furious crowds.[138][139]
The midterm congressional elections of 1854 and 1855 were devastating to the Democrats (as well as to the Whig Party, which was on its last legs). The Democrats lost almost every state outside the South. The administration's opponents in the North worked together to return opposition members to Congress, though only a few northern Whigs gained election. In Pierce's New Hampshire, hitherto loyal to the Democratic Party, the Know-Nothings elected the governor, all three representatives, dominated the legislature, and returned John P. Hale to the Senate. Anti-immigrant fervor brought the Know-Nothings their highest numbers to that point, and some northerners were elected under the auspices of the new Republican Party.[134][135]
Pierce fully expected to be renominated by the Democrats. In reality, his chances of winning the nomination (let alone the general election) were slim. The administration was widely disliked in the North for its position on the Kansas–Nebraska Act, and Democratic leaders were aware of Pierce's electoral vulnerability. Nevertheless, his supporters began to plan for an alliance with Douglas to deny James Buchanan the nomination. Buchanan had solid political connections and had been safely overseas through most of Pierce's term, leaving him untainted by the Kansas debacle.[141][142][143]
When balloting began on June 5 at the convention inCincinnati, Ohio, Pierce expected a plurality, if not the required two-thirds majority. On the first ballot, he received only 122 votes, many of them from the South, to Buchanan's 135, with Douglas and Cass receiving the rest. By the following morning fourteen ballots had been completed, but none of the three main candidates were able to get two-thirds of the vote. Pierce, whose support had been slowly declining as the ballots passed, directed his supporters to break for Douglas, withdrawing his name in a last-ditch effort to defeat Buchanan. Douglas, only 43 years of age, believed that he could be nominated in 1860 if he let the older Buchanan win this time, and received assurances from Buchanan's managers that this would be the case. After two more deadlocked ballots, Douglas's managers withdrew his name, leaving Buchanan as the clear winner. To soften the blow to Pierce, the convention issued a resolution of "unqualified approbation" in praise of his administration and selected his ally, former Kentucky RepresentativeJohn C. Breckinridge, as the vice-presidential nominee.[141][142][143] This loss marked the first time in U.S. history that an elected president who was an active candidate for reelection was not nominated by his political party for a second term.[note 6][144]
Pierce endorsed Buchanan, though the two remained distant; he hoped to resolve the Kansas situation by November to improve the Democrats' chances in the general election. He installedJohn W. Geary as territorial governor, who drew the ire of pro-slavery legislators.[145] Geary was able to restore order in Kansas, though the electoral damage had already been done—Republicans used "Bleeding Kansas" and "Bleeding Sumner" (the brutalcaning of Charles Sumner by South Carolina RepresentativePreston Brooks in the Senate chamber) as election slogans.[146] The Buchanan/Breckinridge ticket was elected, but the Democratic percentage of the popular vote in the North fell from 49.8 percent in 1852 to 41.4 in 1856 as Buchanan won only five of sixteen free states (Pierce had won fourteen), and in three of those, Buchanan won because of a split between the Republican candidate, former California senatorJohn C. Frémont and the Know Nothing, former president Fillmore.[147]
Pierce did not temper his rhetoric after losing the nomination. In his final message to Congress, delivered in December 1856, he vigorously attacked Republicans and abolitionists. He took the opportunity to defend his record on fiscal policy, and on achieving peaceful relations with other nations.[148][149] In the final days of the Pierce administration, Congress passed bills to increase the pay of army officers and to build new naval vessels, also expanding the number of seamen enlisted. It also passed a tariff reduction bill he had long sought.[150] Pierce and his cabinet left office on March 4, 1857, the only time in U.S. history that the original cabinet members all remained for a full four-year term.[151]
After leaving the White House, the Pierces remained in Washington for more than two months, staying with former Secretary of StateWilliam L. Marcy.[153] Buchanan altered course from the Pierce administration, replacing all his appointees. The Pierces eventually moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Pierce had begun to speculate in property. Seeking warmer weather, he and Jane spent the next three years traveling, beginning with a stay inMadeira and followed by tours of Europe and theBahamas.[152] In Rome, he visited Nathaniel Hawthorne; the two men spent much time together and the author found the retired president as buoyant as ever.[154]
Pierce never lost sight of politics during his travels, commenting regularly on the nation's growing sectional conflict. He insisted that northern abolitionists stand down to avoid a southern secession, writing that the bloodshed of a civil war would "not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely", but "within our own borders in our own streets".[152] He also criticized New England Protestant ministers, who largely supported abolition and Republican candidates, for their "heresy and treason".[152] The rise of the Republican Party forced the Democrats to defend Pierce; duringhis debates with Republican Senate candidateAbraham Lincoln in 1858, Douglas called the former president "a man of integrity and honor".[155]
As the Democratic Convention of 1860 approached, some asked Pierce to run as a compromise candidate that could unite the fractured party, but Pierce refused. As Douglas struggled to attract southern support, Pierce backed Cushing and then Breckinridge as potential alternatives, but his priority was a united Democratic Party. The split Democrats were soundlydefeated for the presidency by the Republican candidate, Lincoln. In the months between Lincoln's election, and his inauguration on March 4, 1861, Pierce looked on as several southern states began plans to secede. He was asked by Justice Campbell to travel to Alabama and address that state's secession convention. Due to illness he declined, but sent a letter appealing to the people of Alabama to remain in the Union, and give the North time to repeal laws against southern interests and to find common ground.[156]
After efforts to prevent theCivil War ended with the firing onFort Sumter, Northern Democrats, including Douglas, endorsed Lincoln's plan to bring the Southern states back into the fold by force. Pierce wanted to avoid war at all costs, and wrote to Van Buren, proposing an assembly of former U.S. presidents to resolve the issue, but this suggestion was not acted on. "I will never justify, sustain or in any way or to any extent uphold this cruel, heartless, aimless, unnecessary war," Pierce wrote to his wife.[156] Pierce publicly opposed President Lincoln's order suspending the writ ofhabeas corpus, arguing that even in a time of war, the country should not abandon its protection of civil liberties. This stand won him admirers with the emergingNorthern Peace Democrats, but others saw the stand as further evidence of Pierce's southern bias.[157]
In September 1861, Pierce traveled to Michigan, visiting his former Interior Secretary, McClelland, former senator Cass, and others. A Detroit bookseller, J. A. Roys, sent a letter to Lincoln's Secretary of State,William H. Seward, accusing the former president of meeting with disloyal people, and saying he had heard there was a plot to overthrow the government and establish Pierce as president. Later that month, the pro-administrationDetroit Tribune printed an item calling Pierce "a prowling traitor spy", and intimating that he was a member of the pro-ConfederateKnights of the Golden Circle. No such conspiracy existed, but a Pierce supporter, Guy S. Hopkins, sent to theTribune a letter purporting to be from a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, indicating that "President P." was part of a plot against the Union.[158][159] Hopkins intended for theTribune to make the charges public, at which point Hopkins would admit authorship, thus making theTribune editors seem overly partisan and gullible. Instead, theTribune editors forwarded the Hopkins letter to government officials. Seward then ordered the arrest of possible "traitors" in Michigan, which included Hopkins. Hopkins confessed authorship of the letter and admitted the hoax, but despite this, Seward wrote to Pierce demanding to know if the charges were true. Pierce denied them, and Seward hastily backtracked. Later, Republican newspapers printed the Hopkins letter in spite of his admission that it was a hoax, and Pierce decided that he needed to clear his name publicly. When Seward refused to make their correspondence public, Pierce publicized his outrage by having a Senate ally, California'sMilton Latham, read the letters between Seward and Pierce into the Congressional record, to the administration's embarrassment.[158][159]
The institution of the draft and the arrest of outspoken anti-administration DemocratClement Vallandigham further incensed Pierce, who gave an address to New Hampshire Democrats in July 1863 vilifying Lincoln. "Who, I ask, has clothed the President with power to dictate to any one of us when we must or when we may speak, or be silent upon any subject, and especially in relation to the conduct of any public servant?", he demanded.[160][161] Pierce's comments were ill-received in much of the North, especially as his criticism of Lincoln's aims coincided with the twin Union victories atGettysburg andVicksburg. Pierce's reputation in the North was further damaged the following month when the Mississippi plantation of the Confederate president, Jefferson Davis, was seized by Union soldiers. Pierce's correspondence with Davis, all pre-war, revealing his deep friendship with Davis and predicting that civil war would result in insurrection in the North, was sent to the press. Pierce's words hardened abolitionist sentiment against him.[160][161]
Jane Pierce died of tuberculosis in Andover, Massachusetts in December 1863; she was buried at Old North Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. Pierce was further grieved by the death of his close friend Nathaniel Hawthorne in May 1864; he was with Hawthorne when the author died unexpectedly. Hawthorne had controversially dedicated his final book to Pierce. Some Democrats tried again to put Pierce's name up for consideration as the1864 presidential election unfolded, but he kept his distance; Lincoln won a second term by a large margin. When news spread ofLincoln's assassination in April 1865, a mob gathered outside Pierce's home in Concord, demanding to know why he had not raised a flag as a public mourning gesture. Pierce grew angry, expressing sadness over Lincoln's death but denying any need for a public gesture. He told them that his history of military and public service proved his patriotism, which was enough to quiet the crowd.[162]
Pierce's drinking impaired his health in his last years, and he grew increasingly spiritual. He had a brief relationship with an unknown woman in mid-1865. During this time, he used his influence to improve the treatment of Davis, now a prisoner atFort Monroe in Virginia. He also offered financial help to Hawthorne's sonJulian, as well as to his own nephews. On the second anniversary of Jane's death, Pierce was baptized into his wife'sEpiscopal faith at St. Paul's Church in Concord. He found this church to be less political than his former Congregational denomination, which had alienated Democrats with anti-slavery rhetoric. He took up the life of an "old farmer", as he called himself, buying up property, drinking less, farming the land himself, and hosting visiting relatives.[163] He spent most of his time in Concord and his cottage atLittle Boar's Head on the coast, sometimes visiting Jane's relatives in Massachusetts. Still interested in politics, he expressed support forAndrew Johnson'sReconstruction policy and supported the president's acquittal in hisimpeachment trial; he later expressed optimism for Johnson's successor,Ulysses S. Grant.[164]
Pierce's health began to decline again in mid-1869; he resumed heavy drinking despite his deteriorating physical condition. He returned to Concord that September, suffering from severecirrhosis of the liver, knowing he would not recover. A caretaker was hired; none of his family members were present in his final days. He died at 4:35 am on Friday, October 8, 1869, at the age of 64. President Grant, 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'sOld North Cemetery.[165]
In his lastwill, which he signed January 22, 1868, Pierce left a large number of specific bequests such as paintings, swords, horses, and other items to friends, family, and neighbors. Much of his $72,000 estate (equal to $1,700,000 today) went to his brother Henry's family, and to Hawthorne's children and Pierce's landlady. Henry's son Frank Pierce received the largest share.[166]
TheUniversity of New Hampshire School of Law was founded in 1973 as the Franklin Pierce Law Center. When the school was renamed in 2010, a Franklin Pierce Center for Intellectual Property was established.[172]
After his death, Pierce mostly passed from the American consciousness, except as one of a series of presidents whose disastrous tenures led to civil war.[177] His presidency is widely regarded as a failure; he is often described as one of theworst presidents in American history.[note 7] The public placed him third-to-last among his peers inC-SPAN surveys (2000 and 2009).[182] Part of his failure was in allowing a divided Congress to take the initiative, most disastrously with the Kansas–Nebraska Act. Although he did not lead that fight—Senator Douglas did—Pierce paid the cost in damage to his reputation.[183] The failure of Pierce, as president, to secure sectional conciliation helped bring an end to the dominance of the Democratic Party that had started with Jackson, and led to a period of over seventy years when the Republicans mostly controlled national politics.[184]
HistorianEric Foner says, "His administration turned out to be one of the most disastrous in American history. It witnessed the collapse of the party system inherited from the Age of Jackson".[185]
As a national political leader Pierce was an accident. He was honest and tenacious of his views but, as he made up his mind with difficulty and often reversed himself before making a final decision, he gave a general impression of instability. Kind, courteous, generous, he attracted many individuals, but his attempts to satisfy all factions failed and made him many enemies. In carrying out his principles of strict construction he was most in accord with Southerners, who generally had the letter of the law on their side. He failed utterly to realize the depth and the sincerity of Northern feeling against the South and was bewildered at the general flouting of the law and the Constitution, as he described it, by the people of his own New England. At no time did he catch the popular imagination. His inability to cope with the difficult problems that arose early in his administration caused him to lose the respect of great numbers, especially in the North, and his few successes failed to restore public confidence. He was an inexperienced man, suddenly called to assume a tremendous responsibility, who honestly tried to do his best without adequate training or temperamental fitness.
Despite a reputation as an able politician and a likable man, during his presidency Pierce served only as a moderator among the increasingly bitter factions that were driving the nation towards civil war.[188] To Pierce, who saw slavery as a question of property rather than morality,[184] the Union was sacred; because of this, he saw the actions of abolitionists, and the more moderate Free Soilers, as divisive and as a threat to the constitutionally-guaranteed rights of southerners.[189] Although he criticized those who sought to limit or end slavery, he rarely rebuked southern politicians who took extreme positions or opposed northern interests.[190]
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."[191] More important, says Potter, they permanently discredited Manifest Destiny and "popular sovereignty" as political doctrines.[191] Historian Kenneth Nivison, writing in 2010, takes a more favorable view of Pierce's foreign policy, stating that his expansionism prefaced those of later presidentsWilliam McKinley andTheodore Roosevelt, who served at a time when America had the military might to make her desires stick. "American foreign and commercial policy beginning in the 1890s, which eventually supplanted European colonialism by the middle of the twentieth century, owed much to the paternalism of Jacksonian Democracy cultivated in the international arena by the Presidency of Franklin Pierce."[192]
Historian and biographer Peter A. Wallner notes that:[193]
History has accorded to the Pierce administration a share of the blame for policies that incited the slavery issue, hastened the collapse of the second party system, and brought on the Civil War. ... It is both an inaccurate and unfair judgment. Pierce was always a nationalist attempting to find a middle ground to keep the Union together. ... The alternative to attempting to steer a moderate course was the breakup of the Union, the Civil War and the deaths of more than six hundred thousand Americans. Pierce should not be blamed for attempting throughout his political career to avoid this fate.
Historian Larry Gara, who authored a book on Pierce's presidency, wrote in the former president's entry inAmerican National Biography Online:[194]
He was president at a time that called for almost superhuman skills, yet he lacked such skills and never grew into the job to which he had been elected. His view of the Constitution and the Union was from the Jacksonian past. He never fully understood the nature or depth of Free Soil sentiment in the North. He was able to negotiate a reciprocal trade treaty with Canada, to begin the opening of Japan to western trade, to add land to the Southwest, and to sign legislation for the creation of an overseas empire [theGuano Islands Act]. His Cuba and Kansas policies led only to deeper sectional strife. His support for the Kansas–Nebraska Act and his determination to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act helped polarize the sections. Pierce was hard-working and his administration largely untainted by graft, yet the legacy from those four turbulent years contributed to the tragedy of secession and civil war.
^Vice President King died in office. As this was prior to the adoption of theTwenty-fifth Amendment in 1967, the vacancy was not filled until the next election.
^Some local accounts suggest he was born in the Homestead. TheNational Register of Historic Places cites the log cabin as the more likely birthplace,[6] and historian Peter A. Wallner asserts this is conclusively so.[7]
^This was called theRepublican orJeffersonian Republican Party at the time; it soon became known as theDemocratic-Republican Party. Modern writers prefer this term to distinguish it from the modern-dayRepublican Party.
^The two-story school building burned some years later, and Hancock Academy was founded in 1836 to fill its place.[9]
^Four other presidents—John Tyler, Millard Fillmore, Andrew Johnson, and Chester Arthur—failed to be nominated for re-election by their respective parties; however, each of those four presidents had been elected vice president and had assumed the presidency after their respective predecessors had died in office.[144]
^Wallner writes: "It is doubtful if any former president was as reviled in later life as Franklin Pierce was, and his reputation has hardly improved in the century and a half since his death. If anything, he has been forgotten and relegated to a footnote in history books—as an amiable nonentity who had no business being president and who reached that lofty position purely by the accident of circumstance."[178][179][180][181]
^Wallner, Peter A. (Spring 2005)."Franklin Pierce and Bowdoin College Associates Hawthorne and Hale"(PDF).Historical New Hampshire. New Hampshire Historical Society: 24. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on August 17, 2015.Within the student body, Pierce's influence was widespread. Besides heading the Athenian Society, he also formed the only military company in the history of the college. "Captain" Pierce, in an attempt to provide recreation and instruction for his fellow students, led the Bowdoin Cadets in their daily drills on the grounds in front of the President's house. The Reverend William Allen, the college's president, objected to the noise and ordered a halt to the activity. When Pierce refused to comply with Allen's order, animosity grew between the students and the college authorities resulting in the junior class going on strike. Pierce was accused of leading the rebellion, but the college records do not acknowledge the event. Pierce's father took note of his son's role, however, and in a rare letter, admonished him about his behavior. In later years, classmates fondly recalled the strike and Pierce's key role.
^abBaker, Jean H."Franklin Pierce: Life Before the Presidency".American President: An Online Reference Resource.University of Virginia. Archived fromthe original on December 17, 2010. RetrievedJanuary 16, 2019.Franklin and Jane Pierce seemingly had little in common, and the marriage would sometimes be a troubled one. The bride's family were staunch Whigs, a party largely formed to oppose Andrew Jackson, whom Pierce revered. Socially, Jane Pierce was reserved and shy, the polar opposite of her new husband. Above all, she was a committed devotee of the temperance movement. She detested Washington and usually refused to live there, even after Franklin Pierce became a U.S. Senator in 1837.
^Lamb, Brian; Wallner, Peter (October 25, 2004)."Interview with Peter Wallner: Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire's Favorite Son".C-SPAN. 00:55:56.He also thought - and he sincerely believed this - that if the North hadn't attacked the South so much for being for this moral sin of slavery, that the South eventually over time would have ended slavery on its own, that he felt that the Civil War was unnecessary. And he always said that, and he never took that back, even at the height of the war itself. He always believed the Civil War was unnecessary, and it was brought upon the nation by fanatics on both sides.
^Wadleigh 1913, p. 249: "Jan.7.-Hon. John P. Hale's letter to his constituents against the annexation of Texas, published".
^Wadleigh 1913, p. 249: "John P. Hale, who had been nominated for re-election to Congress by the Democratic party, was at this election dropped from the ticket, and John Woodbury substituted, in consequence of Mr. Hale's refusal to go with the party in voting for the annexation of Texas. A portion of the party, consisting of those who approved of his opposition to the extension of slavery, voted for him, and succeeded in defeating his opponent, leaving a vacancy in the delegation".
^abRudin, Ken (July 22, 2009)."When Has A President Been Denied His Party's Nomination?".NPR. RetrievedFebruary 15, 2017.When was the last time, if ever, that a sitting president was not nominated by his party for a second term? It only happened once to an elected president. That was Franklin Pierce... Four other presidents were denied the nomination of their party, but none of these were elected in their own right. They were: John Tyler, Whig, 1844... Millard Fillmore, Whig, 1852... Andrew Johnson, Democrat, 1868... Chester Arthur, Republican, 1884.
^Wallner 2007, pp. xi–xii: "History has accorded to the Pierce administration a share of the blame for policies that incited the slavery issue, hastened the collapse of the second party system, and brought on the Civil War. ... It is both an inaccurate and unfair judgment. Pierce was always a nationalist attempting to find a middle ground to keep the Union together. ... The alternative to attempting to steer a moderate course was the breakup of the Union, the Civil War and the deaths of more than six hundred thousand Americans. Pierce should not be blamed for attempting throughout his political career to avoid this fate."
^Gara 1991, pp. 180–184: "Those who play the presidential ratings game have always assigned to Franklin Pierce a below-average score. ... In light of subsequent events, the Pierce administration can be seen only as a disaster for the nation. Its failure was as much a failure of the system as a failure of Pierce himself, whom Roy Franklin Nichols has skillfully portrayed as a complex and tragic figure."
^abCrockett, David A. (December 2012). "The Historical Presidency: The Perils of Restoration Politics: Nineteenth-Century Antecedents".Presidential Studies Quarterly.42 (4):881–902.doi:10.1111/j.1741-5705.2012.04023.x.
^Foner, Eric (2006).Give Me Liberty!: An American History. Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 413.
^Gara, Larry (September 2005). "Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire's Favorite Son [book review]".Journal of American History.92 (2): 612.doi:10.2307/3659320.JSTOR3659320.
^Nivison, Kenneth (March 2010). "Purposes Just and Pacific: Franklin Pierce and the American Empire".Diplomacy & Statecraft.21 (1): 17.doi:10.1080/09592290903577668.S2CID154406060.
Boulard, Garry (2006).The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce: The Story of a President and the Civil War. iUniverse, Inc.ISBN978-0-595-40367-7.
Butler, Pierce (1908).Judah P. Benjamin. American Crisis Biographies. George W. Jacobs & Company.OCLC664335.
Etchison, Nicole (2004).Bleeding Kansas: Contested Liberty in the Civil War Era. University Press of Kansas.ISBN978-0-7006-1287-1.
Gara, Larry (1991).The Presidency of Franklin Pierce. University Press of Kansas.ISBN978-0-7006-0494-4.
Holt, Michael F. (2010).Franklin Pierce. The American Presidents (Kindle ed.). Henry Holt and Company, LLC.ISBN978-0-8050-8719-2.; also seeonline book review
Taylor, Michael J. C. (2001). "Governing the Devil in Hell: 'Bleeding Kansas' and the Destruction of the Franklin Pierce Presidency (1854–1856)".White House Studies.1:185–205.
Williamson, Richard Joseph. "Friendship, politics, and the literary imagination: The impact of Franklin Pierce on Hawthorne's work" (PhD dissertation, University of North Texas, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 1996. 9638512).
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