14) Franklin Pierce - Poor Pierce

With nearly two feet of snow covering the ground out my window, it seemed like an appropriate time to sit down and write about our only president from the Granite State.

Roy Nichol’s biography of Franklin Pierce was one of the more enjoyable during this project so far. I’ve said before that the presidents leading up to Lincoln were the ones I dreaded. I thought I may get bored of the project and give up. However, this well written and researched book is a fascinating way to both learn about an obscure president and provide context to some events leading to the Civil War whose names you remember from history class.

While not a prerequisite for the presidency, Pierce was also born in a log cabin. He grew up in New Hampshire as one of Benjamin and Anna Pierce’s eight children. Benjamin was a veteran of the Revolutionary War where he fought at Bunker Hill. He also served as Governor of New Hampshire. Legend has it that while Franklin was a schoolboy in New Hampshire a speaker came and told his class that if the children aim high in their studies the future President may be sitting in that very room.

Benjamin sent his son north to Bowdoin College in Maine where Franklin did not sufficiently focus on his studies. When his junior year began class rankings were released and Franklin learned he was last in the class. With prodding from classmates Franklin dedicated himself to his studies, rising to fifth in the class by graduation. Franklin made a lifelong friend while at Bowdoin who went on to gain more lasting fame. The author Nathaniel Hawthorne, author of The Scarlet Letter, was a lifelong defender of Pierce even dedicating one of his final works, Our Old Home, to Pierce against the advice of his publisher.

After college Pierce moved to Hillsborough, New Hampshire and began learning law. He involved himself in local politics and was elected to the state legislature, eventually being voted speaker. His constituents then elevated him to the United States Congress where he served in the House during Jackson’s administration. He was a “devout hero-worshiper” of Old Hickory and did a great deal of fighting Jackson’s Bank Wars in the House. In the House Pierce would help to draw up the “gag-rule” which John Quincy Adams famously fought against. Pierce’s work on the gag-rule, which effectively barred debate of slavery in the House, and his disdain for abolitionism, which he saw as a grave threat to the Union, were early signs of Pierce’s states’ rights leanings which tarnished his image in posterity.

Like true Jacksonians, New Hampshire Democrats believed in office rotation and their senators typically served only one term. Pierce’s turn came in 1837. In an otherwise unremarkable Senate career, Pierce had to confront slavery again when he voted against a proposal to table a bill to abolish slavery in Washington DC. This vote came despite his dislike of abolitionists as his association with the gag-rule was giving material to abolitionist at home who claimed that Pierce was suppressing their First Amendment right to petition.

While a member of the House, Pierce married Jane Appleton. This was an odd choice as Jane was “shy, retiring, frail… with strict ideas of propriety.” She was also extremely devout. If you took the opposite of each of the preceding attributes you would have a fair description of Franklin. Jane did not like Hillsborough, so the family relocated to Concord. Their first child died in infancy and their second died as a toddler, their third, Benjamin, became an obsession for Jane and Franklin. Jane did not like Washington and was often ill, she spent much of his Senate term back in Concord. When his term ended, Pierce returned and established his law practice. This was a rare happy period for the Pierces. From 1842 through the first half of 1847 Pierce was the most prolific trial lawyer in Concord. Pierce, who battled alcoholism, was not drinking during this period. Jane also seems to have been happy and relatively healthy during these years. Pierce remained active in politics and became a local “party boss”. The surprise election of James Polk in 1844 was a fortuitous turn for Franklin who benefited from patronage as Polk named him district attorney for New Hampshire.

The Battle of Chapultepec, not as magestic when you're laid up with
Montezuma's revenge.

Then came war with Mexico. Growing up with a military hero father, Pierce longed for battle glory and volunteered immediately. He was promoted to Brigadier General, this was likely political given his limited military background, and given a command. Pierce labored to pull together recruits given the unpopularity of the war in New England, but by May 1847 he was ready to set sail. Pierce did not find glory in Mexico. He would find himself in three battles. At the Battle of Contreras, he was injured. The story that stuck with him from the war was when his horse threw him at Contreras a regular yelled to Pierce’s friend, Major Truman Ransom, “take command of the brigade, General Pierce is a damned coward.” This story was repeated by political enemies throughout his career. Again he was injured at the Battle of Churubusco and then finally at Chapultepec, where Ransom lost his life, Pierce was laid up with diarrhea and unable to participate. He held out hope that he would fight at the ultimate battle in Mexico City, however he arrived just in time to see the Mexicans surrender.

Back in New Hampshire Pierce resumed law and politics, the election of Zachary Taylor was a disappointment, however New Hampshire voted Democrat in no small part thanks to Pierce’s efforts. By the time the election of 1852 rolled around there was some talk that Pierce was a potential candidate, he demurred publicly. While he was by no means a major player on the national stage, the Democratic Party was fraying over slavery and Pierce’s Northern routes and Southern sympathies made him an attractive compromise candidate. Pierce was nominated on the 35^th ballot of the Democratic convention. Pierce defeated fellow Mexican War general Winfield Scott and won the presidency.

Shortly after his election, tragedy struck when a train that Pierce, Jane, and Benjamin were on derailed. Everyone on the train walked away except for Benjamin, who was decapitated in front of his parents. The Pierces went into a state of deep morning, a state that Jane would never exit. Soon thereafter Jane learned that Pierce had sought the presidency more than he let on to her. This was something difficult to forgive given how opposed she was to returning to Washington.  It is likely that Pierce entered the White House to assume his duties in a state of depression.

Shortly into his presidency, Pierce traveled to New York for the World’s Fair. He wanted to preach states’ rights and the importance of securing the Union. Pierce was sick much of the trip and a letter from a congressman to James Buchanan reveals how Pierce was coping:

“I deeply, deeply, deplore his habits. He drinks deep. My hearts bleeds for him for he is a gallant and generous spirit. The place overshadows him. He is crushed by its great duties and he seeks refuge in…”

The most memorable chapter of American history from the Pierce presidency was the signing of the Kansas/Nebraska Act which created the two states. The act called for popular sovereignty in the two states. Opponents of the act called this a repudiation of the Missouri Compromise, supporters said the Compromise of 1850 already nullified the Missouri Compromise. Proponents of slavery and abolitionists alike began piling into Kansas in hopes of swinging the vote. The ensuing clashes, dubbed Bleeding Kansas by John Fremont’s failed Republican bid for president in 1856, stained Pierce’s legacy and hurled the country closer to Civil War.

Pierce was not nominated by the Democrats in 1856. He had become so unpopular throughout the North that during the mid-term elections the Democrats lost every free state except California and New Hampshire – this after carrying every Northern state but Vermont during his election.

Pierce loathed the Civil War. He had focused his presidency on trying to keep the Union together and he believed the war to be senseless. He blamed abolitionists for the death and destruction. However, when Confederate plans to attack Washington were revealed, Pierce spoke on the need to defend the country “at all hazards” and he never justified the secession of the South. This did little to change public perception of Pierce. He inability to hide his disdain for Lincoln didn’t help public perception. He called Lincoln a tool of the abolitionists: “to the extent of his limited ability and narrow intelligence their willing instrument for all the woe which had thus far been brought upon the country…”

In late-1863 Jane died, the next spring Hawthorne died, in the summer political enemies circulated an old letter Pierce had written to his then Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis, purporting to show that Pierce supported secession. The next spring came Lincoln’s assassination and Pierce’s depression and alcoholism began to take hold. His liver held out for four more years while he remained somewhat involved in political issues of the day and became involved in the church.

Pierce's life was tragic and his presidency was unsuccessful. However, it is important to understand his times as the prelude to the Civil War and it is important for one studying the presidents to understand the man, as it is a painful lesson in the burden of the office.