Katana VentraIP

Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce (November 23, 1804 – October 8, 1869) was an American politician who served as the 14th president of the United States from 1853 to 1857. A northern Democrat who believed that the abolitionist movement was a fundamental threat to the nation's unity, he alienated anti-slavery groups by signing the Kansas–Nebraska Act and enforcing the Fugitive Slave Act. Conflict between North and South continued after Pierce's presidency, and, after Abraham Lincoln was elected president in 1860, the Southern states seceded, resulting in the American Civil War.

This article is about the president of the United States. For other people with the same name, see Franklin Pierce (disambiguation).

Franklin Pierce

Samuel C. Webster

Thomas Wilson

Hiram Monroe

(1804-11-23)November 23, 1804
Hillsborough, New Hampshire, U.S.

October 8, 1869(1869-10-08) (aged 64)
Concord, New Hampshire, U.S.

(m. 1834; died 1863)

3

  • Politician
  • lawyer

Cursive signature in ink

  • 1831–1847 (Militia)
  • 1847–1848 (Army)

Pierce was born in New Hampshire, the son of state governor Benjamin Pierce. He served in the House of Representatives from 1833 until his election to the Senate, where he served from 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. Pierce took part in the Mexican–American War as a brigadier general in the United States Army. Democrats saw him as a compromise candidate uniting Northern and Southern interests, and nominated him for president on the 49th ballot at the 1852 Democratic National Convention. He and running mate William R. King easily defeated the Whig Party ticket of Winfield Scott and William A. Graham in the 1852 presidential election.


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 a Young America expansionist who signed the Gadsden 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 the Missouri Compromise, while many Southern whites continued to support him. The act's passage led to violent conflict over the expansion of slavery in the American West. Pierce's administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto calling for the annexation of Cuba, a document that was roundly criticized. He fully expected the Democrats to renominate him in the 1856 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.


Pierce was popular and outgoing, but 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 before Pierce's inauguration. A heavy drinker for much of his life, Pierce died in 1869 of cirrhosis. 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 of the worst[2] and least memorable U.S. presidents.

Congressional career

U.S. House of Representatives

Pierce departed in November 1833 for Washington, D.C., where the Twenty-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 the Second 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 fund internal 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 the Twenty-fourth Congress.[33]


As abolitionism 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.[34] He was also frustrated with the "religious bigotry" of abolitionists, who cast their political opponents as sinners.[35] "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."[36] 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."[37] 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".[38]


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 the gag rule, which allowed for petitions to be received, but not read or considered. This passed the House in 1836.[34] He was attacked by the New Hampshire anti-slavery Herald of Freedom as a "doughface", which had the dual meaning of "craven-spirited man" and "northerner with southern sympathies".[39] Pierce had stated that not one in 500 New Hampshirites were abolitionists; the Herald 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 Senator John 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.[40]

The in Rindge, New Hampshire, was chartered in 1962.[169]

Franklin Pierce University

The 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.[170]

University of New Hampshire School of Law

There is a in the Presidential Range of New Hampshire's White Mountains, renamed from Mt. Clinton in 1913.[171]

Mt. Pierce

The small town of , was founded in the 1850s and honors President Pierce.[172]

Pierceton, Indiana

the second most populous county in the state, is named in honor of President Pierce.[173]

Pierce County, Washington

established in 1857, is also named in honor of President Pierce.[174]

Pierce County, Georgia

In addition to his LL.D. from Norwich University, Pierce received honorary doctorates from Bowdoin College (1853) and Dartmouth College (1860).[165]


Two places in New Hampshire have been listed on the National Register of Historic Places specifically because of their association with Pierce. The Franklin Pierce Homestead in Hillsborough is a state park and a National Historic Landmark, open to the public.[3] The Franklin Pierce House in Concord, where Pierce died, was destroyed by fire in 1981, but is nevertheless listed on the register.[166] The Pierce Manse, his Concord home from 1842 to 1848, is open seasonally and maintained by a volunteer group, "The Pierce Brigade".[49] A statue of Pierce by Augustus Lukeman, dedicated in 1914,[167] stands on the grounds of the New Hampshire State House. New Hampshire Historical Markers #65, #80, #125, and #216 commemorate Pierce and his family around New Hampshire.[168]


Several institutions and places have been named after Pierce, many in New Hampshire:

List of deaths through alcohol

: Franklin Pierce 1804–1869

New Hampshire Historical Marker No. 80

United States Congress. . Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.

"Franklin Pierce (id: P000333)"

at Project Gutenberg

Works by Franklin Pierce

at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)

Works by Franklin Pierce

at Internet Archive

Works by or about Franklin Pierce

from the Miller Center of Public Affairs

Essays on Franklin Pierce and his presidency

from the Library of Congress

Franklin Pierce: A Resource Guide

Archived June 18, 2022, at the Wayback Machine

Franklin Pierce Bicentennial

from C-SPAN's American Presidents: Life Portraits, June 14, 1999

"Life Portrait of Franklin Pierce"

Franklin Pierce Personal Manuscripts

Exterior Statues and Memorials – N.H. Division of Historical Resources

2018 article on the 14th US President