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  Pierce, Franklin
CANDIDATE DETAILS
AffiliationDemocratic  
<-  1855-01-01  
 
NameFranklin Pierce
Address301 2nd NH Turnpike
Hillsborough, New Hampshire , United States
EmailNone
WebsiteNone
Born November 23, 1804
DiedOctober 08, 1869 (64 years)
ContributorJake
Last ModifedNJLBT
Feb 17, 2021 05:19pm
Tags English - Alcoholic - Episcopalian -
InfoFranklin Pierce became President at a time of apparent tranquility. The United States, by virtue of the Compromise of 1850, seemed to have weathered its sectional storm. By pursuing the recommendations of southern advisers, Pierce–a New Englander–hoped to prevent still another outbreak of that storm. But his policies, far from preserving calm, hastened the disruption of the Union.

Born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in 1804, Pierce attended Bowdoin College. After graduation he studied law, then entered politics. At 24 he was elected to the New Hampshire legislature; two years later he became its Speaker. During the 1830’s he went to Washington, first as a Representative, then as a Senator.

Pierce, after serving in the Mexican War, was proposed by New Hampshire friends for the Presidential nomination in 1852. At the Democratic Convention, the delegates agreed easily enough upon a platform pledging undeviating support of the Compromise of 1850 and hostility to any efforts to agitate the slavery question. But they balloted 48 times and eliminated all the well-known candidates before nominating Pierce, a true “dark horse.”

Probably because the Democrats stood more firmly for the Compromise than the Whigs, and because Whig candidate Gen. Winfield Scott was suspect in the South, Pierce won with a narrow margin of popular votes.

Two months before he took office, he and his wife saw their eleven-year-old son killed when their train was wrecked. Grief-stricken, Pierce entered the Presidency nervously exhausted.

In his Inaugural he proclaimed an era of peace and prosperity at home, and vigor in relations with other nations. The United States might have to acquire additional possessions for the sake of its own security, he pointed out, and would not be deterred by “any timid forebodings of evil.”

Pierce had only to make gestures toward expansion to excite the wrath of northerners, who accused him of acting as a cat’s-paw of Southerners eager to extend slavery into other areas. Therefore he aroused apprehension when he pressured Great Britain to relinquish its special interests along part of the Central American coast, and even more when he tried to persuade Spain to sell Cuba.

But the most violent renewal of the storm stemmed from the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise and reopened the question of slavery in the West. This measure, the handiwork of Senator Stephen A. Douglas, grew in part out of his desire to promote a railroad from Chicago to California through Nebraska. Already Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, advocate of a southern transcontinental route, had persuaded Pierce to send James Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a southern railroad. He purchased the area now comprising southern Arizona and part of southern New Mexico for $10,000,000.

Douglas’s proposal, to organize western territories through which a railroad might run, caused extreme trouble. Douglas provided in his bills that the residents of the new territories could decide the slavery question for themselves. The result was a rush into Kansas, as southerners and northerners vied for control of the territory. Shooting broke out, and “bleeding Kansas” became a prelude to the Civil War.

By the end of his administration, Pierce could claim “a peaceful condition of things in Kansas.” But, to his disappointment, the Democrats refused to renominate him, turning to the less controversial Buchanan. Pierce returned to New Hampshire, leaving his successor to face the rising fury of the sectional whirlwind. He died in 1869.

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JOB APPROVAL POLLS
DateFirmApproveDisapproveDon't Know
06/13/2007-06/24/2007 Rasmussen Reports 17.00% ( 0.0) 25.00% ( 0.0) 59.00% ( 0.0)

BOOKS
Title Purchase Contributor

EVENTS
Start Date End Date Type Title Contributor

NEWS
Date Category Headline Article Contributor

DISCUSSION
Importance? 10.00000 Average

FAMILY
Wife Jane Means Appleton Pierce Nov 19, 1834-Dec 02, 1863
Son Franklin Pierce (Jr.) 1836-1836
Son Frank Robert Pierce 1839-1843
Son Benjamin Pierce 1841-1853
Father Benjamin Pierce 1757-1839

INFORMATION LINKS
Franklin Pierce - First Annual Message (December 5, 1853)  Discuss
Franklin Pierce - Fourth Annual Message (December 2, 1856)  Discuss
Franklin Pierce - Proclamation (January 18, 1854)  Discuss
Franklin Pierce - Second Annual Message (December 4, 1854)  Discuss
Franklin Pierce - Third Annual Message (December 31, 1855)  Discuss
President Franklin Pierce Inaugural Address March 4, 1853  Discuss
RACES
  07/09/1868 US President - D Convention Lost 0.30% (-31.34%)
  08/31/1864 US President - D Convention Lost 0.00% (-77.33%)
  06/06/1856 US President - D Convention Lost 22.34% (-31.87%)
  12/01/1852 US President Won 85.81% (+71.62%)
  11/02/1852 OH US President Won 47.94% (+4.71%)
  11/02/1852 IL US President Won 51.87% (+10.10%)
  11/02/1852 MI US President Won 50.45% (+9.62%)
  11/02/1852 TN US President Lost 49.27% (-1.46%)
  11/02/1852 IN US President Won 51.93% (+7.66%)
  11/02/1852 MS US President Won 60.60% (+21.20%)
  11/02/1852 TX US President Won 73.46% (+46.98%)
  11/02/1852 AL US President Won 60.89% (+26.77%)
  11/02/1852 AR US President Won 62.18% (+24.36%)
  11/02/1852 IA US President Won 49.83% (+4.55%)
  11/02/1852 MO US President Won 56.32% (+12.64%)
  11/02/1852 VT US President Lost 29.76% (-20.82%)
  11/02/1852 SC US President Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  11/02/1852 CA US President Won 53.02% (+6.18%)
  11/02/1852 KY US President Lost 48.40% (-2.97%)
  11/02/1852 NH US President Won 56.39% (+25.73%)
  11/02/1852 VA US President Won 55.71% (+11.42%)
  11/02/1852 CT US President Won 49.79% (+4.33%)
  11/02/1852 LA US President Won 51.94% (+3.88%)
  11/02/1852 NJ US President Won 52.79% (+6.85%)
  11/02/1852 WI US President Won 51.99% (+17.64%)
  11/02/1852 DE US President Won 49.85% (+0.20%)
  11/02/1852 ME US President Won 50.63% (+11.03%)
  11/02/1852 NY US President Won 50.13% (+5.20%)
  11/02/1852 FL US President Won 60.03% (+20.06%)
  11/02/1852 MD US President Won 53.50% (+7.08%)
  11/02/1852 PA US President Won 51.19% (+5.00%)
  11/02/1852 NC US President Won 50.43% (+0.94%)
  11/02/1852 GA US President Won 55.45% (+28.87%)
  11/02/1852 MA US President Lost 35.73% (-5.30%)
  11/02/1852 RI US President Won 51.37% (+6.52%)
  11/02/1852 US President National Vote Won 50.84% (+6.98%)
  06/05/1852 US President - D Convention Won 35.83% (+19.06%)
  11/08/1836 NH US Senate Won 100.00% (+100.00%)
  03/10/1835 NH At-Large Won 12.66% (+0.03%)
  03/12/1833 NH At-Large Won 15.14% (-0.00%)
ENDORSEMENTS
US President - Dec 05, 1860 D John C. Breckinridge