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Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce (b. on November 23, 1804, in Hillsboro, New Hampshire) was the 14th President of the United States. He served from 1853 to 1857 and died on October 8, 1869, at the age of 64.
Pierce was a member of the Democratic Party. His vice president was William R. King.
Pierce signed the Kansas–Nebraska Act, which permitted those territories to decide whether or not to allow slavery within their borders. He also enforced the Fugitive Slave Act, which required that escaped slaves be returned to their masters.
Prior to serving as president, Pierce represented New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House, and was a member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives. He also served in the Mexican-American War from 1847 to 1848.[1]
Biography
Timeline of life events
Below is an abbreviated outline of Pierce's professional and political career:[1]
- 1804: Born in Hillsboro, New Hampshire
- 1819: Enrolled at Bowdoin College in Maine
- 1824: Graduated from Bowdoin College
- 1829: Elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives as a member of the Democratic Party
- 1833: Elected to the U.S. House of Representatives representing New Hampshire's at-large district
- 1834: Married Jane Means Appleton
- 1837: Elected to the U.S. Senate representing New Hampshire
- 1841: Resigned from the U.S. Senate
- 1847: Began serving in the Mexican-American War as a colonel and commander
- 1848: Resigned from the Army
- 1852: Elected as President of the United States
- 1856: Lost election to a second-term, replaced by James Buchanan
- October 8, 1869: Died from severe cirrhosis of the liver
Before the presidency
Pierce was born in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, on November 23, 1804, to American Revolutionary War veteran Benjamin Pierce and Anna Kendrick Pierce. At the age of 12, Pierce began attending the town school at Hancock and at 15, he enrolled at Bowdoin College in Maine. He graduated fifth in his class in 1824.
Pierce held a brief law internship with former New Hampshire Governor Levi Woodbury, and then spent a semester at Northampton Law School in Northampton, Massachusetts. He studied under Judge Edmund Parker from 1826 to 1827, and was admitted to the New Hampshire bar in late 1827. He began practicing law in Hillsborough, Massachusetts.
Pierce was elected to his first office in 1828 as Hillsborough town moderator. He campaigned in his district for General Andrew Jackson leading up to his election as president in the same year. Pierce was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in 1829, and was elected Speaker of the House two years later. In 1832, the Democratic Party convention nominated Pierce as a representative from New Hampshire in the U.S. House. During the time, this was equivalent to his election to the House since the Republican Party had faded in power and the Whig Party had not yet become prominent. He was sworn into the U.S. House in 1833 and served until 1837, when he was elected to the U.S. Senate. He served until February 1842, when he resigned.
Presidency
Pierce was elected president on a platform that included support of the Compromise of 1850. During his presidency, the Apache Wars continued, the Walker War (1853–1854) with the Ute Indians took place in Utah, the Sioux Wars (1854 - 1890) broke out, as well as several other Indian wars.
The Gadsden Purchase Treaty was negotiated and signed under Pierce's administration, in which the U.S. acquired a region that is now New Mexico and southern Arizona. Pierce had the land purchase in mind for a proposed transcontinental railroad, which was eventually finished in 1869.[2]
Pierce drafted the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. The act made Kansas and Nebraska U.S. territories, and allowed each of them to make their own decisions about whether they would allow slavery within their borders. The inclusion of Kansas and Nebraska was also a step forward in creating a transcontinental railroad. During the debate surrounding the passage of the act and after its passing, pro- and anti-slavery settlers moved into the territories so they could vote in the slavery decision. After the passage of the act, so much violence erupted between the two sides that it came to be known as Bleeding Kansas.[3]
Although Pierce sought re-election, the Democratic Party voted to nominate James Buchanan instead, who went on to become the 15th President of the United States.
Post-presidency
Following his presidency, Pierce returned to Concord, New Hampshire. During the Civil War, he publicly spoke out against the war. Pierce's health began to decline in mid-1869, and he died from severe cirrhosis of the liver on October 8 of that year.
Personal
Pierce married Jane Means Appleton in 1834. Appleton was a religious woman who supported the temperance movement. The couple had three sons together, who all died in childhood. Franklin Jr. died in infancy and Frank Robert died at the age of four from epidemic typhus. Their last son, Benjamin, died at the age of 11 in an accident while accompanying his parents on a train from Boston. The accident occurred a few weeks after Pierce was elected president and caused him and his wife to suffer from severe depression afterward.
Elections
In 1852, Franklin Pierce defeated Winfield Scott in the general election for the United States presidency.
| U.S. presidential election, 1852 | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | Electoral votes | |
| Democratic |  Franklin Pierce/William King |
50.8% | 1,605,943 | 254 | |
| Whig | Winfield Scott/William Graham | 43.9% | 1,386,418 | 42 | |
| Free Soil | John Hale/George Julian | 4.9% | 155,799 | 0 | |
| various | Others | 0.4% | 11,480 | 0 | |
| Total Votes | 3,159,640 | 296 | |||
| Election results via: Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections | |||||
State of the Union addresses
Every year in office, the president of the United States addresses Congress on the present state of affairs as well as the administration's goals for the coming year.[4] Following are transcripts from Pierce's State of the Union addresses and his inaugural address.
- Inaugural address March 4, 1853
- State of the Union 1853
- State of the Union 1854
- State of the Union 1855
- State of the Union 1856
See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Biography.com, "Franklin Pierce," accessed June 10, 2018
- ↑ Miller Center, "FRANKLIN PIERCE - KEY EVENTS," accessed June 10, 2018
- ↑ Teaching History, "Bleeding Kansas," accessed June 10, 2018
- ↑ Congressional Research Service, "The President’s State of the Union Address: Tradition, Function, and Policy Implications," January 24, 2014
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Millard Fillmore (Whig) |
President of the United States 1850-1853 |
Succeeded by James Buchanan (D) |
| |||||||
