Presidents: Franklin Pierce

 

Franklin Pierce is one of the most forgotten presidents. He also suffered a considerable loss in his family which lead to depression and alcoholism.

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804 in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. He was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and Anna Kendrick Pierce.

He attended school at Hillsborough Center and later Philip’s Exeter Academy before heading to college at Bowdoin College in Maine. Upon completion of college, Pierce attended law school.

In 1827, he was admitted to the bar. The following year he won his first election when he ran for Hillsborough town moderator. This was a position he would hold for the next six years.

He joined the state militia in 1831. He would stay in the militia until 1845, reaching the rank of colonel.

In 1832, Pierce was nominated for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Franklin Pierce married Jane Means Appleton on November 19, 1834. The couple had three sons, all who died during childhood. Their first son died in 1836, at the age of three days old.

In 1837, Pierce began a term in the U.S. Senate. He would resign from his position in February 1842.

Franklin Pierce worked as a lawyer, but remained active in the Democratic party. In 1843, the Pierce’s lost their second son, at four years old, to typhus.

In 1846, he turned down an opportunity to serve as President Polk

‘s Attorney General in order to fight with General Zachary Taylor in the Mexican-American War. During the war he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general. He returned home to a hero’s welcome, which boosted his popularity and political career.

In November 1852, Pierce won the Presidential election on the Democratic ticket. He was the youngest man ever elected at this time. The joy of winning the election was soon thrust into mourning before it ever began.

On January 6, 1853, the Pierce family was traveling by train when the train car they were in derailed and rolled down an embankment near Andover, Massachusetts. Franklin and Jane Pierce both survived, but their 11-year-old son, Benjamin, was crushed to death. Both Franklin and Jane Pierce suffered from severe depression after the wreck.

Pierce strived to unite a squabbling Democratic party during his time in office. He also was challenged by the Kansas-Nebraska Act, to settle the Nebraska Territory. He also fought for better pay for army officers.

Although Pierce hoped to renominated by the Democrats for re-election, he was not and finally endorsed James Buchanan.

Franklin Pierce left office on March 4, 1857. He and Jane spent the next three years traveling.

With the dawn of the Civil War, Pierce proposed an assembly of former U.S. Presidents to help resolve the issue, but it 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.

Jane Pierce died in December 1863 from tuberculosis. In May 1864, he was with good friend from college days, author Nathaniel Hawthorne when he unexpectedly died.

Franklin Pierce’s drinking worsened over the years. He was urged at times to run for President, but always refused.

On October 8, 1869, Franklin Pierce died, suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. He was buried beside his wife, Jane, in the Old North Cemetery in concord, New Hampshire.

Franklin Pierce had the only original cabinet members for all four years of his term. The only President for this to occur. However, he is mainly forgotten by history and only remembered as one of the president’s that could not unite the country leading up to the Civil War.