The administration of Franklin Pierce, fourteenth president of the United States, was marred by the bitter quarrel resulting from the passage of the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.
Background
Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, at Hillsboro, New Hampshire. Pierce was the fifth of eight children born to Benjamin and his second wife, Anna Kendrick. His father, Benjamin Pierce, had fought in the American Revolution and was twice governor of New Hampshire. Both his father and mother, Anna Kendrick Pierce, were of English descent.
Education
The father placed Pierce in a neighborhood school at the age of 12. Later he transferred to Phillips Exeter Academy to prepare for college. At college, he excelled in public speaking as well as academics, thus when he graduated in 1824, he was among the top three students of his class.
In 1826, with the intention to study law, he entered Northampton Law School, located in the state of Massachusetts. Then he was accepted by the bar in 1827, after which he began his practice in Concord, New Hampshire.
Pierce served in the New Hampshire Legislature (1828-1832) and in the U.S. House of Representatives (1832-1842). Pierce declined President James Polk's offer of the position of attorney general, instead accepting appointment as U.S. attorney for New Hampshire. During the Mexican War, Pierce served as a brigadier general under Winfield Scott.
Because he was relatively unknown and had not antagonized voters, Pierce received the Democratic nomination for president in 1852. Though he was elected over Scott, the Whig candidate, his overall majority was only 50,000 out of over 3 million votes cast.
Pierce hated change and relied on tradition to steer the government. However, his hopes for unity were destroyed by the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Enactment of this law led to a revolt by antislavery Democrats and to the creation of the Republican party, replacing the Whig party in the North. Pierce's vigorous enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act alienated the same elements.
Kansas created other major problems. Pierce's inept gubernatorial appointee in Kansas was unable to prevent either the election frauds committed by the Missourians who crossed the border or the violence that erupted between pro-and antislavery settlers. By 1856 complete chaos existed in Kansas; two governments were established, and Pierce was helpless to control the situation.
Because of Northern opposition to Pierce, James Buchanan defeated him at the Democratic convention in 1856. He retired to New Hampshire and was accused of being a Southern sympathizer during the Civil War. He died in Concord on October 8, 1869.
Pierce was only baptized after the end of the Civil War.
Politics
Following his father, Pierce joined the Democratic party, supporting Jackson for election in 1828.
As president, Pierce was mainly concerned with promoting national unity by including all Democratic factions in the Cabinet and by strictly adhering to the Compromise of 1850.
In foreign policy, Pierce and his secretary of state, William L. Marcy, generally followed expansionistic policies. They tried to purchase Cuba and officially recognized the regime set up by the American adventurer William Walker in Nicaragua. Pierce also tried to increase American prestige by mediating the Crimean War between England and Russia.
Views
Quotations:
"Frequently the more trifling the subject, the more animated and protracted the discussion."
"The dangers of a concentration of all power in the general government of a confederacy so vast as ours are too obvious to be disregarded."
"A Republic without parties is a complete anomaly. The histories of all popular governments show absurd is the idea of their attempting to exist without parties."
Personality
Pierce as open, congenial, and pliant. He mixed readily and won friends easily. However, he suffered from periodic bouts of depression. He also fought a longtime battle against alcoholism. Pierce found it hard to say No. “He lacked a sustained feeling of self-confidence and was desirous of approbation,” according to biographer Roy Franklin Nichols. “Consequently he endeavored to be gracious and accommodating to all who sought [favors]. His graciousness was interpreted by many to mean approval of their requests.”
He suffered often from respiratory ailments. As president, he had a persistent cough due to chronic bronchitis.
Physical Characteristics:
Perhaps the most handsome president, Pierce was a trim 5 feet 10 inches tall and had a classic Roman nose, gray eyes, and thin lips. His most distinctive feature was the mass of curly dark hair that he combed on a deep slant over the side of his broad forehead.
Quotes from others about the person
Historian Larry Gara, who authored a book on Pierce's presidency, wrote in the former president's entry in American National Biography Online:
"He was president at a time that called for almost superhuman skills, yet he lacked such skills and never grew into the job to which he had been elected. His view of the Constitution and the Union was from the Jacksonian past. He never fully understood the nature or depth of Free Soil sentiment in the North. He was able to negotiate a reciprocal trade treaty with Canada, to begin the opening of Japan to western trade, to add land to the Southwest, and to sign legislation for the creation of an overseas empire [the Guano Islands Act]. His Cuba and Kansas policies led only to deeper sectional strife. His support for the Kansas–Nebraska Act and his determination to enforce the Fugitive Slave Act helped polarize the sections. Pierce was hard-working and his administration largely untainted by graft, yet the legacy from those four turbulent years contributed to the tragedy of secession and civil war."
Connections
Franklin got married to Jane Means Appleton, in 1834 and the couple together had three sons. Sadly, his personal life was filled with tragedy, as due to one or another reason he lost all of his children at a very tender age; this remained a great source of sorrow throughout his life.