(1804–69). Franklin Pierce was elected the 14th president of the United States in 1852. Nominated by the Democratic Party as a compromise candidate, he was little known at the time of his election. During his administration he faced a series of troubles. His mishandling of conflicts over slavery tarnished his presidency and kept him from a second term. Early life and marriageFranklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804, in Hillsboro, New Hampshire. His father, Benjamin Pierce, served in the New Hampshire state legislature and as governor of that state. Franklin attended Bowdoin College in Maine, graduating in 1824. After studying law for three years in Northampton, Massachusetts, he began practicing law in 1827. In 1834 Pierce married Jane Means Appleton, daughter of a former president of Bowdoin College. They had three sons. From state lawmaker to presidentPierce was elected to the New Hampshire state legislature in 1829. He served there until 1833, when he was elected to the United States House of Representatives. From 1837 to 1842 he served in the Senate. He was the youngest senator at the time. After resigning from the Senate Pierce practiced law in Concord, New Hampshire. During the Mexican War (1846–48) he served briefly as an officer. He resigned from the Army after the war. During this period Pierce maintained his interest in politics. By the 1850s both major political parties, the Democrats and the Whigs, were badly divided over the issue of slavery. At the Democratic National Convention in 1852, no major candidate was able to win enough votes to win the party's presidential nomination. The Democrats eventually broke the deadlock by nominating Pierce. Pierce's opponent in the election was Gen. Winfield Scott, the Whig nominee and a hero of the Mexican War. Pierce received 254 electoral votes to Scott's 42. In the popular vote, however, his margin of victory was only about 44,000 votes. PresidencyAt the time of Pierce's election, the slavery issue had been temporarily quieted by the Compromise of 1850 (see Fillmore, Millard). Pierce wanted to maintain this sense of harmony. He tried to satisfy both sides of the slavery debate by appointing both Southerners and Northerners to his Cabinet. He also sought to divert attention from the conflict at home by extending U.S. influence abroad. Pierce's attempt to acquire the island of Cuba from Spain, however, resulted in controversy. A secret diplomatic message known as the Ostend Manifesto declared that the United States should take Cuba by force if Spain refused to sell the island. When the message became public, antislavery advocates accused the president of trying to annex new slaveholding territory. Among Pierce's top priorities at home was westward expansion. In 1853 the United States bought almost 30,000 square miles (78,000 square kilometers) of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase. To encourage migration to the Northwest, Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854. This measure opened the Kansas and Nebraska territories for settlement. It also repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which had outlawed slavery in all new territories north of the southern border of Missouri. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the voters in the new territories to decide whether to permit or ban slavery in those areas. The act enraged Northern antislavery advocates and led to violent clashes in Kansas between pro- and antislavery settlers. RetirementPierce sought his party's renomination for president in 1856. Because of his mishandling of the situation in Kansas, however, the Democrats nominated James Buchanan instead. After an extended tour of Europe Pierce retired to Concord to practice law. He died there on October 8, 1869. |