Our Presidents
                       Franklin Pierce
                          Fourteenth
                         1853 - 1857
 

"President Franklin Pierce" was born in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, the son of a prominent Democratic politician. President Franklin Pierce graduated from "Bowdoin College" in 1824 and studied law.

In 1829, President Franklin Pierce was elected to the "New Hampshire Senate", where he later became speaker. In 1833, President Franklin Pierce became a member of the "House of Representatives". President Franklin Pierce married "Jane Means Appleton" in 1834. President Franklin Pierce and Jane Means Appleton Pierce had three children.

In 1842, President Franklin Pierce declined another term in the Senate and later refused an offer of the Attorney Generalship. President Franklin Pierce stayed active in local politics, though, until he enlisted in the Army during the "Mexican War" and became a Briadier General under "General Winfield Scott".

At the "1852 Democratic Convention" President Franklin Pierce's friends planned to nominate him for President in case there should be a deadlock among the other three candidates. This happened, and President Franklin Pierce was nominated on the forty-ninth ballot.

Although President Franklin Pierce was unknown and inexperienced, he was elected overwhelmingly over the "Whig Party" Candidate, his old commanding officer General Winfield Scott.

President Franklin Pierce was against slavery, but he was influenced by pro-slavery advisors. "Jefferson Davis" was his Secretary of War. President Franklin Pierce signed the "Kansas - Nebraska Act" which allowed slavery north of the line stated in the "Missouri Compromise", and appointed a pro-slavery Governor of Kansas.

But a second, anti-slavery government was organized, so that Kansas had two governments. Constant fights between the pro-slavery and the anti-slavery factions in Kansas resulted in burning, looting, and killing.

"John Brown" came down from the North and senselessly murdered five men at "Potawatomie Creek". The conflict was not resolved until President Franklin Pierce left office. In 1853 President Franklin Pierce, who believed in encouraging the growth of railroads across the country, arranged to buy a tract of land from Mexico as a possible southern route.

This was called the "Gadsen Purchase" and completed the outline of the United States. Southerners had for some time wanted to take over "Cuba" to make it another slave state. President Franklin Pierce, bowing to his pro-slavery advisors, sent a secret mission to "Spain" to try to purchase the island.

In 1854, a letter arrived in Washington, D.C. that was supposed to be confidential, but its contents became public and caused great concern. The letter, which came to be knows and "The Ostend Manifesto" advised that if Spain would not sell Cuba, the United States should take it by force.

The public outcry in the North ended all plans to acquire Cuba. President Franklin Pierce, now thoroughly unpopular, was not renominated by his party. President Franklin Pierce died thirteen years later in 1869, at Concord, New Hampshire.

Written by:
Karen Palumbo
Photography "NOT" by:
Robert Palumbo
2/17/2010 (c)