 The 1852 Democratic National Convention nominated dark horse candidate Franklin Pierce, a Northerner sympathetic to the Southern view on slavery.Pierce had resigned from the U.S. Senate in 1842, and had briefly held only the minor office of United States Attorney for the District of New Hampshire since then, but emerged as a compromise candidate partly because of his service under Scott in the Mexican–American War.The Democrats attacked Scott for various incidents from his long public career, including his court-martial in 1809 and the hanging of members of the Saint Patrick's Battalion during the Mexican–American War.