The New International Encyclopædia/Pierce, Franklin
PIERCE, ,  (1804-69), The
fourteenth President of the United States. He
was the son of Gen. Benjamin Pierce, a soldier of
the Revolution and twice Governor of New
Hampshire, and was born at Hillsborough, N. H., on
November 23, 1804. He graduated at Bowdoin
College in 1824, having among his college mates
Nathaniel Hawthorne, John P. Hale, S. S. Prentiss,
and Longfellow. After leaving college he
studied law in the law office of United States
Senator Levi Woodbury, and also in offices at
Northampton, Mass., and at Amherst, N. H., and
was admitted to the bar in 1827. Two years later
he was elected to a seat in the State Legislature
as a Democrat. He was thrice reëlected and for
two terms served as Speaker of the House of
Representatives. In 1832 he was elected to a seat
in the Lower House of Congress, and was reëlected
in 1834. In 1837 he was elected to the United
States Senate, and when he took his seat enjoyed
the distinction of being the youngest member of
that body. As a member of Congress he
supported by his speeches and votes the policy of
President Jackson. He opposed appropriations for
the Military Academy at West Point, the renewal
of the United States Bank charter, and the
policy of internal improvements, and was averse
to the spoils system. Among his colleagues in
the Senate were Benton, Clay, Calhoun, Webster,
Woodbury, and Wright, in comparison with whom
Pierce was not a distinguished figure, although
his service was marked by industry and
faithfulness to duty. In 1842, before the expiration
of his term as Senator, he resigned and
resumed his law practice, settling in Concord, N.
H. He successively declined an appointment to
fill a vacancy in the Senate, refused the nomination
for Governor of New Hampshire, and would
not accept the office of Attorney-General of the
United States tendered by President Polk,
and announced it as his fixed purpose never
again to accept public office. He did not,
however, cease to take interest in public affairs,
and during his retirement took an active part in
the councils of his party, openly advocated the
annexation of Texas, and took the stump against
his former college mate, John P. Hale (q.v.),
the successful anti-slavery candidate for the
United States Senate. Upon the outbreak of the
Mexican War, Pierce promptly volunteered as a
private soldier. He was soon appointed colonel,
and in March, 1847, received a commission from

the President as brigadier-general of volunteers.
He at once sailed for Vera Cruz and joined
General Scott in time to participate in the battles
of Contreras and Churubusco. In the former
engagement he was thrown from his horse, but,
although painfully injured, refused to leave
the field. Upon the conclusion of peace he
resumed his law practice, which was again interrupted
in 1850 by his election as a delegate to the
New Hampshire Constitutional Convention, over
whose deliberations he was chosen to preside by
an almost unanimous vote. At the Democratic
National Convention, held at Baltimore in June,
1852, he was brought forward, after thirty-flve
ballotings, as a compromise candidate for the
Presidency, and was nominated on the forty-ninth
ballot, defeating Buchanan, Douglas, Cass, and
Marcy. On account of his personal popularity,
and his conservative position with regard to
the slavery question. General Pierce was able
to draw to his support a large number of voters
in the North, among them many Whigs, and
consequently defeated General Scott, the Whig
candidate, by a vote of 254 to 42, He carried every
State except Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky,
and Tennessee, and received a larger electoral
vote than had ever before been cast for a
Presidential candidate. He chose a Cabinet of able
and distinguished men to aid him. This Cabinet
was the only one in the history of the country
that did not suffer a break during the Presidential
term. The chief events of Pierce's
administration were the Gadsden Purchase (q.v.),
the Koszta affair (q.v.), the conclusion of
commercial treaties with Great Britain and Japan,
the bombardment of Greytown, Nicaragua, the
reorganization of the diplomatic and consular
service, and the creation of a United States court
of claims. As regards the slavery question, the
policy of President Pierce caused much discontent
in the North. The chief events under this
head were the promulgation of the ../Ostend Manifesto/
(q.v.) and the enactment of the
../Kansas-Nebraska Bill/ (q.v.), which brought on strife
between the pro-slavery and free-State settlers in
Kansas. From 1855 to the end of Pierce's term
the sole problem of importance was that of
governing Kansas and maintaining peacs therein — a
problem in the management of which the President
did not add to his distinction. Upon the
expiration of his term Pierce traveled for several
years in Europe, taking no further part in
politics. As an advocate at the bar, Pierce
was excelled by few. Two ‘campaign’ biographies
of Pierce were published in 1852, written by
Nathaniel Hawthorne (Boston) and D. W.
Bartlett (Auburn). Consult, also, Carroll,
Review of Pierce's Administration (Boston, 1856);
and Rhodes, A History of the United States from
the Compromise of 1850 (New York, 1901). See
.