The Encyclopedia Americana (1920)/Pierce, Franklin
PIERCE, pērs, Franklin, 14th President of
the United States (1853-57): b. Hillsboro,
N. H., 23 Nov. 1804; d. Concord, N. H., 8 Oct.
1869. His father, Benjamin Pierce (1757-1839),
served in the Revolutionary War, was member
of the State legislature 1789-1801, and from 1803
to 1809. He was a Democrat in politics, an
active public-spirited man, and governor of
New Hampshire from 1827 to 1829. His son,
therefore, was brought up in an atmosphere of
public service. Franklin Pierce was educated
at various academies, Hancock, Francestown
and Phillips Exeter, entered Bowdoin College,
Maine, 1820, and had as classmates Longfellow
and Hawthorne. He graduated third in his
class in 1824 and studied law for the next
three years, first with Levi Woodbury at
Portsmouth, then at the law school of Judge Howe
at Northampton, Mass., and finally with Judge
Edmund Parker at Amherst, N. H. He was
admitted to the bar in 1827 and entered politics
almost immediately as a Democrat. In 1829 he
was elected as a representative to the State
legislature, and in 1832 was made speaker. In
1833 he entered Congress, became a close friend
of Jackson and sustained him in important
contests. His career in the House of Representatives
during the next four years was uneventful,
because most of his work was done in the
committee-room. He rarely made a speech,

and then not on the most important questions.
He spoke 27 Feb. 1834, against the bill on the
subject of Revolutionary claims, on the ground
of economy and justice; and on 30 June 1836
against the bill making appropriations for the
United States Military Academy, on the ground
that it was legislation conferring “exclusive and
gratuitous privileges.” He approved of Jackson's
veto of the Maysville road bill, and in
general was a believer in a strict construction
of the Constitution. In December 1835 he
spoke and voted against the policy of receiving
petitions for the abolition of slavery in the
District of Columbia. In 1837 Fierce was
elected to the Senate, but was overshadowed by
such men as Clay, Calhoun, Webster and Benton,
Pierce being the youngest of all the
senators. He seldom spoke and avoided, as in
the House, the big questions of the day. He
resigned in 1842 to accept the office of district
attorney of New Hampshire.

When the Mexican War broke out in 1846,
he enlisted as a private, enrolled in a company
of volunteers organized at Concord, and soon
received from the President a commission as
colonel of the Ninth regiment. On 3 March
1847, he was commissioned as brigadier-general
in the volunteer army, though practically without
military experience. He was with General
Scott in the march on the City of Mexico, but
did not play a conspicuous part in the military
operations. After his return home he engaged
in the practice of law. The Democratic
National Convention met at Baltimore 1 June 1852,
with Lewis Cass, James Buchanan and Stephen
A. Douglas as the leading candidates. On the
35th ballot the Virginia delegation voted for
Pierce, and on the 49th he received 282 votes
to 6 for all other candidates. This “dark horse”
Presidential candidate was a real surprise to
most people. The reasons for passing by the
three leading candidates mentioned above were
varied. Since each had a large following there
was bitter personal rivalry, and this made the
success of any one a matter of considerable
doubt. The chief concern of the leaders was
to placate the South and avoid the growth of
a purely sectional party. Accordingly, the
convention adopted a resolution pledging the party
to enforce the compromise of 1850. Pierce was
favorable to the institution of slavery, believing
that it was guaranteed by the Constitution,
and was thus considered a “safe man” by the
South. In the election which followed in
November, he received 1,601,474 popular votes
to 1,386,580 for Gen. Winfield Scott, the
Whig candidate, and at the meeting of the electoral
college 254 votes to 42 for Scott. All
of the States voted for Pierce excepting
Vermont, Massachusetts, Tennessee and Kentucky.
He was inaugurated 4 March 1853, and on
March 7 announced his Cabinet, namely,
William L. Marcy of New York, Secretary of
State; James Guthrie of Kentucky, Secretary
of the Treasury; Jefferson Davis of Mississippi,
Secretary of War; Robert McClelland
of Michigan, Secretary of the Interior; James
C. Dobbin of North Carolina, Secretary of the
Navy; James Campbell of Pennsylvania,
Postmaster-General, and Caleb Cushing of
Massachusetts, Attorney-General.

The election of Pierce may be considered
primarily as a verdict in favor of carrying out

the terms of the compromise of 1850 and the
policy of expansion.  In his first inaugural
address Pierce said:  “The policy of my administration
will not be controlled by any timid
forebodings of evil from expansion.” He also
declared that “our position on the globe renders
the acquisition of certain possessions not within
our jurisdiction eminently important for our
protection.” This doubtless referred to Cuba,
much desired by the southern expansionists for
additional slave territory. Pierce appointed
Pierre Soulé of Louisiana as Minister to Spain,
a man who had previously declared in open
senate his desire to annex Cuba to the United
States by some other method than by purchase.
In August 1854, Secretary of State Marcy
suggested that Soulé, James Buchanan, and John Y.
Mason, ministers respectively to Spain,
England and France, have “a full and free
interchange of views” in regard to the acquisition of
Cuba. The result was a meeting at Ostend,
where on 9 Oct. 1854 they drew up the famous
Ostend Manifesto, in which Spain was urged
to sell Cuba to the United States, and in case
of refusal the question should be considered
whether the interests of the United States were
endangered by Cuba remaining in the possession
of Spain. If answered in the affirmative,
then “by every law, human and divine, we shall
be justified in wresting it from Spain if we
possess the power.” The exact relation of
Pierce to this document is not fully known. It
was disavowed by Secretary of State Marcy in
the name of the President, but Pierce was held
as more or less responsible for the incident by
his enemies.

Moreover it was during the administration
of Pierce that William Walker carried out his
notorious filibustering expeditions in Central
America, for the purpose of setting up a
government under American rule favorable to
slavery. In June 1855 he entered Nicaragua
with a small force, captured Granada on 13
October, procured his election as President in
July 1856, and proclaimed Nicaragua a slave
State. His dominion was recognized by the
American minister resident, and Pierce received
Walker's envoy, though he had previously
issued proclamations warning the people against
armed expeditions to countries with whom the
United States was at peace. Ministers from
other Central American republics protested
against this violation of neutrality, but to no
purpose.

Pierce supported several other policies of
importance. He wished to expand American
commerce as rapidly as possible, first by
federal subsidies to shipping and second by opening
up new areas for trade. Commodore Perry
was sent to Japan to induce this nation to open
her ports to American trade and was successful
in his mission. Pierce also supported the plan
of linking California more closely with the rest
of the country by means of a transcontinental
railroad. The best route lay through territory,
a portion of which was in the possession of
Mexico. Accordingly James Gadsen was sent
to Mexico to purchase a strip of territory on
the southern border of New Mexico. He
secured a tract of some 50,000 square miles for
$10,000,000, which was known as the Gadsen
purchase. The railroad was planned largely to
benefit the economic development of the lower

South, and Congress voted the funds for the
survey of routes. Pierce advocated the building
of the railroad in his first annual message,
and handed over the work of seeing to the survey
to Jefferson Davis.

FRANKLIN PIERCE

Fourteenth President of the United States

Another policy was the opening up of the
Northwest to settlement. The platform of the
Democratic party declared that the party “will
resist all attempts at renewing, in Congress or
out of it, the agitation of the slavery question,
under whatever shape or color the attempt may
be made.” Pierce also, in his inaugural
address, advised against the reopening of the
slavery question. Nevertheless the conflict over
the extension of slavery into the territories was
the great event of his administration. The
occasion was the plan of Senator Douglas to
open up the great Northwest to settlement,
remove the Indians to reservations or to the
Southwest, connect Chicago with the Pacific
Northwest by a railroad, open the territory to
slavery and thereby become the next President
of the United States. The supremacy of the
Northwest was at stake and this was a plan to
checkmate the South for a Southern Pacific
railroad. Douglas won the support of the
Middle West, western Missouri, and powerful
interests in the South. This last because of a
promise that the Kansas-Nebraska bill should
contain a clause giving settlers the right to
determine for themselves whether they would
have slaves — the doctrine of popular
sovereignty. Thus the Missouri Compromise of 1820
prohibiting slavery in the Louisiana territory
north of 36° 30', except Missouri, would be
repealed. Pierce gave his support to this plan
and signed the bill. Thus he aided the South
in its desire for the extention of slavery into
the territories, although the most of the Northwest
would in the end naturally become free
territory. This action of Pierce wrecked his
administration. He immediately organized
Kansas and Nebraska as territories, and
supported the pro-slavery party in Kansas during
the remainder of his term of office, in an effort
to prevent the admission of Kansas as a free
State. Thus he helped make the Democratic
party of the North subservient to that of the
South, and supported the slave power in its
extreme demands for more slave territory. He
believed that this would satisfy the South and
thus disunion and civil war would be avoided.
He was under the influence of Jefferson Davis,
his Secretary of War, and this accounts, in part,
for his altitude on several important public
questions. After his retirement from the
presidency he traveled in Europe for three years,
returning home early in 1860. He was opposed
to the methods of the Abolitionists, but
supported the North when war broke out.

Pierce did not measure up to the standard
of most of the Presidents. He was not a
commanding figure in any field. He was honest in
his intentions as a conciliator of the two
sections, in his belief that the Constitution guaranteed
slavery as an institution, and that the way
to avoid civil war and disunion was to support
the South in this view. His strong leaning
toward the South, however, really had the effect
of promoting sectional strife and finally in
leading to civil war. He was an amiable, honest,
generous, modest, educated gentleman, but
lacked intellectual acumen and that idealism
necessary for great leadership. His chief stock

in trade was attention to legislative details,
fidelity to party, winning manners, and a
neutral compromising character which was a negative
rather than a positive and constructive
force. His last years were passed at his home
at Concord, N. H., beloved by his personal
friends but almost forgotten by his countrymen.

Bibliography. — There is no good life of
Pierce. The early biographies were published
for campaign purposes and do not cover his
term of office. Consult life by Bartlett, D. W.
(Auburn N. Y., 1852), and by Hawthorne,
Nathaniel (Boston 1852), both eulogistic
accounts; Ireland, J. R., ‘History of Life and
Administration and Times of Franklin Pierce’
(Chicago 1888), in Vol. XIV of his Republic.
See also Richardson, J. D., ‘Messages and
Papers of the Presidents’ (Washington 1897);
Leech, W. L., ‘Calendar of the Papers of
Franklin Pierce’ (Washington 1917). Some of
his correspondence is printed in American
Historical Review, Vol. X, 110-127, 350-370. The
best accounts of his administration are in
Schouler, James, ‘History of the United
States’ (New York 1894), Vol. V; Rhodes,
James Ford, ‘History of the United States
from the Compromise of 1850’ (Vols. I-II,
New York 1900); von Holst, Hermann,
‘Constitutional History of the United States’ (Vols.
IV and V, Chicago 1899).