The First 100 Days: Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce was yet another "dark horse" candidate selected by the Democratic party at a time when the party was severely factionalized over the issue of slavery and when the party's nominee needed to receive the votes of at least two-thirds of the delegates at the convention. He was selected as his party's candidate because better known politicians like Stephen Douglas, James Buchanan and Lewis Cass could not attract sufficient support. Pierce was yet another compromise candidate in the manner of James K. Polk. During the election campaign his opponent from the Whig Party was his old commander in the Mexican War, Winfield Scott. The Whigs attempted to sling mud at Pierce, with allegations of cowardice and excessive drinking. (The pejoratively called him "the hero of many a well-fought bottle"). Pierce kept a low profile so as not to upset his party's delicate unity. He did no personal campaigning. The Whigs failed to offer Scott much support and in the end Scott won only Kentucky, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Vermont, finishing with 42 electoral votes to Pierce's 254. With 3.2 million votes cast, Pierce won the popular vote by a margin of 50.9 to 44.1 percent. The Democrats took large majorities in Congress.
But Pierce began his presidency on a very dark note. On January 6, 1853, just weeks after his election, Pierce and his family were traveling from Boston by train when their car derailed and rolled down an embankment near Andover, Massachusetts. Pierce and his wife Jane survived, but in the wreckage found their only remaining son, 11-year-old Benjamin, crushed to death. Pierce was not able to hide the gruesome sight from his wife and they both were devastated and suffered severe depression afterward. Jane Pierce saw the train accident as some sort of divine punishment for her husband's vain pursuit and acceptance of high office. She did not attend her husband's inauguration.
Pierce, who was the youngest man to be elected president to that point, chose to affirm his oath of office on a law book rather than swear it on a Bible (something John Quincy Adams had also done). He was also the first president to deliver his inaugural address from memory. In his address he expressed his goal to continue the era of peace and prosperity that existed and called for a vigorous assertion of U.S. interests in its foreign relations, including what he called the "eminently important" acquisition of new territories. He said: "The policy of my Administration will not be deterred by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." He was acutely aware that the issue of slavery was highly contentious, but he refused to utter the word in his address, stating that he wanted to put what he called the "important subject" to rest and to maintain a peaceful union. He also referenced his own personal tragedy, telling the crowd, "You have summoned me in my weakness, you must sustain me by your strength."
Pierce knew how to select a cabinet. He is the only president who served a full term in office that had the same members of his cabinet throughout his term in office. Pierce wanted to unite the party by appointing Democrats from all factions, including those that had not supported the Compromise of 1850. As Attorney General he chose Caleb Cushing, a pro-compromise northerner, and as Secretary of War he selected Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis, who had led Southern resistance to the compromise in the Senate. For the key position of Secretary of State, Pierce chose William L. Marcy, who had served as Secretary of War under President Polk. To appease the Cass and Buchanan wings of the party, Pierce appointed Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland of Michigan and Postmaster General James Campbell of Pennsylvania. All of Pierce's cabinet nominations were confirmed unanimously and immediately by the Senate.
Pierce's running mate was William Rufus King of Alabama. King became severely ill with tuberculosis, and after the election he went to Cuba to recuperate. His condition worsened, and Congress passed a special law, allowing him to be take the oath of office as Vice-President before the American consul in Havana on March 24. King wanted to die at home, and he returned to his plantation in Alabama on April 17 and died there on the following day. The office of vice president remained vacant for the remainder of Pierce's term, as the Constitution then had no provision for filling it intra-term (and this would not change until the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967). The President pro tempore of the Senate, David Atchison of Missouri, was next in line for the presidency.
Pierce was a fiscal conservative and was opposed to federally-funded internal improvements. The first bill he vetoed was one which would have provided funding for mental asylums, a cause championed by reformer Dorothea Dix. In his veto message, Pierce stated, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States." Pierce was also opposed to federal funding for the completion of a transcontinental railroad. Pierce also called for advocated for a lowering of the Walker tariff, but was unsuccessful in this effort.
Treasury Secretary James Guthrie was tasked by his president with reforming the Treasury, which had been poorly managed. Guthrie increased oversight of Treasury employees and tariff collectors, many of whom were withholding money from the government. Despite laws requiring funds to be held in the Treasury, large deposits remained in private banks under the Whig administrations. Guthrie reclaimed these funds and launched prosecutions against corrupt officials, with mixed success.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, at Pierce's request, led surveys with the Corps of Topographical Engineers of possible transcontinental railroad routes throughout the country. Pierce was against federal appropriations for internal improvements, but Davis felt that such a project could be justified as a Constitutional national security objective. Davis persuaded Pierce to send railroad executive James Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a potential railroad. Gadsden was also charged with re-negotiating the provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which required the U.S. to prevent Native American raids into Mexico from New Mexico Territory. By the end of Pierce's first year in office, Gadsden negotiated a treaty with Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna in December 1853, purchasing a large swath of land to America's southwest. Congress ultimately reduced the amount of land purchased and adjusted the purchase price from $15 million to $10 million.
As as Secretary of State, William Marcy wanted to present a distinctively American, republican image to the world. He issued a circular directing that U.S. diplomats wear "the simple dress of an American citizen" instead of the elaborate diplomatic uniforms worn in the courts of Europe, and that they only hire American citizens to work in consulates. March also began negotiations on a trade reciprocity agreement with British minister to Washington, John Crampton. This led to a treaty the following year which reduced the need for aggressive British naval patrols in Canadian waters.
The issue that most tarnished the Pierce administration became known as "Bleeding Kansas". In his inaugural address, Pierce expressed hope that the Compromise of 1850 would end the issue of slavery in the territories. The compromise had allowed slavery in Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory, which had been acquired in the Mexican-American War. The Missouri Compromise banned slavery in territories north of the 36°30′ parallel, and allowed it to remain in place for the other U.S. territories, including the vast unorganized territory consisting of much of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. As settlers poured into the area where present day Nebraska and Kansas are located, and as commercial and political interests called for a transcontinental railroad through the region, pressure mounted for the organization of the eastern parts of the unorganized territory. But the issue of slavery would complicate matters.
Organizing the territory was necessary for settlement so that the land could be surveyed and put up for sale. This required that a territorial government be set up. Those in Congress from slave states felt that slavery should be able to expand into territories, while many Northerners were against any such expansion. Senator Stephen Douglas led the movement to organize the territory. He wanted the local settlers to decide whether to allow slavery. This would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, as most of land in question was north of the 36°30′ parallel. Two new territories were to be created. The Kansas Territory would be located to the west of Missouri, while the Nebraska Territory would be located north of Kansas Territory. His expectation was that the people of the Nebraska Territory would not allow slavery, while the people of the Kansas territory would.
Pierce was skeptical of the bill proposed by Douglas. He knew that it would result in bitter opposition from the North. Douglas and Davis convinced him to support the bill. The bill was tenaciously opposed by northerners such as Ohio Senator Salmon P. Chase and Massachusetts' Charles Sumner, who rallied public sentiment in the North against the bill. The result was a political firestorm that damaged Pierce's presidency.
Eventually the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in May 1854. Intense political turmoil followed its passage. While the act was being debated, settlers on both sides of the slavery issue poured into the territories so as to influence the outcome of the voting. The passage of the act resulted in so much violence between groups that the territory became known as Bleeding Kansas. Thousands of pro-slavery Border Ruffians came across from Missouri to vote in the territorial elections although they were not resident in Kansas, giving that element the victory. Pierce supported the outcome despite the irregularities. When Free-Staters set up a shadow government, and drafted the Topeka Constitution, Pierce called their work an act of rebellion. He continued to recognize the pro-slavery legislature, even after a Congressional investigative committee found its election to have been illegitimate. He even dispatched federal troops to break up a meeting of the Topeka government.
Pierce was not renominated by his party. Dealing with his own personal grief, and with the political strife in Congress, Pierce began to drink heavily. He was not renominated by his party. He lived to see the beginning and the end of the Civil War, before cirrhosis of the liver claimed his life on October 8, 1869.
But Pierce began his presidency on a very dark note. On January 6, 1853, just weeks after his election, Pierce and his family were traveling from Boston by train when their car derailed and rolled down an embankment near Andover, Massachusetts. Pierce and his wife Jane survived, but in the wreckage found their only remaining son, 11-year-old Benjamin, crushed to death. Pierce was not able to hide the gruesome sight from his wife and they both were devastated and suffered severe depression afterward. Jane Pierce saw the train accident as some sort of divine punishment for her husband's vain pursuit and acceptance of high office. She did not attend her husband's inauguration.
Pierce, who was the youngest man to be elected president to that point, chose to affirm his oath of office on a law book rather than swear it on a Bible (something John Quincy Adams had also done). He was also the first president to deliver his inaugural address from memory. In his address he expressed his goal to continue the era of peace and prosperity that existed and called for a vigorous assertion of U.S. interests in its foreign relations, including what he called the "eminently important" acquisition of new territories. He said: "The policy of my Administration will not be deterred by any timid forebodings of evil from expansion." He was acutely aware that the issue of slavery was highly contentious, but he refused to utter the word in his address, stating that he wanted to put what he called the "important subject" to rest and to maintain a peaceful union. He also referenced his own personal tragedy, telling the crowd, "You have summoned me in my weakness, you must sustain me by your strength."
Pierce knew how to select a cabinet. He is the only president who served a full term in office that had the same members of his cabinet throughout his term in office. Pierce wanted to unite the party by appointing Democrats from all factions, including those that had not supported the Compromise of 1850. As Attorney General he chose Caleb Cushing, a pro-compromise northerner, and as Secretary of War he selected Mississippi Senator Jefferson Davis, who had led Southern resistance to the compromise in the Senate. For the key position of Secretary of State, Pierce chose William L. Marcy, who had served as Secretary of War under President Polk. To appease the Cass and Buchanan wings of the party, Pierce appointed Secretary of the Interior Robert McClelland of Michigan and Postmaster General James Campbell of Pennsylvania. All of Pierce's cabinet nominations were confirmed unanimously and immediately by the Senate.
Pierce's running mate was William Rufus King of Alabama. King became severely ill with tuberculosis, and after the election he went to Cuba to recuperate. His condition worsened, and Congress passed a special law, allowing him to be take the oath of office as Vice-President before the American consul in Havana on March 24. King wanted to die at home, and he returned to his plantation in Alabama on April 17 and died there on the following day. The office of vice president remained vacant for the remainder of Pierce's term, as the Constitution then had no provision for filling it intra-term (and this would not change until the ratification of the Twenty-fifth Amendment in 1967). The President pro tempore of the Senate, David Atchison of Missouri, was next in line for the presidency.
Pierce was a fiscal conservative and was opposed to federally-funded internal improvements. The first bill he vetoed was one which would have provided funding for mental asylums, a cause championed by reformer Dorothea Dix. In his veto message, Pierce stated, "I cannot find any authority in the Constitution for making the Federal Government the great almoner of public charity throughout the United States." Pierce was also opposed to federal funding for the completion of a transcontinental railroad. Pierce also called for advocated for a lowering of the Walker tariff, but was unsuccessful in this effort.
Treasury Secretary James Guthrie was tasked by his president with reforming the Treasury, which had been poorly managed. Guthrie increased oversight of Treasury employees and tariff collectors, many of whom were withholding money from the government. Despite laws requiring funds to be held in the Treasury, large deposits remained in private banks under the Whig administrations. Guthrie reclaimed these funds and launched prosecutions against corrupt officials, with mixed success.
Secretary of War Jefferson Davis, at Pierce's request, led surveys with the Corps of Topographical Engineers of possible transcontinental railroad routes throughout the country. Pierce was against federal appropriations for internal improvements, but Davis felt that such a project could be justified as a Constitutional national security objective. Davis persuaded Pierce to send railroad executive James Gadsden to Mexico to buy land for a potential railroad. Gadsden was also charged with re-negotiating the provisions of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo which required the U.S. to prevent Native American raids into Mexico from New Mexico Territory. By the end of Pierce's first year in office, Gadsden negotiated a treaty with Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna in December 1853, purchasing a large swath of land to America's southwest. Congress ultimately reduced the amount of land purchased and adjusted the purchase price from $15 million to $10 million.
As as Secretary of State, William Marcy wanted to present a distinctively American, republican image to the world. He issued a circular directing that U.S. diplomats wear "the simple dress of an American citizen" instead of the elaborate diplomatic uniforms worn in the courts of Europe, and that they only hire American citizens to work in consulates. March also began negotiations on a trade reciprocity agreement with British minister to Washington, John Crampton. This led to a treaty the following year which reduced the need for aggressive British naval patrols in Canadian waters.
The issue that most tarnished the Pierce administration became known as "Bleeding Kansas". In his inaugural address, Pierce expressed hope that the Compromise of 1850 would end the issue of slavery in the territories. The compromise had allowed slavery in Utah Territory and New Mexico Territory, which had been acquired in the Mexican-American War. The Missouri Compromise banned slavery in territories north of the 36°30′ parallel, and allowed it to remain in place for the other U.S. territories, including the vast unorganized territory consisting of much of the land acquired in the Louisiana Purchase. As settlers poured into the area where present day Nebraska and Kansas are located, and as commercial and political interests called for a transcontinental railroad through the region, pressure mounted for the organization of the eastern parts of the unorganized territory. But the issue of slavery would complicate matters.
Organizing the territory was necessary for settlement so that the land could be surveyed and put up for sale. This required that a territorial government be set up. Those in Congress from slave states felt that slavery should be able to expand into territories, while many Northerners were against any such expansion. Senator Stephen Douglas led the movement to organize the territory. He wanted the local settlers to decide whether to allow slavery. This would repeal the Missouri Compromise of 1820, as most of land in question was north of the 36°30′ parallel. Two new territories were to be created. The Kansas Territory would be located to the west of Missouri, while the Nebraska Territory would be located north of Kansas Territory. His expectation was that the people of the Nebraska Territory would not allow slavery, while the people of the Kansas territory would.
Pierce was skeptical of the bill proposed by Douglas. He knew that it would result in bitter opposition from the North. Douglas and Davis convinced him to support the bill. The bill was tenaciously opposed by northerners such as Ohio Senator Salmon P. Chase and Massachusetts' Charles Sumner, who rallied public sentiment in the North against the bill. The result was a political firestorm that damaged Pierce's presidency.
Eventually the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in May 1854. Intense political turmoil followed its passage. While the act was being debated, settlers on both sides of the slavery issue poured into the territories so as to influence the outcome of the voting. The passage of the act resulted in so much violence between groups that the territory became known as Bleeding Kansas. Thousands of pro-slavery Border Ruffians came across from Missouri to vote in the territorial elections although they were not resident in Kansas, giving that element the victory. Pierce supported the outcome despite the irregularities. When Free-Staters set up a shadow government, and drafted the Topeka Constitution, Pierce called their work an act of rebellion. He continued to recognize the pro-slavery legislature, even after a Congressional investigative committee found its election to have been illegitimate. He even dispatched federal troops to break up a meeting of the Topeka government.
Pierce was not renominated by his party. Dealing with his own personal grief, and with the political strife in Congress, Pierce began to drink heavily. He was not renominated by his party. He lived to see the beginning and the end of the Civil War, before cirrhosis of the liver claimed his life on October 8, 1869.