Presidential Biographies: Franklin Pierce
Franklin Pierce's story is an unfortunate one in so many respects. Coming from a family with a privileged and politically pedigreed background (his father had been a state legislator and a veteran of the Revolutionary War), Franklin was an Andrew Jackson Democrat and became a successful lawyer. He was also a state legislator, and later served in the US House of Representatives and in the Senate. Although he was said to be a good-looking man (his nickname was "Handsome Frank"), Pierce was what was pejoratively referred to as a "doughface," a term for a northerner with southern sympathies. He professed to abhor slavery, but justified its existence as being necessary to preserve national unity. This quote from him sums up how many northern Democrats like him justified their position: "I consider slavery a social and political evil, and most sincerely wish that it had no existence upon the face of the earth." He went on to say, "One thing must be perfectly apparent to every intelligent man. This abolition movement must be crushed or there is an end to the Union."
He left politics to fight in the Mexican War, rising to the rank of Brigadier-General. He was hurt when his horse tripped and fell on him, injuring his knee. After the war he returned to his native New Hampshire, and in 1852 he was a surprising selection as the Democratic candidate for President, winning the nomination on the 49th ballot after the two front-runners (Lewis Cass and James Buchanan) failed to capture enough support. He won the presidential election that year, defeating his former commander during the War, Winfield Scott, in a campaign in which Pierce fended off personal attacks and allegations of cowardice and drunkenness. The former was likely untrue; the latter is a different story.
When he won the election, Pierce's problems really began. He and his wife Jane had three sons, and two had already died in infancy. His third son, Benny, was killed in a tragic and freakish train accident as the family was on route to Pierce's inauguration. The train derailed and went down a hill and Benny was decapitated in the wreckage. Pierce's wife Jane was devastated, as any mother would be. Not only had her last child died in infancy, but she saw this as God's punishment for her husband's vanity in running for President. She fell into a deep depression and her husband's drinking increased. Pierce was so angry at his creator that he took the oath of office of the Presidency not on a bible, but on a law book.
Things continued to go badly for Pierce. His popularity plummeted in the Northern states after he supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act's passage led to a very violent conflict over the expansion of slavery into the west. Pierce's administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto calling for the annexation of Cuba, taking it by war if necessary. Pierce expected the Democrats to renominate him in the 1856 presidential election, but they abandoned him and his bid failed. His reputation in the North suffered further during the American Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Lincoln and continued his correspondence with his friend Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President. After leaving office Pierce travelled abroad. His drinking got worse and in 1869 he died from cirrhosis of the liver.
All of that ought to give plenty of fodder for historians to write about, and it has. The first notable biography of Pierce was written in 1852 during his presidential campaign by his good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of the classic The Scarlet Letter), called The Life of Franklin Pierce. The most famous (and probably the most thorough) biography of Pierce is a two volume set by Peter Wallner. Volume one, published in 2004, is called Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire's Favorite Son, and volume two, published three years later in 2007, is called Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union. As the titles imply, the problem with this account of Pierce's life is that it sees Pierce as some sort of tragic hero, rather than calling him out for his unprincipled position on slavery.
Roy Nicholls wrote the Signature Series biography of Pierce, published in 1993, called Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills. This is probably the best biography of Pierce because, while it is sympathetic to Pierce's personal problems, it is critical of Pierce for his failures as a President and his obliviousness to the conflict over slavery.
Gary Boulliard's 2006 book The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce is another book that portrays Pierce in a sympathetic light and as someone unafraid to swim upstream politically, while at the same time being critical of Abraham Lincoln for his abridgement of civil rights during the war. Boulliard doesn't really address the elephant in the room, Pierce's enabling of slavery's continuation.
Larry Gara has written the University of Kansas Press series book on The Presidency of Franklin Pierce, published in 1991, maintaining the high quality that we have come to expect from this series.
Though not specifically about Pierce, the 2013 book Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border, edited by Jonathan Earle and Dianne Mutti Burke, contain a series of essays that examines this crisis from a number of aspects and points of view.
One interesting work of fiction about Pierce that is worthy of note is Eric Hamilton's 2015 novella Death of a Vice-President. Pierce's Vice-President Rufus King (rumored to be the lover of James Buchanan) died shortly after being sworn into office. King was attempting to fight his illness while in Cuba, where he took the oath of office (the only President or Vice President to be sworn into office while not on American soil.) In Hamilton's version, King returns to Washington to warn Pierce of a plot to murder him, before being murdered himself. It's a fun version of alternate history.
This is the extent of the Pierce books in the potus_geeks library. Poor Franklin Pierce. Even in fiction someone wanted to kill him. It's difficult to reconcile whether Pierce was an independent thinker or a people pleaser, and to what extent his drinking clouded his judgement. Whatever the case may be, his life was truly a tragic one.
He left politics to fight in the Mexican War, rising to the rank of Brigadier-General. He was hurt when his horse tripped and fell on him, injuring his knee. After the war he returned to his native New Hampshire, and in 1852 he was a surprising selection as the Democratic candidate for President, winning the nomination on the 49th ballot after the two front-runners (Lewis Cass and James Buchanan) failed to capture enough support. He won the presidential election that year, defeating his former commander during the War, Winfield Scott, in a campaign in which Pierce fended off personal attacks and allegations of cowardice and drunkenness. The former was likely untrue; the latter is a different story.
When he won the election, Pierce's problems really began. He and his wife Jane had three sons, and two had already died in infancy. His third son, Benny, was killed in a tragic and freakish train accident as the family was on route to Pierce's inauguration. The train derailed and went down a hill and Benny was decapitated in the wreckage. Pierce's wife Jane was devastated, as any mother would be. Not only had her last child died in infancy, but she saw this as God's punishment for her husband's vanity in running for President. She fell into a deep depression and her husband's drinking increased. Pierce was so angry at his creator that he took the oath of office of the Presidency not on a bible, but on a law book.
Things continued to go badly for Pierce. His popularity plummeted in the Northern states after he supported the Kansas-Nebraska Act. The act's passage led to a very violent conflict over the expansion of slavery into the west. Pierce's administration was further damaged when several of his diplomats issued the Ostend Manifesto calling for the annexation of Cuba, taking it by war if necessary. Pierce expected the Democrats to renominate him in the 1856 presidential election, but they abandoned him and his bid failed. His reputation in the North suffered further during the American Civil War as he became a vocal critic of President Lincoln and continued his correspondence with his friend Jefferson Davis, the Confederate President. After leaving office Pierce travelled abroad. His drinking got worse and in 1869 he died from cirrhosis of the liver.
All of that ought to give plenty of fodder for historians to write about, and it has. The first notable biography of Pierce was written in 1852 during his presidential campaign by his good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne (author of the classic The Scarlet Letter), called The Life of Franklin Pierce. The most famous (and probably the most thorough) biography of Pierce is a two volume set by Peter Wallner. Volume one, published in 2004, is called Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire's Favorite Son, and volume two, published three years later in 2007, is called Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union. As the titles imply, the problem with this account of Pierce's life is that it sees Pierce as some sort of tragic hero, rather than calling him out for his unprincipled position on slavery.
Roy Nicholls wrote the Signature Series biography of Pierce, published in 1993, called Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills. This is probably the best biography of Pierce because, while it is sympathetic to Pierce's personal problems, it is critical of Pierce for his failures as a President and his obliviousness to the conflict over slavery.
Gary Boulliard's 2006 book The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce is another book that portrays Pierce in a sympathetic light and as someone unafraid to swim upstream politically, while at the same time being critical of Abraham Lincoln for his abridgement of civil rights during the war. Boulliard doesn't really address the elephant in the room, Pierce's enabling of slavery's continuation.
Larry Gara has written the University of Kansas Press series book on The Presidency of Franklin Pierce, published in 1991, maintaining the high quality that we have come to expect from this series.
Though not specifically about Pierce, the 2013 book Bleeding Kansas, Bleeding Missouri: The Long Civil War on the Border, edited by Jonathan Earle and Dianne Mutti Burke, contain a series of essays that examines this crisis from a number of aspects and points of view.
One interesting work of fiction about Pierce that is worthy of note is Eric Hamilton's 2015 novella Death of a Vice-President. Pierce's Vice-President Rufus King (rumored to be the lover of James Buchanan) died shortly after being sworn into office. King was attempting to fight his illness while in Cuba, where he took the oath of office (the only President or Vice President to be sworn into office while not on American soil.) In Hamilton's version, King returns to Washington to warn Pierce of a plot to murder him, before being murdered himself. It's a fun version of alternate history.
This is the extent of the Pierce books in the potus_geeks library. Poor Franklin Pierce. Even in fiction someone wanted to kill him. It's difficult to reconcile whether Pierce was an independent thinker or a people pleaser, and to what extent his drinking clouded his judgement. Whatever the case may be, his life was truly a tragic one.