14th President Of The United States (1853-1857), Pierce, Franklin.

14th President Of The United States (1853-1857),
Pierce, Franklin (1804-1869), 14th president of the United States (1853-1857). He came to office in the decade before the Civil War. Although his roots and home were in the Northern, largely antislavery, state of New Hampshire, Pierce sided with the South on the slavery issue. His position on this issue caused him, in the words of a friend, “to immolate himself on the altar of slavery.” Yet Pierce was devoted to the federal Union of the states, his chief aim being to uphold the Constitution of the United States as a sacred and therefore unchangeable document and to avoid civil war at all costs. Although he was a weak, but well-meaning and honest, man with a social nature, few presidents have led so tragic a personal life or have left office so publicly hated and discredited. However, it is uncertain that even a president of superior ability could have dealt effectively with the great problems of the pre-Civil War era.

II  EARLY LIFE,

Pierce was born in 1804 of pioneer stock, his ancestors having settled at Charlestown, Massachusetts, in the 1630s during the great Puritan migration from England. He was the second son of Anna Kendrick Pierce and Benjamin Pierce, who was a militia general, a veteran of the American Revolution (1775-1783), and, at the time of Pierce's birth, a passionate Jeffersonian Democrat. Benjamin Pierce exerted great influence on his son, imbuing him with his own devotion to public service and sense of patriotism.

Pierce was educated at the local Hillsborough school until the age of 12 and prepared for college at academies in Hancock and Francestown, New Hampshire. Franklin's older brother was at Dartmouth College, but General Pierce disagreed with the political philosophy at Dartmouth and sent Franklin to the newer Bowdoin College at Brunswick, Maine. When he entered Bowdoin, Pierce was a sociable and friendly 15-year-old. He quickly made friends, among them future American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, who was to be his friend for life.

Pierce graduated from Bowdoin in 1824 and the following year entered the law office of Levi Woodbury in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. In 1826 he transferred to a law school in Northampton, Massachusetts, and completed his studies with Judge Edmund Parker at Amherst, New Hampshire. Pierce proved to have a keen aptitude for the law.

III  EARLY CAREER,

In 1827 Pierce's father ran successfully for governor of New Hampshire. The same year, Franklin was admitted to the practice of law. It was inevitable that, as the governor's son, he should be drawn into politics. In 1828 he was elected moderator of the Hillsborough convention, one of five county conventions called to nominate members of the five-man governor's council. He served as moderator for six successive years.

In 1829 when his father was elected governor for the second time, Pierce was elected to the New Hampshire legislature. He was twice reelected and was speaker of the house in 1831 and 1832. In 1833, at the age of 29, he was elected to the Congress of the United States as representative from Hillsborough.