Franklin Pierce came to the Presidency following great personal tragedy.

Franklin Pierce: The Tragedy

Only weeks before Franklin Pierce (D-NH) was inaugurated in 1853, he took his wife and their eleven-year-old son to visit family in Massachusetts. En route, their train derailed, and little Bennie was killed. The parents were plunged into devastating grief over their last remaining son. Two other little boys had died years earlier.

Jane Pierce and her son Bennie.

Naturally the tragic event was carried in all the newspapers, including those in Springfield, Illinois. No doubt it was seen by a lawyer and ex-Congressman. Having recently lost a three-year-old son of their own, Abraham and Mary Lincoln surely were sympathetic.

Franklin Pierce: New President and Friend

Franklin Pierce (1802-1869) was a very dark horse. His name was not even mentioned at the Democratic convention in June, 1852 until the 48th Ballot. “Franklin Who?” was the general consensus – but by then, everyone was hot and exhausted.

Pierce had been a well-liked Congressman and Senator, but that had been more than a decade earlier. By 1852 he was all but forgotten by most of the political world – at least those outside of New Hampshire.

One of the friends he had made some years earlier, was Mississippian Jefferson Davis, and they had stayed in regular touch. When Pierce won the election, he asked his old friend to join his cabinet. Davis declined.

After the tragedy of his son’s death, and the total incapacity of his devastated wife, Pierce reached out to Davis again, this time begging him to accept the position of Secretary of War. He said he needed “a friend” close by. Someone he could talk to in confidence.

Davis accepted and became Secretary of War, and the good friend Pierce needed.

Franklin Pierce: Politics Thereafter

Pierce’s presidency was less than a whopping success, and far from happy. He was disappointed at being overlooked for his party’s nomination in 1856, but relieved to  leave what had become an oppressive and depressive situation.

He had hoped that Jefferson Davis would be considered for the Democratic nomination, believing him eminently qualified. But they both knew that in the volatile 1850s, no one from the Deep South could be nominated – or elected.

Franklin Pierce, 14th President.

Instead, the aging James Buchanan of Pennsylvania was nominated. Shortlisted for the presidency for a dozen years, Buchanan been Pierce’s Ambassador to Great Britain. Being out of the country and thus out of the fray no doubt made the 65-year-old Buchanan more viable. He was elected.

The Pierces, now free of responsibilities, went to Europe for a few years. They had hoped a change of scenery might benefit his permanently despondent wife. It did not. When they returned to New Hampshire, they boarded.

Pierce maintained his interest in partisan politics, happy to share his increasing opposition to the Republicans – especially Lincoln – with anyone who would listen.

Few listened. He was perceived as a cranky old man, and a very heavy drinker.

FP: The First Moment of Grace

It was no secret that Pierce was adamantly opposed to Abraham Lincoln’s politics and policies.

Willie Lincoln was eleven, the same age Bennie Pierce when he died.

Nevertheless, in early 1862, nearly a decade after Pierce’s tragic inaugural, an incident occurred that bound the two men together. Eleven-year-old Willie Lincoln contracted typhoid fever and died. President and Mrs. Lincoln were thrust into deep mourning.

Of course it was reported in all the newspapers, even in Concord, New Hampshire, where the Pierces were again consumed by sad memories. Pierce’s disdain for Lincoln was strictly political and he knew first hand the pressures the President was under.

The sixteenth President.  Franklin Pierce was not a fan.

Some weeks later, Abraham Lincoln received a personal letter from his predecessor.

My dear Sir,

The impulse to write you, the moment I heard of your great domestic affliction was very strong, but it brought back the crushing sorrow that befell me just before I went to Washington in 1853, with such power that I felt your grief, to be too sacred for intrusion…

Even in this hour… your thoughts, will be, of your cherished boy… until you meet him in that new life, when tears and toils and conflict will be unknown.

I realize fully how vain it would be, to suggest sources of consolation….

With Mrs. Pierce’s and my own best wishes – and truest sympathy for Mrs. Lincoln and yourself

I am very truly, yr. friend,
Franklin Pierce

The likelihood that Lincoln wrote a graceful response to Pierce’s heartfelt condolence letter is strong; but it has never surfaced.

FP: A Second Moment of Grace

Franklin Pierce’s post-presidential years were lonely and unkind, especially to a man who had always enjoyed camaraderie. The permanent melancholy of Jane Pierce did not help. She died in 1863.

Jefferson Davis was one of Pierce’s closest friends.

The Civil War estranged him from many of his old Southern friends, including Davis, now Confederate President. Their correspondence was curtailed. While their affection remained strong, the proximity and ability to communicate was severed.

In April, 1865, the Union euphoria at the end of the Civil War was abruptly changed by the assassination of Lincoln. The mood of the country was ominous and ugly. Jefferson Davis was first on the list of those expected to hang. He was caught, arrested and taken to Fortress Monroe, near Norfolk, Virginia, ostensibly to await trial. He remained imprisoned for two years.

Former President Pierce no longer had any political clout. Nobody was listening to him, especially since rumor had it, he was generally depressed and perpetually drunk. Nevertheless, Pierce made the long trip down the Chesapeake to visit his old friend and offer his sympathies and whatever remnants of prestige the ex-president had.

The substance of their conversation has never been documented, but it is inconceivable that the gesture of sincere personal friendship was not deeply felt. By both of them.

Sources:

Anthony, Carl Sferrazza – America’s First Families – Touchstone Books, 2000

Nichols, Roy Franklin – Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills – University of Pennsylvania Press, 1959 (revised)

Shenkman Richard, Presidential Ambition: Gaining Power at Any Cost, Harper, 1999

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