The Basic Pierce Facts
Franklin Pierce (1804-69), Democrat from New Hampshire, was a dark horse nominee, elected President in 1852. It took 49 Ballots to put him on the ballot, which was an exhausting exercise for the convention attendees. Few people knew who he was. He had been off the political radar for eight years.
He was a good-looking fellow, with an outgoing genial personality. As a graduate of Bowdoin College in Maine, Pierce read law and gravitated to politics. He was a natural, since he made friends and acquaintances easily, happily bending an elbow with them at the local taverns. When he met pretty-but-frail Jane Appleton (1806-63), whose minister-father had been President of Bowdoin, he pursued mildly – but her family were unsupportive. Particularly the “bent elbow” part. Nevertheless, with Jane approaching spinsterhood (age 28), they married. By that time FP had been elected to Congress.
Jane was one of those wives who had extraordinary influence with her husband – but not all influence is good influence, despite her pious morals. Her distaste for politics was a wedge that separated her husband from the career he enjoyed, and the friends he treasured. Her antipathy toward alcohol afforded him little relief from the heavy moral pall of their homelife. When all three of their children died before they were twelve, Jane sank into a depression and never really recovered.
The Pierce Presidency was notable only for his somber social gatherings and his sympathetic attitudes toward the South. While he was always personally against slavery, he waffled on its Constitutionality.
And he did drink. After Jane Pierce died, he was said to be continually drunk.
And in this, our historically-challenged century, is likely all most people know about good ol’ Franklin Pierce.
A Personal Note…
In 2002 or 3, we made a trip to New England, particularly to visit some Presidential sites we had never seen. Concord NH was on the list.
When we visited a house in Concord connected with the Pierces and discovered a modest dwelling whose docents were thrilled to see us. Not many visitors came there – let alone someone with a real, serious interest.
On a side table, there was a group of photographs, which, we were told, had been taken by a young schoolboy. He had discovered the unkempt and overgrown gravesite of the 14th President, and decided to make it his project for a scouting badge. He spent several hours weeding and tending, replanting and tidying up the grave. He donated the before-and-after photos to the Pierce site. It was heart warming, and I never forgot it! Then there was the little book….
About the Same Time…
The eighth grade class at the Kenneth A. Brett school in tiny Tamworth, NH, took a class field trip to Salem, MA, home of the legendary House of Seven Gables. Their teacher had recalled that author Nathaniel Hawthorne, pal of Emerson and Thoreau, and a bona fide giant of 19th century American literature, had a strong connection to New Hampshire’s only President – Franklin Pierce. They had been classmates at Bowdoin, and remained close personal friends for the rest of their lives.
In fact, when generally forgotten ex-Congressman and Senator Franklin Pierce became the Democratic presidential nominee in 1852, Hawthorne (by that time well-known and highly regarded) was asked to write Pierce’s campaign biography. It was originally published by Ticknor, Reed and Fields, with an edition of less than 13,000 copies, mostly in paper wrappers. They are considered the rarest of all Hawthorne publications.
When social studies teacher Brian Wiggin tried to find a copy of the rare biography, there was none to be had in their library, and the state library offered to make a photocopy of the only copy they had.
Inspired by Wiggin, the class decided to reprint their own edition of Hawthorne’s least-known book, using Boxtops for Education, a project sponsored by more than 80 brand name products from Cheerios to Lysol spray. It was a major undertaking by 32 eighth graders – who not only learned more about Franklin Pierce and Nathaniel Hawthorne, but about the publishing process itself. This also included researching for various little known images of the 14th President, his family members and cabinet, and related items of interest. By the time the slim (100 pages) volume was re-published, the eighth grade students knew more about Franklin Pierce than about any other president.
His “notable” accomplishments were generally superficial… memorizing his inaugural address (no notes); keeping his cabinet intact for the full four years; displaying the first Christmas Tree (in the private family quarters). He was President when Commodore Perry opened trade with Japan. He was also President when the Kansas-Nebraska Act began wreaking havoc in the Midwest.
Perhaps more than anything, Franklin Pierce was a sad man, whose historical reputation is less than stellar. He suffered loss and tragedy in his personal life, and lived to see the country split by slavery – which included a sorrowful parting from another close friend, Jefferson Davis, who had been his Secretary of War.
Epilogue:
The eighth graders who resuscitated the Nathaniel Hawthorne campaign biography of Franklin Pierce are all grown men and women now, approaching middle age, and possibly with eighth graders of their own. They had a uniquely edifying opportunity and experience in working with the material, learning as they went….about writing, about understanding archaic language, about long-ago history, about substantive essays, about researching illustrations, about indexing – and about the publication industry as a whole.
Kudos to all! There are so many lessons here to be learned. Especially the joy of hands-on history!
Sources:
Hawthorne, Nathaniel – The Life of Franklin Pierce (reprint) – Peter E. Randall, Publisher, 2000
Wallner, Peter A. (2004). Franklin Pierce: New Hampshire’s Favorite Son. Plaidswede.
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