Franklin Pierce - President of the United States from 1853-57. The 14th head of state failed to effectively address the slavery controversy in the decade leading up to the 1861-65 US Civil War
Early life and career
Born 1804-23-11 in Hillsborough, New Hampshire, USA. His parents were Anna Kendrick and New Hampshire Governor Pierce Benjamin. Franklin Pierce attended Bowdoin College in Maine, studied law in Northampton, Massachusetts, and received his law degree in 1827. In 1834 he married Jane Appleton, whose father was President of Bowdeen and a prominent Whig. The couple had three sons who died in childhood.
Piers Franklin entered New Hampshire politics as a Democrat and served in the State Legislature (1829-33), the US House of Representatives (1833-37) and the Senate (1837-42). Handsome, suave, charming, with a glitz, Pierce found many friends in Congress, but his career was otherwise unremarkable. He was a devoted supporter of President Andrew Jackson, but he was constantly overshadowed by older and more prominent political figures. Retiring fromSenate for personal reasons, he returned to Concord, where he resumed his law practice and also served as District Attorney.
Presidential nomination
With the exception of a brief service as an officer during the Mexican-American War (1846-48), Pierce remained out of the public eye until the 1852 Democratic National Convention. Following a stalemate among supporters of leading presidential contenders Lewis Kesas, Stephen Douglas and James Buchanan, a coalition of New England and Southern delegates proposed Young Hickory (Andrew Jackson was known as Old Hickory) and Pierce Franklin was nominated in the 49th National Convention election. Democratic Party of 1852. The ongoing presidential campaign was dominated by controversy over slavery and the 1850 Compromise. Although both the Democrats and the Whigs declared themselves to be his supporters, the former proved to be more organized.
Franklin Pierce - President
As a result, the almost nationally unknown candidate unexpectedly won the November election, beating Whig challenger Winfield Scott by 254 to 42 in the electoral college. when he and his wife witnessed the death of their only surviving child, 11-year-old Benny, on the railroad. Jane, who had always opposed her husband's candidacy, neverfully recovered from the shock.
Pearce was 47 at the time of his election. He became the youngest president in US history. Representing the eastern faction of the Democratic Party, which, for the sake of harmony and business prosperity, did not support anti-slavery protests and tried to calm the southerners, Pierce Franklin sought to achieve unity by bringing into his cabinet adherents of extreme positions from both sides.
Foreign policy
The President has also tried to steer clear of tough controversies by ambitiously and aggressively promoting the expansion of the United States' territorial and commercial interests abroad. In an effort to acquire the island of Cuba, he ordered the US ambassador to Spain to try to secure the influence of European financiers on the government of that country. The result was a diplomatic declaration in October 1854 known as the Ostend Manifesto. It was taken by the American public as a call, if necessary, to wrest Cuba from Spanish rule by force. The ensuing controversy caused the administration to relinquish responsibility for the document and recall the ambassador.
In 1855, the American adventurer William Walker made an expedition to Central America with the hope of establishing a pro-slavery government controlled by the United States. In Nicaragua, he proclaimed himself military dictator and then president, and his dubious regime was recognized by the Pierce administration.
Stronger diplomatic success expectedexpedition led by Matthew Perry, sent in 1853 by President Millard Fillmore to Japan. In 1854 Pierce Franklin received Perry's report that his expedition had been successful and US ships had restricted access to Japanese ports.
The presidential administration also reorganized the diplomatic and consular services and created a claims court.
Domestic policy
Pierce was preparing to build a transcontinental railroad and open up the US Northwest to settlement. In 1853, in order to organize a southern route to California, the United States envoy to Mexico, James Gadsden, negotiated the purchase of almost 30 thousand square meters. miles of territory for $10 million. In 1854, Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act to stimulate northwest migration and promote the construction of a central route to the Pacific Ocean. This measure, which opened up two new regions for settlement, included the repeal of the Missouri Compromise of 1820, which prohibited slavery above 36° 30' N, and the stipulation that the free or slave status of a territory be determined by the local population. This law caused outrage and armed conflict began in Kansas, which became the main reason for the growth of the Republican Party in the mid-1850s.
Retirement and death
Due to the President's failure to resolve the situation, the Democrats denied Pierce a re-nomination, and he remains the onlythe head of the United States, who was abandoned by his own party. After a long tour of Europe, he settled in Concord. Always an abusive drinker, he indulged in even greater drinking and died in obscurity on October 8, 1869.
US Presidents James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Franklin Pierce, who served before and after the Civil War, are considered among the worst in the history of the country. According to contemporaries, they were retrogrades who did not want to hear criticism or consider alternative proposals that acted contrary to public opinion, appealing to the ideology of slavery and racism.
