Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills

It is the last Sunday of the month which means it is time for the next President, in this case number 14, New Hampshire’s native son, Franklin Pierce, which makes this weeks book of the week Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills by Roy Franklin Nichols.

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804 in Hillsborough, New Hampshire to father Benjamin Pierce and Anna Kendrick. Now, his father was a Revolutionary War hero, who fought with Washington, and was very political, so Pierce was raised in a political family, first with the Democratic-Republican party, i.e. the party of Jefferson and Madison. And he stayed with that party line until the party collapsed and Jackson created the newly formed Democratic party. This all happened, if you’ll recall, when Monroe stepped down and John Quincy Adams stepped up. The entire Pierce family was outraged, believing that Jackson had been robbed. So they, logically, went with Jackson when he formed the Democratic Party, and Pierce remained a lifelong Democrat.

Now, his father was not necessarily wealthy, although they were arguably better off than Millard Fillmore’s family. But Benjamin Pierce absolutely believed in an education, and he ensured his son received the education that Benjamin never did, sending Franklin Pierce to boarding school, and ultimately to Bowdoin College in Maine. Now, Pierce was not the best of students. At first. He kind of slacked off and was a lackluster student until the end of his second year, when the grades were released, and it showed he was at the very bottom of the student rankings. Now, something about this galvanized him, he buckled down, and when he graduated two years later, it was fifth in class. While there he formed several life long friendships, including with author Nathanial Hawthorne.

And like seemingly all former presidents EXCEPT Zachary Taylor, he went to law school. Or the 19th century version of. He became a lawyer. And was pretty successful, before jumping into local politics and serving in New Hampshire congress for 4 years, before making the jump to national politics when he was voted into the House of Representatives in 1833, serving nationally from 1833 to 1842, first in the House, and then as a junior member of the Senate. And he was very much a staunch Democrat, and prone to impassioned outbursts, the one that made me roll my eyes was when, as a young member of the House, he said something to the effect of there was not one in five hundred in NH who sought abolition. And one of the abolitionists brought forth a copy of the New Hampshire paper, Herald of Freedom and a slew of petitions that had been signed by local people numbering more than one in five hundred. Pierce responded that the paper was an incendiary rag and when he said not more than one in five hundred he meant legal voters, not women and children. I was…very disappointed in New Hampshire’s native son. Guess to him, Live Free or Die only meant registered voters.

But he did learn from this episode and when he was later serving in the Senate, even though a junior member of that body, he cautioned against saying or printing anything against abolitionism that could come back to bite in the butt the members of the senate. They ignored him. But he did learn, and was fairly politically astute at this time in his life.

Now he married his wife Jane Appleton in 1834 and they were not necessarily the best of matches. She had been raised very religious, he had not been. Her family leaned toward the Whig party, his was and remained lifelong Democrats. But they insisted they were in love, and married, eventually having three sons. The first born would die within a week of being born, and the second born would die at 4 years old of Typhus, but the third born, little Bennie, was doing quite well and thriving in childhood, very much the apple of his mother’s eye.

Shortly after Bennie was born, Pierce retired from Congress and determined to be a lawyer at home, which lasted about as long as he was roped into being the head of the democratic party in New Hampshire. In which position he was very effective, whipping the party in to shape, casting out the party traitors, and pulling everyone in line. And in between party meetings, he was a circuit lawyer, and quite good at his job. Then in 1846, the Mexican/American War started, and Pierce was called up as a militia man, and commissioned as a General. So he packed up his military units and shipped them all to the Mexican Gulf, where he served fairly well. This was military service, which he had always wanted to do, having grown up listening to his fathers stories. President Polk had initially asked him to be a member of his cabinet as Attorney General, which Pierce had declined because of how much Jane hated Washington life.

The only real mar to his service was when he passed out during a charge and one of his guys made a smart ass quip about Pierce being a coward. Well what actually happened is his horse stumbled, breaking its own leg, and throwing Pierce into the pommel of his saddle, effectively crushing his junk and pelvic bone. Yes, he passed out. From pain. Not from fear. Other than that he served with distinction, if not brilliantly. But the charge of cowardice would follow him several years later during his presidential run.

So, following Fillmore’s relatively bland administration, the Democrats are hoping to reclaim power. Only during their 1852 convention, they cannot decide on a candidate. After an alarming something like 50 rounds of polling, Pierce is settled on the compromise candidate for 1852. And he tells his wife, who disliked the political furor and HATED Washington, that he’s being called to serve. And that this will open a lot of doors for young Bennie, to have those political connections. So she tentatively hops on board the Pierce for President train. Which lasts until January 6, 1853, after Pierce is elected, and on an ACTUAL train ride the family is on, the train derails, and Bennie is killed. Now, the book just says he was killed. According to the Internet, Bennie was practically beheaded in front of his parents.

And it seems like Jane never really forgave Pierce. If he hadn’t run for president, they would not have been on that train. But in the 19th century, you didn’t just divorce in the wake of familial tragedy. But for the first six months or  year Pierce was in office, Jane did not live at the White House, preferring to remain in secluded mourning. And she became quite sickly, never quite recovering from the tragedy.

As for Pierce, he seems to have lost his political mojo, never quite recognizing political friend from foe. The sole exception to this was his cabinet, who, for the first time ever, remained unchanged for all four years of his presidency. Now, most of the cabinet are pretty much lost to history, but those we know of and have records for include William Marcy who was Secretary of State, Caleb Cushing who was the Attorney General, and Jefferson Davis…that’s right, future President of the Confederate States Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War. But, one of the things Pierce did well was delegate. And he pretty much left all state decision to Marcy, all war decision to Davis, and all court decisions to Cushing. Matters of the treasury were left to James Guthrie, who actually audited the federal treasury…not to be confused with the Fed. The Fed did not exist yet. But Guthrie did audit the treasury, balanced the damn budget, and paid off half the national debt in the four years he was in charge of the treasury. So Pierce was pretty successful at picking the right person to delegate to, at least where the treasury was concerned. Where he was not so successful was recognizing his place. He believed he was, as President, the leader of the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party saw him as little more than a place holder while a better candidate could be sussed out. And Marcy was a bit of a cluster as Secretary of State.

While not as isolated and hated as John Tyler was, Pierce was pretty isolated from Congress, and did not have the contacts in Congress that his predecessors had had. This left him out on a limb when congress passed such controversial acts as the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820, and which Pierce promptly signed in to law, having been convinced by democratic party members that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional. Now…Once it was passed by Congress and signed by then president James Monroe, the only way to determine if the existing law was unconstitutional was to have the provisions of it challenged before the Supreme court and have the Supremes decide. Pretty sure I got that right from long ago high school civics lessons. It is absolutely OK for congress to repeal a law based on changing public opinion. But saying it never should have been passed in the first place because it was unconstitutional…well, the abolitionists took that kind of personal like.

So what was the reason for the sudden repeal? The Missouri Compromise of 1820 said that slavery would only be legal below the 36’30 parallel. So basically, Missouri and south was legal, north of Missouri, slavery was illegal. And the democrats were totally cool with that line when it came to Texas being allowed to enter the union. But with the 1850 compromise, which allowed California…all of California, even the parts south of the 36’30 line…to be allowed entrance to the Union as a Free State. And the territories of New Mexico and Utah, also south of the designated line, were allowed popular sovereignty: Rather than being designated slave territories, the 1850 compromise allowed those territories to choose for themselves whether or not they wanted slavery within their borders.

All of this caused the democrats to freak the fuck out. They were rapidly losing the majority hold they had in the house, as more states were choosing freedom. So they determined the 1820 compromise was unconstitutional, and repealed it with the Kansas-Nebraska act of 1854, which allowed popular sovereignty in both those states. Which enraged the abolitionists as both of those states were north of the designated parallel. The stage was set for bleeding Kansas.

Incidentally, the voters didn’t just roll in to Kansas and start throwing down. The 1854 mid-terms saw an enormous turnover in the House of Representatives, with Pierce’s nominal allies losing out there, and in governorships throughout the United States. So the voters were well aware of and thoroughly unimpressed with the Democrats chicanery. Too bad people today care more about winning than keeping congress critters honest.

Now, the fundamentals of bleeding Kansas are this. With the passage of the Kansas Nebraska act, the democrats expected squatters and speculators to flood those territories, resulting in several additional slave owning states, which would help balance out Democratic power in the House and ultimately the Senate. What actually happened is that the abolitionists flooded Kansas in equal numbers, resulting in bloody violent conflict, to which the President did not seem to know how to handle this. I don’t believe he ever sent troops. He did send a variety of territorial governors, who experienced varying degrees of success. But Kansas remained in turmoil throughout the Civil War. Like it was a genuine cluster fuck. Because even back then, Democrats couldn’t give up a bad idea.  I mean slavery…slavery was a bad idea then, it remains a bad idea now. And rather than just admitting that the rest of the country was DONE with their quaint, outdated, racist, ideology, the Democrats just kept doubling down with the stupidity. And, to be honest, the Republicans…then as now…kept rising to the bait. The violence of Kansas was used to fuel the election of 1856.

Now, at least back in 1856, the Democrats could pivot on their political candidate. And for what I believe was the first time ever….yes, pretty sure this is the first time this had happened, they did NOT renominate an incumbent for the presidency. They were pretty sure Pierce couldn’t pull the compromise that was needed to win, and so James Buchanan was nominated for the 1856 ticket. And he won, and Pierce retired from the national stage. Now, one thing I very much liked in this book was a recap of Pierce’s accomplishments…such as the were.

Pierce had disposed of over 93 million acres of public land, mostly through sale, which was used to pay down the public debt. He negotiated treaties with 52 different Indian tribes. He reduced the national debt by 50%. While the democrats lost big during the mid-terms, by the time Buchanan came in to office, they had made up those losses. His foreign policy was pretty much a dud and Marcy as Secretary of State, ended up assigning a fairly incompetent diplomatic corps. Relations were pretty much non-existent with Great Britain by the end of the term, and our attempts to purchase Cuba from Spain had been thoroughly rejected by the Spanish Royal Court. And then of course…Kansas.

And one thing that is made pretty clear throughout the book is that Pierce believed firmly in property rights. Now, this seems like a mighty fine principle to get behind. Except to him, property absolutely included slaves. Who he did not see as people who could ever appreciate freedom, and so why should they have it. No joke, actual quote from the book “He could not understand how the people of the United States would tolerate this attempt to “butcher’ their own race or the sake of “inflicting” emancipation upon the four million Negros who were in no sense capable of profiting by freedom.”

The above was basically how Pierce felt about the Civil War. Now, hats off to the man for his ideological consistency, he did not approve of secession, but once the deed was done, he did not believe we should force the south to stay. He did not approve of Lincoln firing on Fort Sumter, and he did not approve of the South’s plans to march on Washington. No one seems to have ever said anything to him about his former Secretary of War being made president of the Confederate States. Although Pierce was questioned by Secretary of State Seward about his loyalty, following a speech Pierce had made decrying the Civil War, Pierce mostly made it through the Civil War, hated by some, but mostly ignored. Jane died on December 2, 1863 and Nathanial Hawthorne helped lay her to rest. Then a few months later, Hawthorne died, but not before dedicating his book Our Old Home to his lifelong friend, Franklin Pierce.

Pierce himself died October 8, 1869 and is buried in Concord, New Hampshire. Generally, history has cast him as a weak willed and incompetent administrator. I’m not entirely sure that’s fair. I mean, I don’t like the man, its awfully hard to find anything to admire in someone who thinks half of humanity can’t benefit from freedom. And the level of mindless….some might say slavish… obedience to party politics in the Democratic Party has only gotten exponentially worse since Pierce’s tenure in the White House. But I feel like having all his children pre-decease him and his wife sort of turn her back on him, caused him to question and doubt his own abilities. And he subsequently lost his way and spent most of his time delegating, rather than leading. While the book does not specifically cover him being the Drunkest President Ever, it does mention periods of drunkenness. I’m not sure he actually drank all that much, or if he was just someone who could not hold his liquor and so it tended to hit him harder than most. Gods know I have the liver of an Irish bar maid and the tolerance of a Viking raider. But when he drank, he tended to public displays of drunkenness, that had friends nursing him through vicious hangovers. Since his wife was part of the temperance movement, this can only have been an additional source of tension in an already not ideal pairing, and probably contributed to his overall ineffectualness as president.

This book was a bit of a beast. It covered the key moments in the presidency, but seemed to include a lot of extraneous information. Like who Pierce’s political enemies were in detail. Names I had never really heard before, and will likely never hear again, unless I decide to repeat this feat covering members of Congress….I don’t think I’ll be doing that. Maybe SPECIFIC members of congress, but Jesus…there are have been 12,421 members of congress in some capacity, some just in the House, some just in the Senate, and some, like Pierce, served in both. I…I have enough books to read.

But, this book was written in 1932. Seriously, Pierce just doesn’t have the panache of a flashier Jackson, Lincoln, or Roosevelt…either Roosevelt. So there just have not been that many books written about him. But for a book written in 1932, it moved along fairly well. Kept me interested, and wanting to know if there was more to Pierce than a lasting legacy of Bleeding Kansas and Drunken President Ever. Sadly, it seems there is not. I’m keeping him at the bottom of my list. Still above Jackson, and actually above Fillmore too. Reason being…pity. I do think the loss of his last child broke him and contributed to his ineffectualness. And Fillmore encouraged the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. While Bleeding Kansas sucked, there is also an element of large parts of America just likes to fight. Just check twitter sometime if you don’t believe me. And also these tragedies made him seek party approval, he didn’t have the strength of a Tyler, to tell his party to fuck off, what you want to do is wrong. What is it they say…weak men create hard times. Well, hard times are coming.

This book was originally reviewed on YouTube on May 29, 2022, but is now available on Rumble and PodBean.