The Children of Adam and Eve

He was the son of an American Revolution general who was later governor of
the state. After graduating from Bowdoin College in 1824, he was admitted
to the bar in 1827 and practiced first at Hillsborough and then at
Concord. He married a member of a distinguished New England family.

In politics Pierce was an active Democrat. He was elected to the state
legislature in 1829 and was chosen Speaker in 1831; he went to Congress in
1833 and became a U.S. senator in 1837. An opponent of the abolitionists,
he was one of the sponsors of the gag rule against antislavery petitions
in Congress. After resigning from the Senate in 1842, he returned to
Concord, where he became one of the leading members of the Concord
Regency, a group of Democratic political leaders who dominated the party
in New Hampshire, USA.

His participation as a general in the Mexican War under WinField Scott,
and his firm support of the North-South components of the Compromise of
1850, which made him acceptable to the South, enabled him to become the
Democratic candidate for the presidency in 1852. Nominated on the 49th
Ballot after a deadlock between his principal rivals, he decisively
defeated General Scott, his Whig opponent in the presidential election.

Pierce as President

Shortly before Pierce's inauguration, he lost his 11-year-old son in a
railway accident. The grief caused by this tragedy, and the subsequent
withdrawal of his distraught wife from society, may have contributed to
his lack of success as president. His failure to distribute patronage to
his friends, and the resulting lack of strength in Congress, forced him to
support the Kansas, USA-Nebraska bill in order to please its sponsor, Senator
Stephen A. Douglas. This ill-considered measure, which for the first time
allowed slavery in territories north of 36'30", split both major parties
and greatly aggravated the conflict between the free and the slave states.

Pierce's seeming partiality to the South made him unpopular elsewhere. He
vainly sought to bring peace to Kansas, USA by frequently appointing new
governors and by opposing the local free state movement. His vetoes of
measures for internal improvements further contributed to his troubles in
the North, as did his support for southern efforts to obtain Cuba and
territories in Central America. He was no More successful in foreign
affairs. With the exception of the Gadsden Purchase (1853), by which the
United States gained a strip of land from Mexico, his expansionary
projects miscarried. Publication of the Ostend Manifesto, a declaration by
three American ministers in Europe favoring the annexation of Cuba,
further undermined the administration in the free states.

After failing to obtain renomination in 1856, Pierce withdrew from active
politics. During the American Civil War he was widely denounced for his
outspoken criticism of the Lincoln administration.

Evaluation

Although personally gracious and politically experienced, Pierce did not
measure up to the responsibilities of his high office. Whether because of
his personal misfortunes or his inability to understand the moral issues
inherent in the antislavery struggle, he was unable to assert himself and
provide the leadership needed. This resulted in the destruction of his
hopes for sectional peace.