Andrew Johnson … Warren Harding … Millard Fillmore … No survey of our worst presidents can be full with out our 14th president, Franklin Pierce, the one president from New Hampshire.
"The humorous factor is, folks from New Hampshire do not actually like him that a lot," stated Joan Woodhead, president of the Pierce Brigade, based in 1966 to rescue Harmony, New Hampshire's Pierce Manse from destruction – and to salvage the fame of the person who as soon as lived right here.
Correspondent Mo Rocca requested, "He was referred to as a very handsome president. Is that proper?"
"Sure, he was," stated Woodhead. "Harry Truman thought he was probably the most good-looking president we had within the White Home up till his time."
"However why is Harry Truman the arbiter of handsome presidents?"
"Nicely, I do not know. That is the one remark we've got from one other president."
College of Virginia's Michael Holt agrees – "He might have been probably the most good-looking man ever to serve within the White Home" – and provides that Pierce had a terrific persona. "He was in all probability probably the most amiable president we have ever had. Even historians who have been hostile to him comment about how nice and pleasant he was."
At Bowdoin Faculty, he started a lifelong friendship with the longer term nice American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne. Hawthorne would write Pierce's marketing campaign biography.
"It is in all probability not as fascinating as a few of his novels," stated Woodhead.
"It is no 'Scarlet Letter'!" stated Rocca.
"No, it is no 'Scarlet Letter.' Thank God for that, proper?"
Injured after falling off his horse in the course of the Mexican-American Battle, Pierce, a Democrat, served in each homes of Congress. A compromise candidate, he gained his social gathering's nomination for the presidency on the forty ninth poll. His social gathering's marketing campaign slogan? "We Polked you in '44. We will Pierce you in '52." Pierce was elected in a landslide.
Rocca requested historian Michael Holt, "What good issues did he do in workplace?"
"Nicely …" he laughed. "Uh … effectively … "
Whereas Holt composes himself, let's return to the Pierce Manse, the place we study Pierce's reforms to the Postal Service, such because the perforation of stamps, which started beneath him.
"In order that it was simpler for folks to separate the stamps," Woodhead defined.
"Yeah, he is the postage stamp man!" stated Gary Sparks, a volunteer information at Pierce Manse. "He additionally helped make sure that American farmers had a goodly provide of guano."
The Guano Islands Act of 1856, signed into legislation by Pierce, scooped up the rights to unclaimed islands wealthy with guano (a.okay.a. fowl poop), a pure fertilizer prized on the time by American farmers. FYI, Halfway, website of a pivotal battle in World Battle II, is a kind of islands.
So, why then does Pierce have such a crappy fame?
"As a result of he performed a significant function in bringing on the Civil Battle," Holt replied.
Yeah, there's that. In 1854 Pierce signed into legislation the Kansas-Nebraska Act, permitting voters within the Kansas and Nebraska territories to determine whether or not to permit slavery inside their borders – negating the sooner Missouri Compromise, which had prohibited slavery in these areas.
Holt stated, "He made a horrible mistake in endorsing the Kansas-Nebraska Act after which leaping in with each toes on the pro-Southern facet."
In Kansas, violence broke out between pro- and anti-slavery forces, in a form of preview of the Civil Battle.
The outrage in Northern states was so intense it led to the creation of the Republican Occasion. "He thought making concessions to Southerners was what was essential to protect the Union," stated Holt.
Not even Pierce's hometown might forgive him for the Kansas-Nebraska Act. In accordance with Holt, "They burned him in effigy in Harmony due to his pro-Southern actions."
Pierce's political woes might solely be matched by his private ones. All three of his and his spouse Jane's kids died younger. Eleven-year-old Benny, the final surviving one, was killed in a prepare accident touring along with his mother and father simply two months earlier than Pierce's inauguration.
The grief was virtually greater than first woman Jane Pierce might bear.
"She went into mourning," stated Holt, "draping the White Home in black, and actually did not come out in public till virtually the top of 1854, virtually two full years into the administration."
After a single time period in workplace, Pierce sought renomination, however was rejected by his social gathering. He returned to New Hampshire in 1857, to a house that later burned down. Solely the entrance steps of the home stay.
After President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated in 1865, each home on this stretch besides Pierce's displayed an American flag in commemoration of the Nice Emancipator. An offended mob assembled asking why Pierce wasn't paying respect. He mollified the group by explaining that he, too, was unhappy, however that his lengthy years of service spoke louder than the show of a flag.
Franklin Pierce died in 1869 at age 64.
Rocca requested information Gary Sparks, "Does Franklin Pierce deserve his rating as considered one of our worst Presidents?"
"I am not attempting to dodge this – I do not suppose Franklin Pierce comes down as considered one of our greatest Presidents in any method," Sparks replied. "However he wasn't a horrible, terrible particular person!"
For more information:
- Pierce Manse, Harmony, N.H.
- Michael Holt, Division of Historical past, College Of Virginia
- Franklin Pierce (whitehouse.gov)
Story produced by Mary Lou Teel. Editor: George Pozderec.
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