FRANKLIN PIERCE,
Reading edition
THE TWELFTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
Was born at Hillsborough, N. H., November 23, 1804, and early received the advantage of a liberal education. After going through a regular collegiate course at Bowdoin College, which he entered at the age of sixteen, he became a law student in the office of Judge Woodbury, at Portsmouth, whence he was transferred to the law school at Northampton, where he remained two years, and then finished his studies with Judge Parker, at Amherst. Although his rise at the bar was not rapid, by degrees he attained the highest rank as a lawyer and advocate.
In 1829, he was elected to represent his native town in the State Legislature, where he served four years, during the two last of which he held the speakership, and discharged the duties of the office with universal satisfaction.
From 1833 to 1837, he represented his State in Congress, and was then elected to the United States Senate, having barely reached the requisite age to qualify him for a seat in that body.
In 1834, he married Miss Jane Means, daughter of the Rev. Dr. Appleton, formerly President of Bowdoin College, soon after which he removed to Concord, where he still holds a residence. He was reëlected at the expiration of his senatorial term, but resigned his seat the year following, for the purpose of devoting himself exclusively to his legal business, which had become so extensive as to require all his attention.
In 1846, he declined the office of Attorney-General, tendered him by President Polk; but when the war with Mexico broke out, he was active in raising the New England regiments of volunteers; and afterward accepted the commission of Brigadier-General, with which he at once repaired to the field of operations, where he distinguished himself in several hard-fought battles. At Cerro Gordo and Chapultepec he displayed an ardor in his country’s cause which extorted praise from his most inveterate political opponents; and on his return home he was everywhere received with gratifying evidences that his services were held in grateful remembrance by the people.
At the Democratic Convention, held in Baltimore in 1852, after trying in vain to concentrate their votes on a more prominent candidate, that body unexpectedly nominated General Pierce for the office of President of the United States, to which he was elected by an unprecedented majority over his rival, General Scott—receiving 254 votes out of 296. He was duly inaugurated on the 4th of March, 1853, and his administration was more remarkable for its futile attempts to reconcile conflicting interests, than for the achievement of any particular measure of great public utility. However, it will better become his future than his present biographer to “speak of him as he is; nor aught extenuate, nor aught set down in malice.”
Election for the Seventeenth Term, commencing March 4, 1853, and terminating March 3, 1857.
A STATES. PRES’T. V. PRES’T.
B C D E
8 Maine 8 8
5 New Hampshire 5 5
13 Massachusetts 13 13
4 Rhode Island 4 4
6 Connecticut 6 6
5 Vermont 5 5
35 New York 35 35
7 New Jersey 7 7
27 Pennsylvania 27 27
3 Delaware 3 3
8 Maryland 8 8
15 Virginia 15 15
10 North Carolina 10 10
8 South Carolina 8 8
10 Georgia 10 10
12 Kentucky 12 12
12 Tennessee 12 12
23 Ohio 23 23
6 Louisiana 6 6
7 Mississippi 7 7
13 Indiana 13 13
11 Illinois 11 11
9 Alabama 9 9
9 Missouri 9 9
4 Arkansas 4 4
6 Michigan 6 6
3 Florida 3 3
4 Texas 4 4
4 Iowa 4 4
5 Wisconsin 5 5
4 California 4 4
296 Whole No. of Electors 254 42 254 42
Majority149
COLUMN HEADINGS:
(A) = No. of Electors from each State.
(B) = Franklin Pierce, of New Hampshire.
(C) = Winfield Scott, of New Jersey.
(D) = William R. King, of Alabama.
(E) = Wm. A. Graham, of North Carolina.
Franklin Pierce took the oath of office, as President, and entered upon his duties March 4, 1853.
The oath of office was administered to William R. King by a commission while he was on a visit to Cuba for the benefit of his health; but he died soon after his return home, and Jesse D. Bright, of Indiana, then President of the Senate, acted as Vice-President, ex officio, during the remainder of the term.
John P. Hale, of N. H., and George W. Julian, of Ind., were nominated by the “Free Democracy” for President and Vice-President, but they did not receive a single electoral vote.