By: Ashley
5th Grade
Twin Peaks Elementary
Salt Lake City, Utah

Mrs. Rappaport


My report is on Franklin Pierce. He was born November 23,1804 in Hillsboro, Hampshire. Pierce was an attorney and the son of the governer of New Hampshire. Pierce entered political life as a democrat serving in the State Legislature, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate. Pierce resigned from the Senate and went back to practice law and was a federal district attorney.
Pierce first enlisted as a volunteer private when Polk declared war on Mexico. He was soon made a colonel and later became brigadier of volunteers. Serving under General Winfield Scott in the advance on Mexico City in 1847. Pierce was wounded in the battle of Churubusco, but remained in service till the end of the war.
"Pierce remained out of the public eye until the Democratic nominating convention of 1852, at which a deadlock developed among the leading presidential contenders. Pierce's name was entered as a compromise canidate. Almost unknown nationally, he unexpectedly won both the nomination and the election."1
Just two months prior to his election, Pierce's son was killed in a train wreck. "The accident so depressed Mrs. Pierce that it was two years before she shook off her melancholia and made a perfunctory appearance at the New Year's reception of 1854 in the East Room of the White House."2
In Pierce's inaugural speach he sounded like he really didn't want to be president but was doing it out of obligation.
Pierce believed in expanding the U.S. territory. He even tried to buy Cuba. One of Pierce's policies was to prepare a transcontinental railroad. He also aquired 30,000 square miles of territory from Mexico called the Gadsen Purchase.
Pierce believed that slavery was recognized by the constitution and was therefore legal. However Pierce felt that the union was more important than slavery.
Pierce was not elected for a second term mainly because he was unable to resolve the slavery issue.
Pierce retired from public life in 1857.
   



Ashley:
How do you feel being President?
Pierce:
"It is a relief to feel that no heart but my own can know the personal regret and the bitter sorrow over which I have been borne to a position so suitable for others rather than desirable for myself."3

Ashley:
Why do you feel this way?
Pierce:
"The circumstances under which I have been called for, a limited period to preside over the the republic, fill me with a profound sense of responsibility, but with mounting like shrinking apprehension."4

Ashley:
Are you saying you do not want to be President?
Pierce:
"I am doing this out of assignment."

Ashley:
Do you have any children?
Pierce:
"I had one son, but he died when he as eleven."

Ashley:
"How did he die?"
Pierce:
"He was killed in a train wreck about two months before I was elected."
   

1804 Born
1829-1833 State Legislature
1834 House of Representatives
1840 Senate
1846-1848 Mexican War
1852 President
1853 Gadsen Purchase
1857 Retired
1874 Died
   

1. Rethimnon, Otter. Britanica, p.431.
2. Lott, Davis. The Presidents Speak, p. 119
3. Lott, Davis. The Presidents Speak, p. 120
4. Lott, Davis. The Presidents Speak, p. 120