As the newly elected 14th President of the United States, Franklin Pierce, traveled by train throughout New England before his inauguration, he was joined by his wife and young son, Benny. The young family was no doubt eagerly awaiting the new adventure that awaited them as the new First Family. However, somewhere along the route, the train derailed and careened off the track. Pierce and his wife Jane were uninjured, however Benny was killed in front of their eyes. The boy's body was found beneath the wreckage of the passenger car, nearly decapitated. This tragedy clouded the optimism of the Pierce administration and in all likelihood, understandably hampered Pierce's ability to lead.
I can't imagine how Franklin Pierce must have felt when he placed his hand on a law book (choosing to forgo the Bible) to take the oath of office. While society was much different in 1853, I doubt anyone would have thought less of Pierce had the grieving father chosen to step aside. Nevertheless, Pierce persisted and set about the work of presiding over a nation rapidly drifting toward disunion. In 1980, Ronald Reagan, trying to unseat President Jimmy Carter, famously asked the American people "Are you better off now than you were four years ago?" While there may have been some room for debate at the end of Carter's administration, there would have been little doubt had the question been posed at the end of Pierce's four years in office. In nearly every way, the country was worse off in at the end of his term than it was when Pierce took office. The question then is "Why?" The answer of course is slavery. Like an ever spreading malignant cancer, slavery had infected new portions of the expanding United States. Thanks to a Fugitive Slave Law passed before Pierce came to office, slave catchers could raid northern cities looking for runaway slaves. Without the luxury of a defense or a fair trial, African Americans could be returned to slavery by order of a federal judge. It should be noted that federal judges received twice the pay for declaring an African American a runaway slave as they would have for pronouncing them free. As a result, many free blacks, born in the North, were rounded up an set South to be sold to the highest bidder. Pierce, as Chief Executive, vigorously enforced this abominable law. The power brokers of the South had an almost religious commitment to the expansion of slavery. When the Missouri Compromise had put a northern border on the spread of slavery in 1820, southern expansionist began to look south for new territory to exploit for personal wealth and power at the expense of bondsmen. The valuable Spanish colony of Cuba, long desired by southern politicians, had a well-established plantation slavery system. Franklin Pierce supported a plan to purchase Cuba from Spain, and with it add thousands of enslaved people and untold wealth to the planter aristocracy. Though the plan was never realized, the Northerner Pierce demonstrated his willingness to kowtow to the demands of the slave powers. However, it was Pierce's support of the Kansas-Nebraska Act that probably did more to divide the country than anything else. The Missouri Compromise prevented spread of slavery to any unorganized territory north of the southern border of Missouri. This tenuous arrangement worked well enough for a few decades, until powerful politicians saw an opportunity for profit. When the discussion of a transcontinental railroad arrived in Washington, the greatest debate was not whether or not it should be built, but rather if the new railroad would have a northern or southern route to California. Although topography would suggest the southern route would be easier to build, Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois saw an opportunity to bring wealth and power to the city of Chicago. If Chicago were to be the hub for a northern based transcontinental railroad, this could guarantee political and financial gain for the ambitious senator who had his eyes on future White House run. In order to quell southern opposition to a northern railroad, Douglas put forth a bill that would repeal the Missouri Compromise and allow for the expansion of slavery into the new territories of Kansas and Nebraska. The idea of removing limitations on slavery's expansion delighted many powerful southerners in Washington. This included members of Pierce's cabinet like future President of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis. Pierce supported this bill and with his signature ignited a bloody conflict between pro and anti-slavery forces in Kansas. Opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act led to the creation of the Republican Party and did more than any other single piece of legislation to bring about the Civil War. Franklin Pierce could have stopped it, but instead, at the urging of his slave holding cabinet secretaries, he gave it his approval. The only reason Franklin Pierce isn't lower on this list is because when he left office the nation was still (barely) a nation. The same can't be said of his successor. I give him a pass because of the extraordinary tragedy that he endured before his inauguration. The presidency has beaten and bloodied some of history's most accomplished leaders, how any man could endure it while in mourning is beyond me. The former President remained a controversial figure for the rest of his life. Just as controversy followed him, so did sorrow. Franklin Pierce, who had always had a drinking problem, increased his consumption late in life and died of his alcoholism. An ultimately sad ending to a man who had known great sadness.
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Derek Trent AshcraftA place to discuss, among other things, politics, culture, food, faith, and nonsense. Archives
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