Why Didnt Franklin Pierce Run Again for Office

On this mean solar day in 1869, erstwhile President Franklin Pierce passed away in New Hampshire. Pierce was regarded as an ethical difficult worker, simply he struggled every bit a national leader when he openly advocated for pro-slavery states as a Northerner in the 1850s.

The New York Herald marked his expiry with the post-obit edgeless statement: The "deceased was a human of something more than than average power. He possessed, however, none of the attributes of greatness, and was more of a cautious, studious, and watchful politician than a comprehensive, far-seeing or observant statesman."

The New York Times besides best-selling that Pierce had a difficult presidency. "Although his record every bit a statesman cannot command the approbation of the nation, he all the same should be followed to the grave with that respect which is due to one who has filled the highest role in the souvenir of the people – a President of the U.s.a.," it said in an Oct 9, 1869 obituary.

Pierce assumed his position in the White House in a period of relative calm in 1853, but he had been beset with a personal tragedy earlier his inauguration.

When the President-elect and his family were traveling in January 1853, they were involved in a train accident, and Pierce'due south young son, Benjamin, was killed. His wife refused to come to Washington and the new president was ill-prepared to deal with a series of national crises that were stepping stones to the Civil War.

Pierce had won the Democratic nomination in 1852 thanks to some shrewd moves at the party's convention, where he played a dark horse role and was able to divide, and finally gain support from, the backers of James Buchanan and Lewis Cass. Prior to his nomination, Pierce was a Firm and Senate member from New Hampshire, just he left Washington in 1841 as he and his wife, Jane, became disenchanted with life in the nation'southward majuscule.

Dorsum abode in New Hampshire, Pierce was a loftier-profile attorney and a political operator of sorts. He too served as a volunteer full general in the Mexican-American War, where he had passed out in battle (albeit from a knee injury) and gained the nickname "Fainting Frank."

Pierce was able to grab the nomination as a compromise candidate who was seen equally a pro-slavery Northerner. That appealed to a Democratic party that had endorsed the Compromise of 1850 and the Fugitive Slave Act. Pierce defeated his quondam commander, Full general Winfield Scott, in the 1852 ballot, thank you to Scott'southward weakness as a campaigner and the overall decline of the Whig Party in national politics.

At his inauguration, President Pierce made it clear where he stood on the issues of slavery, states and the Constitution.

"I believe that involuntary servitude, every bit information technology exists in different States of this Confederacy, is recognized by the Constitution. I believe that information technology stands like any other admitted right, and that the States where it exists are entitled to efficient remedies to enforce the ramble provisions," he said. "I fervently hope that the question is at rest, and that no sectional or ambitious or fanatical excitement may again threaten the durability of our institutions or obscure the light of our prosperity."

In one case in the White House, Pierce backed the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854, which overturned the Missouri Compromise of 1820. The Human action repealed of the prohibition against slavery in territories north of the latitude 36 degrees 30 minutes, and allowed voters in territories to decide if they wanted slavery. The Act led to violence in Kansas as settlers fought over how the territory would vote on the issue of slavery, and Northern repulsion over the Act gave rising to a new political political party, the Republicans. Pierce as well sought to annex Cuba, and he had intervened on behalf of pro-slavery interests in the Kansas fight.

Past 1856, Democratic leaders grew tired of Pierce, fifty-fifty though Pierce expected to get nominated again easily at the political party's convention. James Buchanan and Stephen Douglas instead battled for the nomination, with Pierce left on the sidelines.

After leaving the White House, Pierce became a critic of President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, and he had to persuade a mob not to destroy his house after Lincoln's assassination. Pierce died in obscurity in 1869 after years of drinking.

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Source: https://constitutioncenter.org/blog/franklin-pierces-murky-legacy-as-president

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