14. PIERCE

                                           Library of Congress

  1. NAME – Franklin Pierce 
  2. NICKNAME(S) – Handsome Frank
  3. BIRTH / DEATH – Nov. 23, 1804  Hillsborough, N.H.  /  1869  Concord, N.H.
  4. FATHER – politician
  5. MOTHER – housewife
  6. COLLEGE – Bowdoin College
  7. WIFE – Jane
  8. KIDS – 3 boys –  one died infant, one died age 4, one died age 11
  9. PETS – none
  10. RELIGION – Episcopalian
  11. ANCESTRY – English
  12. AGE – 48

FIRSTS:

–  first President born in the 19th Century

MA AND PA:  His father was a decorated Revolutionary War veteran.  He was two term Governor of New Hampshire.

BACKGROUND:

–  New Hampshire state representative 1829-33

–  Congressman 1833-37

–  Senator  1837-42

–  Mexican War general

–  President 1853-57

–  failed to get the nomination in 1856

FIRST LADY:  Jane was a minister’s daughter and her father was the President of Bowdoin College.  Franklin courted Jane for ten years.  They had opposite personalities.  She was an introvert and hated politics. 

RETIREMENT:  He retired after the Presidency. In 1863, Jane died and Franklin became a semi-recluse.

TRIVIA:

–  his V.P. Rufus King was the most obscure Veep.  He did not attend the inauguration.  He died six weeks later.  He never presided over the Senate.

–  he went from private to brigadier general in the Mexican War;  during the war, he fell from his horse and injured his leg and groin

–  favorite food –  fried clams

–  he was the youngest President up to then

–  he went to college and was friends with Longfellow and Hawthorne

–  two months before taking office, he and his wife witnessed the death of their only surviving son Bennie in a train wreck which they survived, but he was crushed;  Jane became a recluse and this was probably the saddest White House;  Pierce determined that his son’s death was punishment for his sins and is the only President not to be sworn in on a Bible

–  When he was President, he was once arrested for accidentally running over an old lady on his horse.  He was released when the cop recognized him.

–  William King was Pierce’s Vice President.  He was the only Veep sworn in outside the U.S. (Havana, Cuba).  He also had the shortest term, he died 45 days later.  He never got a chance to preside over the Senate.

–  he was a dark horse candidate who got the Democratic Party nomination on the 49th ballot

–  in the 1852 campaign, the Whigs made a big deal out of a story that Pierce once gave a boy a “whole cent” to buy some candy.  Don’t vote for a man who is so liberal in his spending!