During this presidential election, I am reminded of our family’s dearly held connection to another president, in another time. Our family has always been proud to be able to claim a connection (although distant) to Franklin Pierce.
My mother and grandmother took our family history very seriously. Stories and White House artifacts we own were treated as valuable historical icons, which, maybe, they are. Scraps of fabric and lace, said to have come from Jane Pierce’s inaugural gown, a silver teapot (pictured in a White House photo), original documents and many stories now belong to my generation and our children. When I was a child, I was sadly disappointed to learn that this information wasn’t exactly valued on the school playground. Beyond a few extra credit points in U.S. History classes for providing the family tree and proving the claim, no one was impressed by the name of a president who no one had ever heard of, or, worse, one who had the reputation of “being one of the worst presidents in U.S. history.”
Franklin Pierce, whose term ran from 1853 to 1857, was the youngest man to serve as president up to that time, and still the only one to serve from New Hampshire. (Take a look at the 1852 electoral map for an overview of how that election played out; in fact, it’s fascinating to look at the electoral maps for all presidential races, in fact.) He was a Democrat and is, to this day, the only president to keep his cabinet intact throughout his entire term. He was handsome and social, but not a popular politician. Pierce served without a vice president, since Rufus King died before taking office. Two of our Washington counties are named after Franklin Pierce and his almost-vice president. (Tacoma was predicted to be the largest city, so the surrounding county was given the president’s name; King County was thought to have less potential, thus the the lesser name.)
Pierce’s life was a sad one in many ways. He lost all three of his sons before the age of 12, the youngest just months before he took office. His wife, Jane, was reclusive and rarely seen at White House functions. Most of the entertaining fell to a young niece that he brought to the White House for that reason. After he left office, Franklin Pierce supported the Confederacy in the Civil War, which did nothing to improve his legacy. Pierce developed into an alcoholic in his later years and died quietly at his New Hampshire home, at age 64.
An excellent online resource for students researching presidents (or anyone curious about a lesser known president such as Pierce) is the Internet Public Libraries POTUS (Presidents of the United States). You can hear the Pierce and King campaign song (along with such hits as “Monroe Is the Man,” “I Like Ike” and “Get on a Raft with Taft,” as well as songs for Lincoln, Truman, JFK, etc.) on the CD Presidential Campaign Songs: 1789-1996. You can read Pierce’s inaugral 3,319-word speech (which he memorized and read without aid of notes) in The President’s Speak: The Inaugural Address of the American Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush. Or take a look at Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles and Scrawls from the Oval Office. ~ Val D.
Leave a Comment