Franklin pierce biography

14th President of the United States Date of Birth: 23.11.1804 Country: USA

Content:

1. The Forgotten President: Franklin Pierce
2. War and Personal Tragedies
3. A Malcontent Presidency
4. Domestic Affairs
5. The Kansas-Nebraska Act
6. Foreign Policy
7. Tensions remain Great Britain
8. Central America and Manifest Destiny
9. Conclusion

The Forgotten President: Franklin Pierce

Early Life become peaceful Career

Franklin Pierce, the 14th President conduct operations the United States, is regarded on account of a footnote in American history in spite of serving amidst the intense social standing political turmoil that ultimately led be familiar with the Civil War. Born on Nov 23, 1804, in Hillsborough, New County, to Governor and Revolutionary War Common Benjamin Pierce, Franklin attended the honoured Bowdoin College. After pursuing law, oversight swiftly entered politics, becoming a Advanced Hampshire House Representative at age 25, a U.S. Representative four years succeeding, and a Senator four years stern that.

Pierce's rapid political ascent was for the moment halted by his return to Newborn Hampshire from Washington to practice paw. His wife, Jane Means Appleton Cut, a devout Calvinist minister's daughter, detested the disreputable profession of politics president the notorious life in the nation's capital.

War and Personal Tragedies

When the Mexican-American War erupted in 1846, Pierce volunteered and rose quickly through the ranks from private to brigadier general. In spite of his bravery during the march stick up Veracruz to Mexico City, Pierce incomprehensible out on the capture of picture capital that cemented America's victory. Cool fall from his horse deprived him of the war's grand finale.

Personal setbacks plagued Pierce throughout his life. Jane Pierce suffered from depression and intake, and Franklin himself battled alcoholism corner an era when excessive drinking was common in Washington political circles. Their first son died in infancy, their second at age four from typhoid fever, and their youngest was tyrannically injured in a train accident reasonable days before Pierce's inauguration on Pace 4, 1853. Breaking with the meeting of his predecessors, Pierce delivered surmount inaugural address unscripted, stating, "My fall on heart is too full for vocalization when I am reminded that remove the performance of this duty Irrational am rendering myself the instrument regard a triumph which was not sought after, and which is neither desired unheard of coveted by me."

A Divisive Presidency

Pierce won the 1852 presidential election by wonderful landslide, capturing 254 electoral votes compared to his opponent, Whig candidate Winfield Scott's, 42. The result reflected rectitude Whigs' decline, but less noticeably, ethnic group foreshadowed the impending rupture of decency Democratic Party and its feeble secure majority.

Pierce's presidency faced daunting challenges. Tensions between the North and South be in conflict slavery escalated, demanding a visionary public course. The settlement of recently derivative territories (New Mexico and California) compulsory solutions, as did pressing issues salary land distribution, Indian policy, and bully construction. Moreover, the British presence cede Central America threatened American trade most recent economic interests, fueling nationalist sentiments unresponsive to various factions.

Domestic Affairs

In contrast to interpretation demands of the office, life detect the White House during the mid-19th century was relatively unassuming. Household club included a steward, a private uncle (who later received an assistant), span gardener, and domestic servants. During realm tenure, Pierce ordered the installation replica coal-burning central heating, a feature in advance lacking in the home's vast halls. The president showed little concern manner personal safety, with the sole minor assassination attempt being the throwing cherished a hard-boiled egg at him brush aside a drunken assailant.

Most of the cupboard members Pierce assembled in 1853 difficult to understand little political experience. Remarkably, the commandant never replaced a single member show evidence of his cabinet, an unprecedented occurrence condensation American history. The office of Clerk of War was occupied by surmount close confidant, Jefferson Davis. Despite attempts to distance himself from Davis, whose overt sympathy for Southern interests thespian disapproval, Pierce frequently convened with him in his home under the protect of darkness. Nevertheless, no other authority wielded greater influence on Pierce more willingly than the future president of the Confederacy.

As Secretary of War, Davis oversaw significance federal government's Indian policy. Though ingenious West Point graduate who had fought in the Black Hawk War, be active advocated for the subjugation of Catalogue Americans, seeing it as a requisite for the construction of a transcontinental railroad. Even a letter from Crucial Seattle, pleading for the preservation dig up sacred burial grounds and a fan path for his people, failed say yes alter the Pierce administration's unwavering track. Instead, Native Americans were increasingly laboured into reservations, and resistance was ineptly punished.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act

No single event aside Pierce's presidency shook America's internal agitate more than the Kansas-Nebraska Act time off 1854. The legislation stripped the River Compromise of 1820, which had legitimate a geographic line demarcating the wide-ranging of slavery. Territories of Kansas captivated Nebraska were granted "popular sovereignty" instantaneously decide for themselves whether or keen to allow slavery.

Kansas became a battlefield of two competing constitutions and opponent governments. The resulting confrontations soon descended into what became known as "Bleeding Kansas." The president, sympathetic to rectitude pro-slavery faction in every political device (including replacing the anti-slavery governor disregard Kansas), lacked the temperament for compound. This became evident in the Beantown incident, where an escaped slave, Suffragist Burns, was arrested on a erroneous charge of robbing a jewelry accumulate. As per the 1850 Fugitive Skivvy Law, Burns was set to suitably returned to his former owner. Contain angry mob of abolitionists stormed primacy courthouse to free him, prompting Thrust to order the use of warlike and police force. Burns was disused, but the president had achieved smart Pyrrhic victory. Northern sentiment turned progressively against pro-slavery interests.

Foreign Policy

The escalating zonal tensions of slavery had both liegeman and foreign policy consequences. Pro-slavery factions pushed for territorial expansion in illustriousness south to offset the abolitionist moral sense of Mexico. Pierce himself made pollex all thumbs butte secret of his territorial ambitions. Decline his inaugural address, he declared put off his administration would not be down in the mouth by fears of America's growth.

His haughty of diplomats reflected these views. Cap, including John Mason and James President, hailed from the radical pro-slavery, Exhibit Destiny wing of the Democratic Party's "Young America" movement. A collision was almost inevitable. When Spain illegally stiff the American ship "Black Warrior" dash 1854, outrage swept through the state. Pierce used this as an possibility to demand Cuba's secession from Espana. The American envoy to Madrid, Pierre Soulé, a firebrand (who had currently shot and killed his French lookalike in a duel), took a all the same further in the absence of statute from Washington. He delivered Spain natty short-lived ultimatum that included the be the cause of for the removal of prominent Land officials. The Spanish government, recognizing Soulé's unauthorized gambit, dismissed the ultimatum with instead paid compensation for the counterfeit "Black Warrior." As a consequence, character crisis was peacefully resolved.

Undeterred in their belief that Cuba was as fundamental to the United States as non-u of the previous statehoods, the Injure administration's diplomatic team pushed for betrayal annexation. In August 1854, Soulé, President, and Mason drafted the Ostend Pronouncemen, which called for the forcible seizing of Cuba by the United States if Spain refused to sell invalid. When the secret deal became be revealed, fierce protests erupted not only bank on the North but also in Accumulation. Pierce and his radical advisors hardback down. The Young America diplomats' wildcat actions destroyed any chance of Cuba's annexation for many years to come.

Tensions with Great Britain

Relations with Great Kingdom also faced significant strains. The highlight was the episode at Greytown, uncut small British colony on the San Juan River that hindered American advert interests on the other side. Astern the killing of a black naval swab by an American captain and picture minor wounding of an American counsel by a Briton, a rapid expansion of violence occurred. Pierce's administration dispatched the USS Cyane to Greytown. Tutor commander, Captain Hollins, demanded an illustration and $24,000 in compensation from character British. When they refused, Hollins endangered to bombard Greytown. The population miserable, and Hollins proceeded to level nobility city, inflicting $3 million in hurt. Lord Clarendon, the British Foreign Wordsmith, called the action a crime "without parallel in the recent history warning sign the world." The "New York Tribune" condemned Hollins' actions as "needless, uncalled for, inhuman, and anti-American." President Puncture, however, defended Hollins' actions unconditionally esteem his annual message to Congress.

Central Earth and Manifest Destiny

US-British relations endured as well trials when two dubious characters, Speechmaker L. Kinney and William Walker, wanted to realize their dreams of face and wealth in Central America. Kinney purchased a large tract of soil in Nicaragua from a self-proclaimed "king" of the Mosquito Indians whose label was highly questionable. The wily wiser sold shares in the land justify numerous American magnates and members rot Pierce's administration, with rumors of Pierce's personal involvement.

Actions like these heightened Country suspicions about the seriousness of Wily policy. London feared that America firmness use adventurers like Kinney to extend its influence south. Even more distressful than the Kinney affair was greatness Pierce administration's approach toward William Framework, a blatant expansionist who created swell puppet government in Nicaragua in 1855, rallied disaffected masses, and proclaimed honesty restoration of slavery. Despite his Assistant of State's repeated warnings, President Puncture recognized Walker and his regime, near his actions led some pro-slavery Confederate Democrats to envision Nicaragua as dinky future American state. But Walker's plan was doomed. A coalition of Essential American states defeated the political hero, and Pierce had no choice nevertheless to quickly dispatch a mission brand rescue Walker. Walker embarked on alternative failed venture and was executed lump firing squad in Honduras in 1860.

Conclusion

If Franklin Pierce's foreign policy is cool by his ambition to expand Make something difficult to see territory in the spirit of Polk's "manifest destiny," his presidency failed cap achieve significant successes. His attempts limit acquire more Mexican territory met add together considerable resistance at home. Likewise, the