Franklin Pierce

Pierce believed in the Constitutional right of a state to allow slavery but he was not pro-slavery. Therefore it seemed reasonable to let the people in a territory to decide if they wanted to allow slavery instead of the using the Missouri Compromise procedure to admitting states in pairs, one slave and one free.

However, Nebraska was anti-slavery so unless Kansas voted to be a slave state, the balance would be upset and this is what caused all the trouble in Kansas.

No, Paul Pierce is not related to Franklin Pierce. Paul Pierce is a former professional basketball player who played in the NBA, while Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States.

The treaty was signed by Pierce and submitted to the Senate on February 10, 1854. April 26, 1854 was the date that the final version of the treaty was ratified by the Senate. It became final June 8.1864 when Mexico agreed to the final version.

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804

Pierce died on October 8, 1869 at 4:40 am, at home in Concord, New Hamphire from stomach problems and dropsy (congestive heart failure), likely alcohol related . He is thought to have had a lifelong struggle with alcoholism. He was about 6 weeks short of 65 when he died.

Franklin pierce didn't have a signature campaign slogan. But he was the first president to put a Christmas tree in the white house.

The Gadsden Purchase was negotiated in 1853 by James Gadsden. Mexico sold the United States a piece of land in what is now Arizona and New Mexico, in exchange for $10 million.

This treaty helped to resolve some unsettled issues from the Mexican-American War and also strengthened the South's claim to the transcontinental railroad (there had been much debate about where this should be located).

Some key people include:

James Gadsden (the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico)

President Franklin Pierce (signed the treaty)

Jefferson Davis (Pierce's Secretary of War, who strongly influenced this agreement)

William Marcy (Pierce's Secretary of State, who instructed Gadsden as to what provisions to push for)

Santa Anna (Mexican president who signed the treaty)

He was a leader of the Jacksonian Democrats while in Congress. He helped hasten the Civil War by signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, although he did not know that his signing of the bill would speed the clash between North and South. By repealing the Missouri Compromise, the K-N Act opened up the territory for slavery and reopened up the debate regarding the spread of slavery. He appeased the South by backing up the pro slavery groups in the western territories, especially in "Bleeding Kansas." He became the only elected president to be denied his own party's renomination. During the war he criticised the Emancipation Proclamation and was almost lynched by angry New Englanders.

Pierce earned his living as a lawyer when was not serving in government or in the army. He served in the state legislature including two years as speaker, two terms as a US Congressman and a US senator, serving only five years, resigning due to the health of his wife and a need to make more money. He also served in Mexican War, rising to the rank of brigadier general.

Pierce had many personal problems while he was President besides the difficulties facing the nation over slavery. His last child, a son, was killed in a freak train accident in January before he took office. His wife, who had decided when he has a senator years before that she did not want to live in Washington, could not cope with her grief. She was never a strong person either physically or in mental balance so she pretty much shut herself up in the White House. Pierce had a long standing drinking problem and the pressures of his job seemed to make it worse.

As for his job. He had not been active in Washington and he found it hard to get any support from Congress, even from his own party. The party bosses who nominated him and got him elected did not expect or want him to be a leader.

No- he was never divorced.

He got the basics from the local grade school at Hillsborough, NH.

Pierce attended Hanover (NH) Academy and Francestown (NH) Academy

and learned enough to pass the entrance exam at Bowdoin College in 1820.

He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1824 at age 20. He studied classical languages, mathematics, history, mineralogy, chemistry and philosophy. He learned law by reading with various lawyers until he could pass the bar exam.

Andrew Jackson was his hero when he was a young man.

As a politician he believed in the US Constitution and took a literal approach. He believedin the preservation of the federal union was worth making compromises over slavery. He believed that political parties were a necessary part of government in the United States. He was baptized into the Episcopalian church later in life.

I would not say that he started a tradition, but he had an outdoor tree decorated for Christmas on the White House lawn. It was about 20 years before anymore White House Christmas trees appeared.

Oh, dude, that's a blast from the past! So, Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, voted against the funding for the National Road, which is now known as U.S. Route 40. It's like that road went from being rejected to being a major highway. Life's full of surprises, man.

No states were added to the union while Pierce was president.

There are plenty of things to know, but here are some of note:

- Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States

- His decisions in his position earned him the reputation of the "Worst President of the United States"

- Franklin wasn't even renominated for President in the 1856 elections, due to the fact that his party abandoned him completely.

- He lived to be 64 years old

- President Ulysses S. Grant declared a national day of mourning over Franklin's death

- All three of his children died quite early in their childhood

- Franklin was heavily religious, as was his wife.

- Franklin's wife was often referred to as 'his opposite', in that her personality was quite different to his.

He was given seven miniature Japanese dogs and two birds by Commodore Perry that he brought back from Japan. He gave one away to the wife of his friend , Secretary of War Jefferson Davis. Pierce reportedly kept dogs on his estate as a rule.

(12) Taylor

(13) Fillmore

(14) Pierce

(15) Buchanan

Pierce served one complete four-year term.

The US was not at war while Pierce was President. There was considerable turmoil and violence in Kansas over the election to decide whether to allow slavery in the state.

Franklin Pierce did not personally like slavery but was not an abolitionist. He believed that the framers of the Constitution were right when they agreed to tolerate slavery in order to form the United States and did he not side with those who were willing to split up the nation in order to end slavery in it. He might be called a doughface, which was slang for Northerners who didn't sympathize with the quest for freedom by the enslaved descendants of Africans in the Southern States. Also, he was not actively opposed to allowing the spread of slavery into the American West. He signed the Kansas-Nebraska bill which allowed the residents of a territory to allow or exclude slavery as they wished,. Pierce did not think that Congress or the President had the constitutional right end slavery. Slavery was a local issue, to be decided by the individual states and territories. In this view, our President was supported by other prominent leaders such as Lewis Cass and Stephen Douglas.

During the War between the States, former President Pierce openly opposed the use of military force to make the Southern States rejoin the union. In fact, from his home in New Hampshire, he carried on wartime correspondence with his old friend and cabinet member Jefferson Davis who was now President of the Confederacy.

No, he died October 8, 1869, at age 65 yrs. (He was born in 1804 and so would be over 200 years old were he still alive.)