I was reading a book to the 5th graders that took place in roughly the 19th century. There was a description of a girl that was supposed to be very pretty. One of the students stated "She doesn't sound like she's all that to me!" I decided this was a teachable moment. I brought up the fact that standards of beauty change over time. I gestured to the poster of the presidents at the back wall. "Most of those guys in their day were considered pretty good looking!" That got their attention as by 21st century standards, Chester A. Arthur and Rutherford B. Hayes aren't seen as hotties.
The only one of the 19th century presidents who would still considered good looking today is Franklin Pierce. With his blue eyes, wavy black hair and charming personality, I'm sure he'd still have all the girls clamoring for him today. His nickname was Handsome Frank. However, to quote John Lennon, "A pretty face may last a year or two, but pretty soon they'll see what you can do." Harry Truman remarked "Pierce was the best looking president the White House ever had, but as president he ranks with Buchanan and Calvin Coolidge." In other words....Truman knew how to call a dunderhead a dunderhead.
The first president to be born in the 19th century, Pierce was born in a log cabin in Hillsborough, New Hampshire. So far he is the only president to hail from that state....but they are so embarrassed by him you won't see much evidence of it. He went to Bowdoin College in Maine where be began a life long friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne.
In 1834 he married the very pro-temperance Jane Appleton. Pierce was an alcoholic. It's not surprising that it was not a happy marriage. The Whigs had a slogan about Pierce: "Franklin Pierce, the Hero of Many a Well-Fought Bottle."
Pierce did some of the typical political rising through the ranks. First he was part of the New Hampshire house of representatives, and then elected as a congressman. He was also elected as a senator. However Jane hated political life and Washington so much, he resigned and went back to New Hampshire with her.
Pierce continued his law practice until he enlisted in the army for the Mexican American War.
In 1852 he became the Democratic nominee for president. He was a "dough face" or a Northerner with Southern sympathies. He was seen as a good compromise candidate plus they could use the whole war hero image. I'm sure his looks and charm didn't exactly hurt either. The slogan was "We Polked you in 1844; we shall Pierce you in 1852!"
Pierce's administration, and personal life, were a disaster before he even got to D.C. Franklin and Jane were on a train to D.C. with 11 year old Bennie, their last surviving child. (One had died in infancy and the other at age 4.) There was a train accident. Franklin and Jane were unharmed, but they saw their son Bennie decapitated right in front of them. Jane saw this as punishment from God for Franklin running for president. For the first two years of Pierce's administration Jane stayed upstairs and wrote letters to her dead son, The traditional hostess duties of First Lady were done by her Aunt Abby Kent-Means, and Varina Davis, wife of then War Secretary Jefferson Davis. As for Franklin, it's debated just how bad his drinking got during his years as President. Some books I've read said he managed to keep it under control. Another one said he got really plastered, took a drunken horse ride and ran over a woman....and the whole incident was covered up by the police.
The big (and possibly only) success of the Pierce Administration was the Gadsden Purchase. The United States purchased what is now the southern parts of Arizona and New Mexico, so they would be able to build a railroad line in that region.
However the biggest....well accomplishment isn't really the right word....er....thing that got done in the Pierce Administration was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. Remember that cliche image of the Dutch boy using his fingers to plug the holes in the dam? Yeah that's what this was. It overturned the Missouri Compromise and said that Kansas and Nebraska could decide for themselves whether slavery would be allowed. This lead to a scramble to Kansas and Nebraska as Northerners and Southerners attempted to outnumber each other. The situation in Kansas got violent fast. The most famous incident was John Brown and sons murdering 5 pro-slavery farmers. The rising Republican party kept using the term "Bleeding Kansas" as a catchphrase for all that was wrong about the spread of slavery.
Pierce was not nominated again by the Democrats for the 1856 election. His friends tried to promote him as a candidate in 1864, but he declined. He opposed Abraham Lincoln policies throughout the Lincoln administration. He was most vocally against the suspension of Habeas Corpus saying a nation should not violate civil liberties even in war time. When Lincoln was assassinated, Pierce was criticized for not putting up American flags and draping the house in black bunting.
Pierce's problems with alcoholism worsened with time. He died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1869 at age 64. President Grant, praising Pierce's service in the Mexican-American War declared a Day of Mourning.
But of course I don't want to leave things on a grim note. So I decided to use a clip of the fictional character that bears his name: Benjamin Franklin Pierce, a.k.a. Hawkeye, from the M*A*S*H 4077.