The Obscure Presidents: Franklin Pierce-Part III (After the Presidency)
Franklin Pierce has a reputation for being a heavy drinker, and that is in fact what almost certainly led to his death, but for almost thirteen years he had an active post-presidency. After leaving the White House, Franklin and Jane Pierce remained in Washington for more than two months, staying at the home of his former Secretary of State William Marcy. Pierce had served his complete term in office with the same cabinet members that he started with, but his successor, James Buchanan, was determined to break ties with the Pierce administration, and he replaced almost all of Pierce's appointees.
The Pierces moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Pierce had purchased some property. But he and Jane decided to spend the next three years traveling and they embarked on a European vacation. This began with a visit to the island of Madeira before traveling to the continent. In Rome, he visited his good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne and the two men were able to spend some time together. Hawthorne reported that Pierce was in good spirits. On his return home he spent some time in the Bahamas.
Pierce kept up with news about politics back home during his travels. He also commented in letters about the nation's growing sectional conflict. He blamed northern abolitionists and said that they should back down in order to avoid southern secession. In one letter he predicted that a civil war would "not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely", but would take place "within our own borders in our own streets". He said that the New England Protestant ministers who supported Republican candidates and who called for the abolition of slavery were guilty of "heresy and treason".
Pierce's name came up during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Lincoln blamed Pierce as part of a conspiracy to expand the spread of slavery, while Stephen Douglas called Pierce "a man of integrity and honor".
Some of Pierce's friends in the Democratic party asked him for permission to place his name in nomination at the Democratic Convention of 1860 approached. These friends saw him as a compromise candidate that could unite the fractured factions within the party, which ultimately split along sectional lines that election. Pierce refused. At the convention, Douglas was unable to attract southern support. Pierce supported Caleb Cushing from Massachusetts, who had been his Attorney-General. When Cushing was nota viable candidate, he supported John Breckinridge of Kentucky, but what he wanted to see most was a united Democratic Party. When the Democrats were unable to agree on a single national candidate, they were defeated for the presidency by the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.
In the months between Lincoln's election in November of 1860, and his inauguration on March 4, 1861, Pierce was asked by Justice John Archibald Campbell, who Pierce had appointed to the US Supreme Court, to travel to Alabama and address that state's secession convention. Pierce declined due to illness, but he sent a letter appealing to the people of Alabama to remain in the Union and to work for change within Congress.
After the firing on Fort Sumter, Northern Democrats, including Douglas, endorsed Lincoln's plan to bring the Southern states back into the fold by force. Pierce hoped to avoid war at all costs, and he wrote to Martin Van Buren, proposing an assembly of former U.S. presidents to resolve the issue, but the idea went no further. Pierce wrote: "I will never justify, sustain or in any way or to any extent uphold this cruel, heartless, aimless, unnecessary war." Pierce publicly criticized Lincoln's order suspending the writ of habeas corpus. He argued that, even in a time of war, the country should not abandon its protection of civil liberties. This stand won him support among Northern Peace Democrats, but others accused him of southern bias and disloyalty.
In September of 1861, Pierce traveled to Michigan, to visit his former Interior Secretary Robery McClelland, and former Senator Lewis Cass. A Detroit bookseller, J. A. Roys, sent a letter to Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, accusing Pierce of being part of a plot to overthrow the government and establish Pierce as president. Later that month, the pro-administration Detroit Tribune printed an editorial calling Pierce "a prowling traitor spy", and accusing him of being a member of the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle. A Pierce supporter, Guy S. Hopkins, came up with the idea of sending the Tribune a letter purporting to be from a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, indicating that Pierce was part of a plot against the Union. It was Hopkins' plan for the Tribune to make the charges public, at which point he would admit authorship, thus making the Tribune editors appear foolish. Instead, the Tribune editors forwarded the Hopkins letter to government officials. Secretary of State William Seward ordered the arrest of possible "traitors" in Michigan, which included Hopkins. Hopkins confessed authorship of the letter and admitted the hoax.
Despite this, Seward wrote to Pierce demanding to know if the charges were true. Pierce denied them. Later, Republican newspapers printed the Hopkins letter, knowing that it was a hoax, but not disclosing this. Pierce decided that he needed to clear his name publicly. When Seward refused to make their correspondence public, Pierce had his friend Senator Milton Latham of California, read the letters between Seward and Pierce into the Congressional record, clearing Pierce's name, and exposing Seward's disingenuous conduct.
When outspoken anti-administration Democrat Clement Vallandigham was arrested for criticizing the draft, Pierce gave an address to New Hampshire Democrats in July 1863 that was critical of Lincoln. He told his audience: "Who, I ask, has clothed the President with power to dictate to any one of us when we must or when we may speak, or be silent upon any subject, and especially in relation to the conduct of any public servant?" Pierce's comments were made after Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, at a time when Lincoln's popularity was increasing.
Pierce's reputation in the North was further damaged the following month when the Mississippi plantation of the Confederate president Jefferson Davis (who had been Secretary of War in Pierce's cabinet and who was a good friend of Pierce's), was seized by Union soldiers. Pierce's correspondence with Davis, all written before the war, was found by the soldiers. It revealed his close friendship with Davis and it predicted that civil war would result in insurrection in the North. This correspondence was shared with the press, who used Pierce's words to turn public sentiment against him.
In December of 1863, Jane Pierce died of tuberculosis, at Andover, Massachusetts. She was buried at Old North Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. Pierce was further grieved when his close friend Nathaniel Hawthorne died in May of 1864. He was with Hawthorne at the time of the author's unexpected death. Hawthorne had dedicated his final book to Pierce.
Some Democrats tried again to put Pierce's name up for consideration as a candidate for president in the 1864 election, but Pierce discouraged this. Lincoln easily won a second term. Less than a year later, when news spread of Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, a mob gathered outside Pierce's home in Concord, demanding to know why he had not raised a flag as a public mourning gesture. Pierce courageously confronted the angry mob. He expressing sadness over Lincoln's death, but he told them that his history of military and public service proved his patriotism. This seemed to dispel the anger among the crowd, who then dispersed.
Pierce's drinking became worse in his last years and it took a toll on his health. It is reported that he had a brief relationship with an unknown woman in mid-1865, but historians do not record her name. At this time, he tried to use his influence to improve the treatment of his friend Jefferson Davis, who was then a prisoner at Fortress Monroe in Virginia. He also offered financial help to Hawthorne's son Julian, as well as to his own nephews. Pierce also became more religious. On the second anniversary of Jane's death, Pierce was baptized into his wife's Episcopal faith at St. Paul's Church in Concord. He said that he found this church to be less political than his former congregation, which had alienated Democrats with anti-slavery rhetoric.
Pierce described his life as that of an "old farmer". He bought more property, and claimed that when he farmed it himself, it lessened his drinking. Pierce spent most of this time in Concord and his cottage at Little Boar's Head on the coast. He sometimes visited Jane's relatives in Massachusetts. Pierce was still interested in politics, and he expressed support for Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policy. He also supported Johnson during his impeachment trial. Although the two men came from different parties, Pierce expressed optimism for Johnson's successor, Ulysses S. Grant, with whom he had served during the Mexican war.
Pierce's health began to decline again in mid-1869. He began drinking heavily again, despite his poor physical condition. He returned to Concord that September, and he was diagnosed with severe cirrhosis of the liver, from which he knew he would not recover. He hired a caretaker for his land, but otherwise he had no family around him and he was alone for his final days.
Franklin Pierce died at 4:35 am on October 8. President Ulysses Grant, who later defended Pierce's service in the Mexican War, declared a day of national mourning. Newspapers across the country carried lengthy front-page stories about Pierce's colorful and controversial career. Pierce was interred next to his wife and two of his sons in the Minot enclosure at Concord's Old North Cemetery.
Franklin Pierce is not remembered fondly by historians, mainly for his support for slavery, his refusal to recognize the anti-slavery government in Kansas, leading to violence there, and his criticism Abraham Lincoln during the civil war. He entered the presidency on the heels of great personal tragedy, and his administration was untainted by corruption. He was president at what was likely an impossible time for any leader to achieve unity as the inevitability of civil war approached. He was a staunch defender of civil liberties (for white citizens, that is) at a time when dissent was being discouraged in the strongest possible manner. Whatever Pierce's flaws were, he was certainly principled and courageous in not letting contrary public opinion sway him from those principles and he is not undeserving of sympathy and respect.
Biographies of Franklin Pierce:
Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills by Roy Nichols
Franklin Pierce: Part 1-New Hampshire’s Favourite Son by Peter A. Wallner
Franklin Pierce: Part 2-Martyr For the Union by Peter A. Wallner (reviewed here)
The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce by Gary Boulard (reviewed here)
The Presidency of Franklin Pierce by Larry Gara
Life of Franklin Pierce by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Franklin Pierce by Michael F. Holt (American Presidents Series)
Tomorrow: Andrew Johnson
The Pierces moved to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, where Pierce had purchased some property. But he and Jane decided to spend the next three years traveling and they embarked on a European vacation. This began with a visit to the island of Madeira before traveling to the continent. In Rome, he visited his good friend Nathaniel Hawthorne and the two men were able to spend some time together. Hawthorne reported that Pierce was in good spirits. On his return home he spent some time in the Bahamas.
Pierce kept up with news about politics back home during his travels. He also commented in letters about the nation's growing sectional conflict. He blamed northern abolitionists and said that they should back down in order to avoid southern secession. In one letter he predicted that a civil war would "not be along Mason and Dixon's line merely", but would take place "within our own borders in our own streets". He said that the New England Protestant ministers who supported Republican candidates and who called for the abolition of slavery were guilty of "heresy and treason".
Pierce's name came up during the famous Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858. Lincoln blamed Pierce as part of a conspiracy to expand the spread of slavery, while Stephen Douglas called Pierce "a man of integrity and honor".
Some of Pierce's friends in the Democratic party asked him for permission to place his name in nomination at the Democratic Convention of 1860 approached. These friends saw him as a compromise candidate that could unite the fractured factions within the party, which ultimately split along sectional lines that election. Pierce refused. At the convention, Douglas was unable to attract southern support. Pierce supported Caleb Cushing from Massachusetts, who had been his Attorney-General. When Cushing was nota viable candidate, he supported John Breckinridge of Kentucky, but what he wanted to see most was a united Democratic Party. When the Democrats were unable to agree on a single national candidate, they were defeated for the presidency by the Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln.
In the months between Lincoln's election in November of 1860, and his inauguration on March 4, 1861, Pierce was asked by Justice John Archibald Campbell, who Pierce had appointed to the US Supreme Court, to travel to Alabama and address that state's secession convention. Pierce declined due to illness, but he sent a letter appealing to the people of Alabama to remain in the Union and to work for change within Congress.
After the firing on Fort Sumter, Northern Democrats, including Douglas, endorsed Lincoln's plan to bring the Southern states back into the fold by force. Pierce hoped to avoid war at all costs, and he wrote to Martin Van Buren, proposing an assembly of former U.S. presidents to resolve the issue, but the idea went no further. Pierce wrote: "I will never justify, sustain or in any way or to any extent uphold this cruel, heartless, aimless, unnecessary war." Pierce publicly criticized Lincoln's order suspending the writ of habeas corpus. He argued that, even in a time of war, the country should not abandon its protection of civil liberties. This stand won him support among Northern Peace Democrats, but others accused him of southern bias and disloyalty.
In September of 1861, Pierce traveled to Michigan, to visit his former Interior Secretary Robery McClelland, and former Senator Lewis Cass. A Detroit bookseller, J. A. Roys, sent a letter to Lincoln's Secretary of State, William H. Seward, accusing Pierce of being part of a plot to overthrow the government and establish Pierce as president. Later that month, the pro-administration Detroit Tribune printed an editorial calling Pierce "a prowling traitor spy", and accusing him of being a member of the pro-Confederate Knights of the Golden Circle. A Pierce supporter, Guy S. Hopkins, came up with the idea of sending the Tribune a letter purporting to be from a member of the Knights of the Golden Circle, indicating that Pierce was part of a plot against the Union. It was Hopkins' plan for the Tribune to make the charges public, at which point he would admit authorship, thus making the Tribune editors appear foolish. Instead, the Tribune editors forwarded the Hopkins letter to government officials. Secretary of State William Seward ordered the arrest of possible "traitors" in Michigan, which included Hopkins. Hopkins confessed authorship of the letter and admitted the hoax.
Despite this, Seward wrote to Pierce demanding to know if the charges were true. Pierce denied them. Later, Republican newspapers printed the Hopkins letter, knowing that it was a hoax, but not disclosing this. Pierce decided that he needed to clear his name publicly. When Seward refused to make their correspondence public, Pierce had his friend Senator Milton Latham of California, read the letters between Seward and Pierce into the Congressional record, clearing Pierce's name, and exposing Seward's disingenuous conduct.
When outspoken anti-administration Democrat Clement Vallandigham was arrested for criticizing the draft, Pierce gave an address to New Hampshire Democrats in July 1863 that was critical of Lincoln. He told his audience: "Who, I ask, has clothed the President with power to dictate to any one of us when we must or when we may speak, or be silent upon any subject, and especially in relation to the conduct of any public servant?" Pierce's comments were made after Union victories at Gettysburg and Vicksburg, at a time when Lincoln's popularity was increasing.
Pierce's reputation in the North was further damaged the following month when the Mississippi plantation of the Confederate president Jefferson Davis (who had been Secretary of War in Pierce's cabinet and who was a good friend of Pierce's), was seized by Union soldiers. Pierce's correspondence with Davis, all written before the war, was found by the soldiers. It revealed his close friendship with Davis and it predicted that civil war would result in insurrection in the North. This correspondence was shared with the press, who used Pierce's words to turn public sentiment against him.
In December of 1863, Jane Pierce died of tuberculosis, at Andover, Massachusetts. She was buried at Old North Cemetery in Concord, New Hampshire. Pierce was further grieved when his close friend Nathaniel Hawthorne died in May of 1864. He was with Hawthorne at the time of the author's unexpected death. Hawthorne had dedicated his final book to Pierce.
Some Democrats tried again to put Pierce's name up for consideration as a candidate for president in the 1864 election, but Pierce discouraged this. Lincoln easily won a second term. Less than a year later, when news spread of Lincoln's assassination in April 1865, a mob gathered outside Pierce's home in Concord, demanding to know why he had not raised a flag as a public mourning gesture. Pierce courageously confronted the angry mob. He expressing sadness over Lincoln's death, but he told them that his history of military and public service proved his patriotism. This seemed to dispel the anger among the crowd, who then dispersed.
Pierce's drinking became worse in his last years and it took a toll on his health. It is reported that he had a brief relationship with an unknown woman in mid-1865, but historians do not record her name. At this time, he tried to use his influence to improve the treatment of his friend Jefferson Davis, who was then a prisoner at Fortress Monroe in Virginia. He also offered financial help to Hawthorne's son Julian, as well as to his own nephews. Pierce also became more religious. On the second anniversary of Jane's death, Pierce was baptized into his wife's Episcopal faith at St. Paul's Church in Concord. He said that he found this church to be less political than his former congregation, which had alienated Democrats with anti-slavery rhetoric.
Pierce described his life as that of an "old farmer". He bought more property, and claimed that when he farmed it himself, it lessened his drinking. Pierce spent most of this time in Concord and his cottage at Little Boar's Head on the coast. He sometimes visited Jane's relatives in Massachusetts. Pierce was still interested in politics, and he expressed support for Andrew Johnson's Reconstruction policy. He also supported Johnson during his impeachment trial. Although the two men came from different parties, Pierce expressed optimism for Johnson's successor, Ulysses S. Grant, with whom he had served during the Mexican war.
Pierce's health began to decline again in mid-1869. He began drinking heavily again, despite his poor physical condition. He returned to Concord that September, and he was diagnosed with severe cirrhosis of the liver, from which he knew he would not recover. He hired a caretaker for his land, but otherwise he had no family around him and he was alone for his final days.
Franklin Pierce died at 4:35 am on October 8. President Ulysses Grant, who later defended Pierce's service in the Mexican War, declared a day of national mourning. Newspapers across the country carried lengthy front-page stories about Pierce's colorful and controversial career. Pierce was interred next to his wife and two of his sons in the Minot enclosure at Concord's Old North Cemetery.
Franklin Pierce is not remembered fondly by historians, mainly for his support for slavery, his refusal to recognize the anti-slavery government in Kansas, leading to violence there, and his criticism Abraham Lincoln during the civil war. He entered the presidency on the heels of great personal tragedy, and his administration was untainted by corruption. He was president at what was likely an impossible time for any leader to achieve unity as the inevitability of civil war approached. He was a staunch defender of civil liberties (for white citizens, that is) at a time when dissent was being discouraged in the strongest possible manner. Whatever Pierce's flaws were, he was certainly principled and courageous in not letting contrary public opinion sway him from those principles and he is not undeserving of sympathy and respect.
Biographies of Franklin Pierce:
Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills by Roy Nichols
Franklin Pierce: Part 1-New Hampshire’s Favourite Son by Peter A. Wallner
Franklin Pierce: Part 2-Martyr For the Union by Peter A. Wallner (reviewed here)
The Expatriation of Franklin Pierce by Gary Boulard (reviewed here)
The Presidency of Franklin Pierce by Larry Gara
Life of Franklin Pierce by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Franklin Pierce by Michael F. Holt (American Presidents Series)
Tomorrow: Andrew Johnson