US President Pierce Franklin: biography, activities and feedback

Franklin Pierce - President of the United States in 1853-57. The 14th under the head of the state could not effectively combat the disagreements over slavery in the decade preceding the US Civil War of 1861-65.

Early life and career

Born on 23.11.1804 in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, USA. His parents were Anna Kendrick and Governor of New Hampshire Pierce Benjamin. Franklin Pierce studied at Boudeen College in Maine, studied law in Northampton, Massachusetts, and received a law degree in 1827. In 1834, he married Jane Appleton, whose father was President Boudin and a prominent Whig. The spouses had three sons, who died in childhood.

Pierce Franklin entered the political life of New Hampshire as a Democrat and worked in the Legislative Assembly of the State (1829-33), the US House of Representatives (1833-37) and the Senate (1837-42). Handsome, courteous, charming, possessing an external shine, Pierce found in the Congress a lot of friends, but his career in the rest was nothing remarkable. He was a devoted supporter of President Andrew Jackson, but he was constantly shrouded by older and more famous politicians. After retiring from the Senate for personal reasons, he returned to Concord, where he resumed his legal practice, and also served as federal district attorney.

Nomination for the presidency

With the exception of short-term service by an officer during the American-Mexican War (1846-48), Pierce remained out of the public's attention until the National Convention of the Democratic Party in 1852. After the emergence of a stalemate among the supporters of leading contenders for Presidents Lewis Kess, Stephen Douglas and James Buchanan, the coalition of New England and Southern delegates proposed the nomination of Young Hickory (Andrew Jackson was known as Old Hickory) and Pierce Franklin was nominated for the 49th National Congress elections Democratic Party of 1852. In the unfolded presidential campaign, disputes over slavery and compromise prevailed in 1850. Although the Democrats and the Whigs declared themselves supporters, the former proved to be more organized.

Franklin Pierce - President

As a result, a candidate almost unknown at the national level unexpectedly won in the November elections, ahead of the party of the Wig Whipfield Scott candidate by 254 votes to 42. The triumph of Franklin Pierce was overshadowed by the tragedy that occurred several weeks before his inauguration when he and his wife Were witnesses to the death on the railroad of their only surviving child, 11-year-old Benny. Jane, who always opposed her husband's candidacy, never fully recovered from the shock.

At the time of the election Pierce was 47 years old. He became the youngest president in US history. Representing the eastern faction of the Democratic Party, which for the sake of harmony and business prosperity did not support the anti-slave trade and tried to reassure the southerners, Pierce Franklin sought to achieve unity by introducing adherents of the extreme positions of both sides in his cabinet.

Foreign policy

The president also tried to move away from tough contradictions, ambitiously and aggressively promoting the expansion of the territorial and commercial interests of the United States abroad. In an effort to acquire the island of Cuba, he ordered the US ambassador in Spain to try to ensure the influence of European financiers on the government of this country. As a result, in October 1854 a diplomatic statement appeared, known as the Ostend Manifesto. It was perceived by the American public as an appeal, if necessary, to wrest Cuba from the power of Spain by force. The ensuing disagreements forced the administration to drop responsibility for the document and withdraw the ambassador.

In 1855, American adventurer William Walker made an expedition to Central America with the hope of establishing there a government controlled by the United States, supporting slavery. In Nicaragua, he proclaimed himself a military dictator, and then president, and his questionable regime was recognized by Pierce's administration.

A more sustained diplomatic success awaited the expedition under the command of Matthew Perry, sent in 1853 by President Millard Fillmore to Japan. In 1854 Pierce Franklin received a report from Perry that his expedition was successful and the US ships restricted access to Japanese ports.

The presidential administration also reorganized the diplomatic and consular service and created a claim court.

Domestic policy

Pierce was preparing for the construction of a transcontinental railway and the opening of the northwest of the United States for settlement. In 1853, with the aim of organizing a southern route to California, the US ambassador to Mexico, James Gadsden, agreed to buy almost 30 thousand square meters. Miles of territory for $ 10 million. In 1854, in order to stimulate migration to the northwest and promote the construction of a central route to the Pacific Ocean, Pearce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act. This measure, thanks to which two new regions were opened for settlement, included the abolition of the Missouri compromise of 1820, which determined the prohibition of slavery above 36 ° 30 'of the northern latitude, and the condition that the free or slave-owning status of the territory should be determined by the local population. This law aroused resentment and an armed conflict began in Kansas, which became the main reason for the growth of the Republican Party in the mid-1850s.

Resignation and death

In connection with the president's inability to resolve the situation, the Democrats denied Pierce a re-nomination, and he remains the only head of the United States, which his own party refused. After a long tour of Europe, he settled in Concord. Always abusing alcohol, he set off into an even greater drunkenness and died in obscurity on October 8, 1869.

Presidents of the United States James Buchanan, Andrew Johnson and Franklin Pierce, who worked before and after the Civil War, are among the worst in the history of the country. According to contemporaries, these were retrogrades who did not want to hear criticism or consider alternative proposals that were at variance with public opinion, appealing to the ideology of slavery and racism.