Born: 1804, Hillsborough, NH
Died: 1869

Franklin Pierce was thrust into the Presidential melee of 1852 by New Hampshire supporters, after 47 ballots failed to produce a Democratic nominee. Having been the youngest-ever member of the U.S. Senate in 1837, he became the then-youngest President when elected in 1853. The tragic death of Pierce’s 11-year-old son in a train wreck darkened the early days of his Presidency. National events were no more portentous of a happy tenure in the White House.

Northern opposition forced Pierce to abandon his plans to acquire Hawaii, Alaska and Cuba, although he did manage to buy a large tract from Mexico that is now part of Arizona and New Mexico (the Gadsen Purchase) for a Southern railroad. In 1854, the Kansas-Nebraska Act superceded the Missouri Compromise. It enabled residents in all the new territories to determine their own slavery policy. Both pro and anti-slave factions poured into Kansas to try to wrest control of that pivotal territory. Shooting and bloodshed followed, giving Americans a foretaste of the Civil War. “Bleeding Kansas” lost President Pierce the support of his party and the Democrats failed to nominate him for a second term.

Fourteenth President
Democrat