Poll: Which President was responsible for the most controversial territorial expansion?

The poll has closed for the question, "Which President was responsible for the most controversial territorial expansion?" Thanks to all who participated by voting. This was the closest result the poll has seen so far.

President Polk was the top vote getter with Texas at 31%. President Andrew Johnson was a close second at 28% for Stewards Folly (Alaska). President Jefferson was a close third at 25% for the Louisiana Purchase.

Closing out the poll results, President Pierce got 8% for the Gadsden Purchase. President McKinley came in last with 6% for Hawaii. Having been to Hawaii, I have to agree with this last place vote. It was a great addition to the Union.

Wikipedia has two articles which detail why adding Texas to the Union was so controversial. See the Texas Annexation article. The strange Legal Status of Texas article also has details.

I do not have a new poll question yet. Give me a few days and I will post a new one. Feel free to leave a comment suggesting a new one.

1852 Democratic National Convention

Since I posted a complete proceedings of a Republican National Convention, I found a Democratic National Convention to also post (again from Google Book). The 1852 Democratic National Convention resulted in the nomination of Franklin Pierce (and of course his eventual election to the Presidency). The convention was held in Baltimore from June 1-5, 1852. It took 49 ballots to agree on Pierce as the Democratic candidate. As you can see from the different votes, there were a lot of candidates and the numbers were all over the place. Enjoy!

Poll: Which Presidential couple had the most tumultuous marriage?

The has closed for the question, "Which Presidential couple had the most tumultuous marriage?"

Bill and Hillary Clinton won with 32%. Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln came in a close second with 29%. JFK and his wife came in third and Franklin and Jane Pierce finished fourth.

Thanks to all who participated by voting.

A Presidential Doughface

As a writing exercise I often place pictures of important or famous people up on the screen in my room and ask students to provide a caption or write something about the picture. After a few minutes students share their ideas and then I share one of mine which leads into a quick lesson in history. Sometimes this type of activity can be used to review a topic, introduce something new, or simply move a unit along with additional content.

The last time I presented students with this image they came up with some interesting responses:

*My belly hurts. I should have left that last taco in the bag and thrown it away.

*When are they going to invent a real tie that doesn’t look like a bow?

*This man is important. He looks really smart. Maybe he’s a writer or a great thinker. I wish the picture was in color.

*The picture looks like it is from a long time ago. I didn’t know they had hair gel back then. Interesting!

These are the better ones, of course. I left out the silly, off the mark, or inappropriate ones that can be the result of this type of exercise, but you can see that some students can really get into the moment when analyzing photographs.

Next we discussed names and labels…words we use to identify individuals or groups of people. We talked about how those names aren’t always meant to be nice. We also talked about how some names stick simply because it’s easier to remember a group of people by a certain name in order to remember what they stood for….groups like tree huggers, Bible thumpers, and even educrats.

These types of monikers are not simply for the 20th and 21st century. Certain groups throughout history have claimed remembrance through their name such as the Know- Nothings, muckrakers, and don’t forget the hawks and doves.

Do you know who the gentleman is in my image?

It is President Franklin Pierce, our fourteenth president and the tidbit of knowledge I share with students is Franklin Pierce was a doughface.

What’s a doughface?

During the 1850s a doughface was a Northern politician who had Southern sympathies.
President Pierce hailed from New Hampshire, one of our northern most states, so I’m sure it could be a little surprising that he might have southern sympathies, but he did. It wasn’t that he held slaves or thought slavery was a correct action, however, he did believe it was up to each state to decide its own course especially as new states entered the Union. He was against sectionalism and was not a fan of the abolitionist movement. President Pierce felt that compromise was an integral part of the Federal System.

The United States was experiencing growth and expansion, but a negative impact was growing tension between states who held slaves and those that did not. Legislators from the South wanted an equal number of slave and free states in order to balance power. They feared a higher number of free states because slavery could then be abolished through a Congressional vote.

The Kansas-Nebraska Act brought the question of slavery in the West to the forefront of national debate. In 1854 Congressman Stephen A. Douglas proposed the Kansas-Nebraka Act which would reverse the Missiouri Compromise of 1820 and allow settlers in Kansas and Nebraska territories to decide on their own if they would allow slavery or not. Reluctantly President Pierce gave his approval of the bill because many of his appointments were still pending in Congress and he wanted the Gadsden Purchase Treaty
to be approved as well.

Many Northerners disliked the way Pierce compromised with Southern viewpoints. Many of the discussions and debates on the floor of Congress were so emotionally charged that fistfights broke out and Charles Sumner, a U.S. Senator was so severely beaten it took him three years to recover.

The Kansas Nebraska Act eventually led to a mini civil war in those territories, and Kansas became “bleeding Kansas”. The Democratic party split, the Republican party was created, and the Whig party became nonexistent.

President Pierce is not the only president to be called a doughface during the time leading up the Civil War. President Buchanan and President Fillmore have also enjoyed the label.

Poll: Which of these former Presidents would you hate see the most as President again if he came back from the dead?

The poll for "Which of these former Presidents would you hate see the most as President again if he came back from the dead?" has closed. The winner (or loser depending on how you see it) was James Buchanan with 35%. The second place finisher was Warren G. Harding with 26%. Richard Nixon was a close third with 23% while Franklin Pierce came in last with 14%.

Thanks to all who participated in this poll.

Franklin Pierce from the 11th Edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica

Here is how the now highly regarded 11th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica covered Franklin Pierce in 1911:

FRANKLIN PIERCE (1804-1869), fourteenth president of the United States, was born at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, on the 23rd of November 1804. His father, Benjamin Pierce (1757-1839), served in the American army throughout the War of Independence, was a Democratic member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives from 1789 to 1803, and was governor of the state in 1827-1829. The son graduated in 1824 at Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine, where he formed a friendship with Nathaniel Hawthorne. Pierce then studied law, and in 1827 was admitted to the bar and began to practise at Hillsborough. He at once took a lively interest in politics, and from 1829 to 1833 served in the state House of Representatives, for the last two years as Speaker. In 1833 he entered the national House of Representatives, and although he achieved no distinction in debate he was a hard worker, and a loyal supporter of the policies of President Jackson. After four years in the House he entered the Senate, being its youngest member. In 1842, before the expiration of his term, he resigned his seat, and at Concord, New Hampshire, began his career at the bar in earnest, though still retaining an interest in politics. In 1845 he declined the Democratic nomination for governor, and also an appointment to the seat in the United States Senate made vacant by the resignation of Judge Levi Woodbury. He accepted, however, an appointment as Federal District Attorney for New Hampshire, as the duties of this office, which he held in 1845-1847, were closely related to those of his profession. In 1846 he again declined public honours, when President Polk invited him to enter the cabinet as attorney-general. Soon after the outbreak of the war with Mexico, in 1846, Pierce enlisted as a private at Concord, but soon (in February 1847) became colonel of the Ninth Regiment (which joined General Winfield Scott at Pueblo on the 6th of August 1847), and later (March, 1847) became a brigadier-general of volunteers. At the battle of Contreras, on the 19th of August 1847, he was thrown from his horse and received severe injuries. At the end of the war he resigned his commission and returned to Concord. In 1850 Pierce became president of a convention assembled at Concord to revise the constitution of his state, and used his influence to secure the removal of those provisions of the constitution of 1792 which declared that only Protestants should be eligible for higher state offices. This amendment passed the convention in April 1852, but was rejected by the electorate of the state; a similar amendment was adopted by popular vote in 1877. In January 1852 the legislature of New Hampshire proposed him as a candidate for the presidency, and when the Democratic national convention met at Baltimore in the following June the Virginia delegation brought forward his name on the thirty-fifth ballot. Although both parties had declared the Compromise of 1850 a finality, the Democrats alone were thoroughly united in support of this declaration, and therefore seemed to offer the greater prospect of peace. This fact, combined with the colourless record of their candidate, enabled them to sweep the country at the November election. Pierce received 2544 electoral votes, and General Winfield Scott, his Whig opponent, only 42. The Democrats carried every state except Massachusetts, Vermont, Kentucky and Tennessee. No president since James Monroe had received such a vote.

Pierce was the youngest man who had as yet been elevated to the presidency. For his cabinet he chose William L. Marcy of New York, secretary of state; Jefferson Davis of Mississippi, secretary of war; James Guthrie (1792-1869) of Kentucky, secretary of the treasury; James C. Dobbin (1814-1857) of North Carolina, secretary of the navy; Robert McClelland (1807-1880) of Michigan, secretary of the interior; James Campbell (1813-1893) of Pennsylvania, postmaster-general; and Caleb Cushing of Massachusetts, attorney-general. This was an able body of men, and is the only cabinet in American history that has continued unbroken throughout an entire administration. Although Pierce during his term in the Senate had severely criticized the Whigs for their removals of Democrats from office, he himself now adopted the policy of replacing Whigs by Democrats, and the country acquiesced. Pierce had no scruples against slavery, and opposed anti-slavery agitation as tending to disrupt the Union. The conduct of foreign relations was on the whole the most creditable part of his administration. The Koszta Affair (1853) gave the government an opportunity vigorously to assert the protection it would afford those in the process of becoming its naturalized citizens. When the British government refused to prevent recruiting for the Crimean War by their representatives in America, their minister, John F. Crampton, received his passports, and the exequaturs of the British consuls at New York, Philadelphia and Cincinnati were revoked. A commercial treaty was negotiated with Japan in 1854 after Perry's expedition in the previous year. As an avowed expansionist, Pierce sympathized with the filibuster government set up in Nicaragua by William Walker, and finally accorded it recognition. It was during this term also that the Gadsden Purchase was consummated, by which 45,535 sq. m. of territory were acquired from Mexico, and that three routes were surveyed for railways from the Mississippi river to the Pacific coast.

When the Democratic national convention met at Cincinnati in June 1856, Pierce was an avowed candidate for renomination, but as his attitude on the slavery question, and especially his subserviency to the South in supporting the pro-slavery party in the Territory of Kansas, had lost him the support of the Northern wing of his party, the nomination went to James Buchanan. After retiring from the presidency Pierce returned to Concord, and soon afterwards went abroad for a three years' tour in Europe. Many Southern leaders desired his renomination by the Democratic party in 1860, but he received such suggestions with disfavour. After his return to America he remained in retirement at Concord until the day of his death, the 8th of October 1869.

Pierce was not a great statesman, and his fame has been overshadowed by that of Benton, Calhoun, Clay and Webster. But he was an able lawyer, an orator of no mean reputation, and a brave soldier. He was a man of fine appearance and courtly manners, and he possessed personal magnetism and the ability to make friends, two qualities that contributed in great measure to his success.

A portion of Pierce's correspondence has been published in the American Historical Review, x. 110 - 127, 35 0 -37 0. D. W. Bartlett's Franklin Pierce (Auburn, New York, 1852), and Nathaniel Hawthorne's Franklin Pierce (Boston, 1852), are two "campaign" biographies, and are very eulogistic. J. R. Irelan's History of the Life, Administration and Times of Franklin Pierce (Chicago, 1888), being vol. xiv. of his Republic, is a more critical work, but inaccurate as to details. T. E. Cooley's Review of the Administration of General Pierce (New York, 1854) and Anna E. Carroll's Review of Pierce's Administration (Boston, 1856) are hostile anti-administration tracts. The best accounts of Pierce's administration are to be found in James Schouler's History of the United States, vol. v. (new ed., New York, 1894); J. F. Rhodes's History of the United States, vols. i. and ii. (New York, 1893-1894); and J. W. Burgess's Middle Period (New York, 1900).

Franklin Trivia

The Franklin Pierce Pages are devoted to Franklin trivia. The author decided that Millard Fillmore had been too long trivialized as the most obscure President and decided to transfer this to Franklin Pierce. His assessment of Pierce’s term was:
Pierce was one of the stream of presidents who helplessly presided over a deteriorating union in the years leading up to the Civil War and Lincoln’s presidency. He was a Democrat who served one term from 1853 to 1857. Very little happened.

Some other trivia about Pierce’s life:
Pierce’s salad days were clearly in college at Bowdoin College in Maine. There, he was a classmate of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who later became a writer and author of The Scarlet Letter, as well as one of Pierce’s closest friends and advisors. At Bowdoin, Pierce also knew Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Initially, Pierce had too much fun and did too little studying. As a sophomore, his grades were at the bottom of the class. He improved his grades and went on to become a lawyer. Oh, and president, too.

This site also offers more articles and even a Pierce quiz. I managed a 90% - your turn! (NOTE: Read the article first unless you a complete Pierce trivia guru.)

One of other articles asks the question: What do you have to do to become one of the worst presidents ever? How do you manage to be largely forgotten, but when you are remembered, it is as the "fifth of six below-average presidents"? That's how a 1962 poll of historians ranked Franklin Pierce. It placed him "above Buchanan, and below Coolidge."

So take some time and learn a little about Franklin Pierce – reputedly the most handsome President (what do you think? Is it just me or is he really not that good looking? Maybe tastes have changed…)

Franklin Pierce Bicentennial

Franklin Pierce Bicentennial. Dedicated to the 1804 birth date of President Pierce, the 14th US President, this site features a biography, and a link to his New Hampshire home.

From the site:

This site commemorates the bicentennial of the birth of Franklin Pierce (1804-1869), the 14th President of the United States of America. It is the result of historical and cultural institutions throughout New Hampshire working together to coordinate exhibits, lectures, and other activities to mark the birth of the Granite State’s only U.S. President.

While Franklin Pierce’s memory is far from forgotten, his life is often overlooked or misunderstood. Pierce was a compelling and often contradictory man. He has been described a powerful orator, a faithful friend and a master politician. He is also described as a defender of slavery, a partisan politician, and an ineffective president.

Inaugural Address of Franklin Pierce

Inaugural Address of Franklin Pierce. This is the speech that President Pierce delivered after being sworn into office on March 4th, 1853.

From the site:

It a relief to feel that no heart but my own can know the personal regret and bitter sorrow over which I have been borne to a position so suitable for others rather than desirable for myself.

The circumstances under which I have been called for a limited period to preside over the destinies of the Republic fill me with aprofound sense of responsibility, but with nothing like shrinking apprehension. I repair to the post assigned me not as to one sought, but in obedience to the unsolicited expression of your will, answerable only for a fearless, faithful, and diligent exercise of my best powers. I ought to be, and am, truly grateful for the rare manifestation of the nation's confidence; but this, so far from lightening my obligations, only adds to their weight. You have summoned me in my weakness; you must sustain me by your strength. When looking for the fulfillment of reasonable requirements, you will not be unmindful of the great changes which have occurred, even within the last quarter of a century, and the consequent augmentation and complexity of duties imposed in the administration both of your home and foreign affairs.

Whether the elements of inherent force in the Republic have kept pace with its unparalleled progression in territory, population, and wealth has been the subject of earnest thought and discussion on both sides of the ocean. Less than sixty-four years ago the Father of his Country made "the" then "recent accession of the important State of North Carolina to the Constitution of the United States" one of the subjects of his special congratulation. At that moment, however, when the agitation consequent upon the Revolutionary struggle had hardly subsided, when we were just emerging from the weakness and embarrassments of the Confederation, there was an evident consciousness of vigor equal to the great mission so wisely and bravely fulfilled by our fathers. It was not a presumptuous assurance, but a calm faith, springing from a clear view of the sources of power in a government constituted like ours. It is no paradox to say that although comparatively weak the new-born nation was intrinsically strong. Inconsiderable in population and apparent resources, it was upheld by a broad and intelligent comprehension of rights and an all-pervading purpose to maintain them, stronger than armaments. It came from the furnace of the Revolution, tempered to the necessities of the times. The thoughts of the men of that day were as practical as their sentiments were patriotic. They wasted no portion of their energies upon idle and delusive speculations, but with a firm and fearless step advanced beyond the governmental landmarks which had hitherto circumscribed the limits of human freedom and planted their standard, where it has stood against dangers which have threatened from abroad, and internal agitation, which has at times fearfully menaced at home. They proved themselves equal to the solution of the great problem, to understand which their minds had been illuminated by the dawning lights of the Revolution. The object sought was not a thing dreamed of; it was a thing realized. They had exhibited only the power to achieve, but, what all history affirms to be so much more unusual, the capacity to maintain. The oppressed throughout the world from that day to the present have turned their eyes hitherward, not to find those lights extinguished or to fear lest they should wane, but to be constantly cheered by their steady and increasing radiance.

Looking for Franklin Pierce's Gravesite

Looking for Franklin Pierce's Gravesite. A tourist's interesting search for Franklin Pierce's gravesite. My wife would never let me hijack a vaction to go looking for a presidential grave...

From the site:

On the way back from a long weekend in Quebec, I was making good time on I-91 and thought, "Y'know, I haven't revisited Pierce's grave and I have shots left on the camera and I have time..." So, at White River Junction I changed course and headed into New Hampshire. The interstate cuts through the White Mountains and the scenery is stunning. I imagine it would be even more starkly beautiful in the winter, but here in late May, the White Moutains were lush green.

While visiting and revisiting the other graves since starting this site, each one was a carefully planned expedition. Thanks to MapQuest I knew just where to go in most cases to find the cemetery. The challenge was in finding the grave once in the cemetery (which was frequently challenge enough with the Vice Presidents). This adventure was different. This was spur of the moment. "Hey guys! Let's go find Franklin Pierce's tomb!" I knew it was in Concord, but beyond that I only had my trusty Rand/McNally road atlas to guide me.

The detail map of Concord had a point of interest labeled "Pierce Manse". This seemed like as good a place as many to start. I left the highway in the midst of a Memorial Day traffic jam and drove through city streets looking for a helpful sign to point the way more precisely.

Franklin Pierce Pages

Franklin Pierce Pages - A tribute to the man who has been called America's most obscure President.

From the site:

OK, why? Why go to all the effort -- the research, the writing, the designing -- and, let's be frank here, the considerable expense, to create a website about one of the string of hapless, forgotten, early 19th century American presidents? And why this hapless, forgotten, early 19th century president? And why now? Is it the millennial mood that has colored everything about our lives? Or is it that when we hear the words Bush, Clinton and Gore our immediate associations are with the words "hapless," "forgotten" and "president"? And who the heck was President Franklin Pierce, anyway?

To answer the third question first (the fourth question if you count "OK, why?" as a question), this year marks the 195th year since the birth, and the 130th year since the death, of Franklin Pierce. Reason enough to consider one of the small club of men who have risen to the nation's highest office. But imagine if you will three otherwise educated and well-socialized individuals who, as children, took a sharp and unexpected detour to the Land of Obsession and stopped to drink at the Fountain of Presidents. Well, what you end up with is stacks of books about the presidents that end in the late 1960s or early '70s, posters fit for framing and, in the case of one of us, a set of presidential miniatures that he proudly displays to this day.

Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills

Franklin Pierce: Young Hickory of the Granite Hills. This is a nice biography which covers the life of President Pierce. I bought this book and enjoyed reading it. Too bad that Mr. Pierce was such an alcoholic.

From an Amazon Review by mrliteral:

I had always been somewhat intrigued by Franklin Pierce, perhaps our most obscure president. I would wonder why he was almost neglected by history while other presidents got much more press. As I eventually learned - and as this book reaffirms - there is a reason he is almost completely ignored. Pierce represented the nadir of the Presidency, a period that by historical circumstances and Pierce's own lack of ability made presidential power as weak as it ever would be.

Nichols's book describes the early life of Pierce. The son of a Revolutionary War veteran, Pierce used his family connections and his own gifts of intelligence and oratory to rise in the local political community, first on a state level and then eventually into both houses of Congress. While adept enough to get these positions, he never really sparkled at any of them; his period as a general in the Mexican War is similarly unimpressive.

The Democratic Party, desperate to find a nominee in 1852, eventually settled on Pierce, not because he was a great candidate, but - as a Northerner with distinctly pro-Southern views - he was the only candidate with wide geographical appeal. Attaining the Presidency, he did little to calm the growing North-South rift and, in fact, left things in a sadder state than when he left.
Nichols portrays Pierce sympathetically enough as a man beset by poor health, a hard-to-live-with wife and a series of family tragedies, culminating with seeing the death of his last child in an accident just prior to his inauguration. Pierce, however, was also a politician with little political awareness, oblivious to the growing conflict over slavery and with sympathies in complete contrast to that of his New Hampshire neighbors. Compared with most of his fellow Presidents, Pierce wound up dying in ignonimy.

This is a good book, very detailed and with a high level of objectivity, and can be considered probably the best book on Pierce. Originally written in the 1930s, Nichols occasionally uses language that may seem quaint to modern eyes, but this is still quite readable. If you want to learn about Franklin Pierce (and the era leading up to the Civil War), this is a good place to start.

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857)

Franklin Pierce (1853-1857) Fact file and comprehensive biographical sketch based on PBS series. Includes section for teachers.

From the site:

Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, came to office during a period of growing tension between the North and South. A politician of limited ability, Pierce was behind one of the most crucial pieces of legislation in American history. Although he did not author the Kansas-Nebraska Act, he did encourage its passage by Congress. And that piece of legislation set the nation on its path to civil war.

Like many American politicians, Franklin Pierce's career was aided by his father, a two-term governor of New Hampshire. Before he was thirty, Franklin Pierce had served in the New Hampshire legislature and had been elected to the U.S. Congress where he served as both a congressman and senator. Bored and lonely in Washington, the young congressman developed a drinking problem and a reputation as a gossipy Washington insider. In an attempt to settle down, the handsome, socially gregarious Pierce married Jane Means Appleton. Jane Pierce was her husband's opposite; she was painfully shy, deeply religious, often in bad health, and a strong advocate of the temperance movement. She detested Washington and refused to live there, even after Pierce became a U.S. senator in 1837. Indeed, Jane's disgust with the political life in Washington must have been behind Pierce's decision to resign from the Senate in 1841. Subsequently, Franklin Pierce served in the Mexican-American War, and in something of a surprise was elected President in 1852. After his presidency he retired to Concord, New Hampshire, where he died in 1869.

Franklin Pierce

Franklin Pierce This is a good biography of President Franklin Pierce. It is from USA Presidents.

From the site:

Franklin Pierce ( November 23 , 1804 - October 8 , 1869 ) was the 14th ( 1853 - 1857 ) President of the United States .

He was a Representative and a Senator from New Hampshire prior to his election as President. He was born in Hillsborough, New Hampshire on November 23 , 1804 , and attended the academies of Hancock and Francestown. He prepared for college at Phillips Exeter Academy and graduated from Bowdoin College , Brunswick, Maine , in 1824 . He studied law, then was admitted to the bar and commenced practice in Hillsborough in 1827 . He was a member of the State general court from 1829 to 1833 , and served as Speaker from 1832 to 1833 . He was elected as a Democrat to the Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Congresses ( March 4 , 1833 - March 3 , 1837 ). He was elected as a Democrat to the United States Senate and served from March 4 , 1837 , to February 28 , 1842 , when he resigned. He was chairman of the Committee on Pensions (Twenty-sixth Congress).

After his service in the Senate, Pierce resumed the practice of law in Concord . He was district attorney for New Hampshire, and declined the appointment as Attorney General of the United States tendered by President James Polk . He served in the Mexican War as a colonel and brigadier general. He was a member of the New Hampshire State constitutional convention in 1850 and served as its president.

Pierce was elected President of the United States on the Democratic ticket and served from March 4 , 1853 , to March 3 , 1857 .