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by - November 19, 2007 - 11:20 AM
by David Holzel
Friday, November 23, is the 203rd anniversary of the birth of America’s 14th president, Franklin Pierce — a man who, perhaps more than any other, paved the way for his speedy replacement by America’s 15th president.
As excitement builds toward Pierce’s big Two-Oh-Three at the end of the week, here are five fun and possibly amazing facts about the man they called “Young Hickory of the Granite Hills.”
1. He is America’s most obscure president
One in a series of forgettable mid-19th-century presidents, Pierce, who served from 1853-1857, is arguably the most forgettable. Thirteenth president Millard Fillmore is generally regarded as America’s least-known president. That is a distinction Franklin Pierce lacks, making him even more obscure than Fillmore.
2. He may not have hit that woman with his carriage
Pierce was denied renomination by the Democratic Party in 1856 (the only elected president to have been rejected so out of hand). After being given the heave-ho, he has widely been quoted as telling a friend, “There is nothing left to do but get drunk.”
While many of us in the same position would stop at the nearest tavern for a session of Beer Pong, the story sounds apocryphal. Presidential historian Paul Boller repeats the quotation in his recent book, Presidential Diversions (Harcourt, 2007). When I asked him about it, he said Pierce must have been joking.
Pierce unquestionably drank heavily during certain periods of his life, and alcoholism contributed to or caused his death. But he didn’t make a habit of announcing it.
Another story — that Pierce ran over an elderly woman with his carriage — is almost certainly false, according to historian Peter Wallner, whose Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union (Plaidswede) was published this year.
“The fact that there are no newspaper stories about the accident and it wasn’t mentioned in any correspondence convinced me that it probably didn’t happen,” Wallner told me.
3. He took on the mob. Or at least a mob.
As a staunch Democrat and believer in following the strict meaning of the Constitution, Pierce was an outspoken critic of the Civil War as prosecuted by Republican Abraham Lincoln, whose approach to constitutional freedoms was more free form. After Lincoln was assassinated, a group of citizens in Pierce’s hometown of Concord, N.H., gathered on the street to express their grief and to confront neighbors who were not displaying the flag in that moment of national tragedy.
Eventually some 200-400 Concordians reached Pierce’s house and, as Wallner recounts in Franklin Pierce: Martyr for the Union, demanded to know where the former president was keeping his flag.
“It is not necessary for me to show my devotion for the stars and stripes…” Pierce replied testily, and then reiterated his patriotic bona fides by recalling his ancestors’ participation in the Revolution and the War of 1812, and his own 35-year service to New Hampshire and the nation.
Whether he swayed the crowd with his oratory, or just wore them down, the mob gave Pierce three cheers and dispersed without burning his house down.
4. He was a better ex-president
Like Jimmy Carter, Pierce was a better ex-president than president, if for no other reason than he no longer was in office. He spent much of his time tending to his wife, Jane, who was dying slowly of tuberculosis. The couple spent the winter of 1857-58 in the Portuguese islands of Madeira, where they studied French in anticipation of a tour of the continent.
Their European travels during 1858-59 took them to Switzerland and Italy, Paris and London. Once back in the USA, Pierce busied himself by purchasing various pieces of property in his home state of New Hampshire.
He also kept up a steady stream of political correspondence and, before he and Jane left to spend the winter of 1859-60 in the Bahamas, Pierce wrote to his former secretary of war, Jefferson Davis, urging him to be the Democratic Party’s “standard bearer in 1860,” according to Wallner. Jane Pierce died on Dec. 2, 1863, at age 57.
5. He perfected the comb-over (!?)
Pierce had some of the finest hair of any U.S. president. One witness described it approvingly as a “mass of curly black hair … combed on a deep slant over his wide forehead.” And that was after viewing Pierce’s body in state after his death in 1869.
Yet that mass of curls may have been an act of misdirection away from the truth that deep slant hinted at. In an 1862 photograph, Pierce’s hair in profile appears to exist on two levels – above, the hair combed on a deep slant, and below, a small patch at the front and center of his wide forehead.
Pierce’s hair unquestionably is a subject for future historians to wrestle with.
Writer David Holzel is largely to blame for The Franklin Pierce Pages and The Jewish Angle. He lives outside Washington, D.C.
Comments (19)
Comment
Hands down, the best Franklin Pierce blog entry I’ve read today. :-)
There’s a comedy special on HBO right now by Robert Wuhl (”Assume the Position 201″) with quite a bit of Pierce content, including the tidbit that Barbara Bush is a direct descendant.
posted by Roger on 11-19-2007 at 12:09 pm
And gave his namesake to Benjamin Franklin “Hawkeye” Pierce.
posted by Dave on 11-19-2007 at 12:17 pm
One more reason I must visit Madeira!
posted by Johnny Cat on 11-19-2007 at 12:25 pm
I read item #1 with great amusement. I used to live in a neighborhood of Presidentially-named streets, and frequently delivery drivers, telephone repairmen, taxi drivers, etc. would call me complaining that they couldn’t find me because “that street isn’t on the map!” Some of them even had the audacity to imply that I didn’t know my own street name. The street was small, but at least 30 years old by the time I lived there. However, Pierce St. had somehow been omitted from the local Thomas Brothers Guide- the reference that a lot of folks who spend their days on the road use around there. Leave it to good old Pierce to get overlooked even when something was named in his honor. Btw, Pierce St shows up on Yahoo maps and Google Earth just fine. . .
posted by Lebetho on 11-19-2007 at 12:31 pm
When asked to name as many presidents as they can remember in 10 minutes, 50% forget Franklin Pierce. Although this is beaten by the 51% who forget Rutherford B. Hayes and Chester A. Arthur. (According to Sporcle.com’s game section)
Other little remembered presidents include James Buchanan, Millard Fillmore, Warren G. Harding and Martin Van Buren.
posted by gmsc on 11-19-2007 at 1:43 pm
I had to do a project profiling every president in eighth grade. Pierce, unless I’m mixing him up, struck me as particularly tragic. He saw more than one of his children die, but worst of all was the son he saw get decapitated by a train. Hence the heavy drinking. [He drank before that, but rather understandably, the volume increased quite a bit after the train incident.]
I gotta go see if that project’s still around, now… [And see if I'm remembering correctly...]
posted by Aemi on 11-19-2007 at 2:41 pm
Oh snap, I found it! Followup tidbits about Pierce:
- His campaign slogan was “We Polked you in 1844; We shall Pierce you in 1852!”
- He was very popular before being President [as you know, not so much afterwards] and was called “Handsome Frank”.
- He passed the Kansas-Nebraska act. Not a good call.
- He died in 1869 when his liver finally gave out from all the drinking.
posted by Aemi on 11-19-2007 at 2:48 pm
Three cheers! More of the same!
posted by Amy on 11-19-2007 at 2:49 pm
Amazing?
Let me check my dictionary.
From Merriam Webster on line:
Function:
adjective
Date:
1601
causing amazement, great wonder, or surprise.
5 trivial tidbits?
posted by mungley on 11-19-2007 at 3:12 pm
I would argue that the most obscure president was actually John Hanson, the REAL 1st President of our government: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hanson
Most people don’t even know that there were presidents before George Washington.
posted by Coherent on 11-19-2007 at 3:19 pm
I thought James Knox Polk was the most forgettable. It even took me a while to remember the three name guy.
posted by Tdave on 11-19-2007 at 9:06 pm
GW is a descendant of Polk. That is were his dynasty got its start. Interesting that polk and pierce are both in the bush lineage through marriage. Also i dont really buy the polk and pierce slogan. im not calling anypne out i would just need to see some proof. it sounds awfully modern.
posted by j on 11-20-2007 at 2:08 am
I actually know one of his direct male line descendants. (until now because she is a girl)
And she’s Jewish.
posted by Sophie on 11-20-2007 at 7:54 pm
Who could be more obscure than my uncle, President Chester Arthur?
posted by Jean on 12-28-2007 at 12:25 pm
i think this is a really good website for me to do myreport 4 it teaches me alot and i got a 4 on it aka an A+ yeaaaaa i love this website and im telling my friends to go on it… yesssss
posted by Joan on 1-18-2008 at 7:11 pm
Was Franklin Pierce related to Sara Ella Pierce, the daughter of Sheppard Pierce from New York state??????
posted by richard atwater on 1-21-2008 at 10:10 am
that was amazing :0
posted by meee on 2-20-2008 at 4:27 pm
Click on my name below to see my take on the big hair debate.
posted by David C. on 7-1-2008 at 12:05 pm
Robert Wuhl got it wrong. All 3 of Pierce’s kids died while they were still kids. Barbara Bush is a direct descendant of one of Franklin Pierce’s brothers, not Franklin Pierce himself as Wuhl stated.
posted by Dave on 4-19-2009 at 12:30 pm