Franklin Pierce

The motto of Franklin Pierce University is 'Ex umbris ad lucem'.

Franklin Pierce had a close friendship with future U.S. President Nathaniel Hawthorne. They met while attending Bowdoin College in the early 1820s and remained lifelong friends. Hawthorne even dedicated one of his books, "The House of the Seven Gables," to Pierce.

He spent about three years studying under lawyers after graduating from college before he was admitted to the bar.

During Franklin Pierce's term as president from 1853 to 1857, the US economy experienced mixed performance. The period saw robust economic growth driven by westward expansion, industrialization, and increased international trade. However, the nation also faced various economic challenges, including high inflation, a banking crisis, and the Panic of 1857, which led to a severe recession towards the end of Pierce's term.

The Franklin Pierce Law Center has recently become part of the University of New Hampshire. The University offers summer programs through the Franklin Pierce Law Center and it is open to students all summer long.

In 1825 he first went to Portsmouth, NH to read law under Levi Woodbury. In November, Woodbury left for Washington to take his Senate seat , so Pierce moved to Northampton to study at Judge Samuel Howe's law school.

Pierce believed in the Constitutional right of a state to allow slavery but he was not pro-slavery. Therefore it seemed reasonable to let the people in a territory to decide if they wanted to allow slavery instead of the using the Missouri Compromise procedure to admitting states in pairs, one slave and one free.

However, Nebraska was anti-slavery so unless Kansas voted to be a slave state, the balance would be upset and this is what caused all the trouble in Kansas.

No, Paul Pierce is not related to Franklin Pierce. Paul Pierce is a former professional basketball player who played in the NBA, while Franklin Pierce was the 14th President of the United States.

The treaty was signed by Pierce and submitted to the Senate on February 10, 1854. April 26, 1854 was the date that the final version of the treaty was ratified by the Senate. It became final June 8.1864 when Mexico agreed to the final version.

Franklin Pierce was born on November 23, 1804

Pierce died on October 8, 1869 at 4:40 am, at home in Concord, New Hamphire from stomach problems and dropsy (congestive heart failure), likely alcohol related . He is thought to have had a lifelong struggle with alcoholism. He was about 6 weeks short of 65 when he died.

Franklin pierce didn't have a signature campaign slogan. But he was the first president to put a Christmas tree in the white house.

The Gadsden Purchase was negotiated in 1853 by James Gadsden. Mexico sold the United States a piece of land in what is now Arizona and New Mexico, in exchange for $10 million.

This treaty helped to resolve some unsettled issues from the Mexican-American War and also strengthened the South's claim to the transcontinental railroad (there had been much debate about where this should be located).

Some key people include:

James Gadsden (the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico)

President Franklin Pierce (signed the treaty)

Jefferson Davis (Pierce's Secretary of War, who strongly influenced this agreement)

William Marcy (Pierce's Secretary of State, who instructed Gadsden as to what provisions to push for)

Santa Anna (Mexican president who signed the treaty)

He was a leader of the Jacksonian Democrats while in Congress. He helped hasten the Civil War by signing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, although he did not know that his signing of the bill would speed the clash between North and South. By repealing the Missouri Compromise, the K-N Act opened up the territory for slavery and reopened up the debate regarding the spread of slavery. He appeased the South by backing up the pro slavery groups in the western territories, especially in "Bleeding Kansas." He became the only elected president to be denied his own party's renomination. During the war he criticised the Emancipation Proclamation and was almost lynched by angry New Englanders.

Pierce earned his living as a lawyer when was not serving in government or in the army. He served in the state legislature including two years as speaker, two terms as a US Congressman and a US senator, serving only five years, resigning due to the health of his wife and a need to make more money. He also served in Mexican War, rising to the rank of brigadier general.

Pierce had many personal problems while he was President besides the difficulties facing the nation over slavery. His last child, a son, was killed in a freak train accident in January before he took office. His wife, who had decided when he has a senator years before that she did not want to live in Washington, could not cope with her grief. She was never a strong person either physically or in mental balance so she pretty much shut herself up in the White House. Pierce had a long standing drinking problem and the pressures of his job seemed to make it worse.

As for his job. He had not been active in Washington and he found it hard to get any support from Congress, even from his own party. The party bosses who nominated him and got him elected did not expect or want him to be a leader.

No- he was never divorced.

He got the basics from the local grade school at Hillsborough, NH.

Pierce attended Hanover (NH) Academy and Francestown (NH) Academy

and learned enough to pass the entrance exam at Bowdoin College in 1820.

He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1824 at age 20. He studied classical languages, mathematics, history, mineralogy, chemistry and philosophy. He learned law by reading with various lawyers until he could pass the bar exam.

Andrew Jackson was his hero when he was a young man.

As a politician he believed in the US Constitution and took a literal approach. He believedin the preservation of the federal union was worth making compromises over slavery. He believed that political parties were a necessary part of government in the United States. He was baptized into the Episcopalian church later in life.

I would not say that he started a tradition, but he had an outdoor tree decorated for Christmas on the White House lawn. It was about 20 years before anymore White House Christmas trees appeared.

Oh, dude, that's a blast from the past! So, Franklin Pierce, the 14th President of the United States, voted against the funding for the National Road, which is now known as U.S. Route 40. It's like that road went from being rejected to being a major highway. Life's full of surprises, man.

No states were added to the union while Pierce was president.